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Maidenhead SC Open 16th May 2004
Race 1 started in almost no wind, with the majority of the fleet on the line or slightly over at the one minute and no speed to get back, the Race Officer signaled a general recall. The restart saw only one boat over the line and a fetch turning to a beat to the first mark. Local juniors Adam Makings and Harry Rush, battled it out with fellow Maidenhead sailor Kevin Hastings sailing single handed, in the early parts of the race. After several coming and goings of the breeze, plus many wind shifts, National Squad members Tom Robinson and Shaun Mason of Warsash, took the gun from fellow club members Simon and James Lovesey who had been OCS at the start, managing to work their way through the fleet. The second race saw many place changes and several different leader, in the end local light weather flyer Ron Vass and Ed Nicholls took the gun. Continuing the Warsash trend of being OCS, Tom and Shaun had to restart and coincidentally finish second, with father and son pair, Graham and Jeremy Williamson third. Surprisingly considering his good result, Tom then decided to protest the Race Committee for failing to display flag X for an individual recall instead of the verbal signal that was given. This meant race 2 results were up in the air until after the third race, making it virtually impossible to calculate any series permutations going into the last race. Race 3 got off cleanly. Soon the four front runners (Graham and Jeremy, Ron and Ed, Simon and James, Tom and Shaun) were battling out for the lead, with 1st place changing many times and with it the potential open winner. Not surprisingly the race was shortened, at the last mark the Loveseys had a narrow lead over the other two visiting boats in the front pack. Confusion then reigned over where the finish line was, with the three visitors heading towards the committee boat, allowing local Ron to correctly gybe off towards the nearer end of the line and win the race. The protest committee decided that a mistake had been made in Race 2 and those results could not be used. This meant that only Races 1 and 3 would count, giving the Open to Tom Robinson and Shaun Mason, from Simon and James Lovesey, both from Warsash. Ron Vass and Ed Nicholls, from Maidenhead were a close third. The Open was preceded by an excellent Open Coaching event run by Zone Coach, Tom Rosaman. With many boats attending their first Open Meeting, it was very satisfying to see the improvement in standards after the training. Many thanks to the team at Maidenhead SC for organising a successful and popular event, despite the difficult conditions. The Mirror Southern Traveller Series consists of twelve events on inland and coastal waters, many are supported by training days.
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