Sam Pascoe defied heinous conditions to win an impossibly windy Datchet Flyer, the second event in this season's Seldén SailJuice Winter Series. With 92 entries from 41 classes braving an apocalyptic weather forecast, this was either going to be a humdinger of an event, or not happen at all.
Despite heavy rain and gusts nearing 40 knots on Saturday, principal race officer Seb Camisuli and the Datchet team did a great job of delivering four races across a hectic weekend. Challenging didn't even begin to describe it.
Of the 92 entries, 76 boats made it onto the water across the weekend, although the high rate of attrition meant only 23 boats completed all four races. Virtually every boat capsized at some point, and there was quite a bit of damage to boats and some stitches in the head for Musto Skiff sailor Mark Cooper.
At arrival time on Saturday morning, the fleet was greeted with torrential rain and not much wind, although this cleared on cue for launching and a pleasant 13 knots of breeze. However the breeze had built to 20 knots by the end of Race 1, which was a close battle between the Musto Skiffs, Contenders, and 505s, with Pascoe (Castle Cove SC) winning.
As Race 2 was going into sequence, the wind was gusting nearly 40 knots, and more boats upside down than sailing, so the decision was taken to briefly postpone. The squall soon passed, and Race 2 went ahead in winds in the upper 20s with gusts to 35 knots. Despite the big winds, the fast boats starting second were pushing the line hard, resulting in a general recall, meaning a nine minute delay between the slow and fast starts, instead of the intended four-minute difference.
The Race was shortened after about 30 minutes with the wind again building towards 40 knots gusts, but for some of the slower boats it took another 30 minutes to complete their lap. Fourteen-year-old Finlay Cochrane (ILCA 6 / Laser Radial) who had travelled all the way from Yorkshire Dales SC, soldiered on to complete the race, taking over an hour and earning a 23rd place on corrected from 26 finishers.
With the wind not showing much chance of easing, the race officer decided to AP/A and send the fleet home for an early shower and beer.
Day 2 (Sunday) brought almost tropical conditions and a pleasant breeze. Race 3 was raced in a much more gentle 12 knots. Going into the pursuit race Sam Pascoe had a clear lead, with 2 points (after discard), but with the next four boats tying on 8 points things were very close. With the pursuit race being non-discardable and counting for double points (split slow and fast fleets), the overall results were still wide open.
Overall the top two remained the same, with Pascoe (Musto Skiff) taking another win to go with his victory at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, followed by Imogen Wade and Hugo Valentine (420) in 2nd. Ed Presley (Contender - Castle Cove SC), took 3rd overall, knocking last year's Datchet Flyer winner Ben Flower (ILCA 7) off the podium and down to 4th overall.
Next events on the schedule are the Yorkshire Dales Brass Monkey and Gill Grafham Grand Prix at the end of this month. To enter these and the other events, go to :-
www.sailjuiceseries.com
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