Sailing Southwest Winter Series: Wrecker Open Pursuit at North Devon Yacht Club

by Jon Miles 4 Nov 2021 13:15 UTC 30 October 2021

North Devon Wrecker 2021 © Jon Miles

The Sailing Southwest annual winter pursuit race series kicked off this weekend with the opening event at North Devon Yacht Club at Instow. The series is sponsored by Allen Sailing with support from Admiral Trailers, and TracAce Limited.

The morning of the NDYC annual Wrecker Open Pursuit race dawned on 30th October with the promised sunny weather and F3-4 winds from SW.

28 boats representing 7 different sailing clubs from around the region assembled for a quick bacon roll before the start. As the race start time came around the wind was building to 4-5 and the race Officer Jon Miles set a course from the Committee boat toward the Bar ensuring plenty of action on the gybe mark in the Inner Pully (harbour entrance bar buoy). The fleet was led away by Angus Cook in a Firefly as a potential contender. Surfing conditions downwind from the bar to club buoy around Crow point assured some fast sailing.

At the end of the first lap Angus held the lead with two OKs, three lasers and a Comet Trio for company. The fast cats were just starting, led away by the Sprint 15s, a Dart 18 and two Hurricane 5.9s. Could the cats find a way through?

By lap 2 we were into the second half of the 2-hour race. Ian and Charlotte Horlock from Exe SC hit the front with last years' series winner Terry Curtis from Weymouth now in an OK, in second place but Sam Thompson from RNSA also sailing an OK was in very close contention. The two OKs were battling out the podium positions. Angus was close by in 4th. The Osprey sailed by Esme Stevenson and Tim Bowden (Weymouth SC) also looked good rising through the fleet to 9th, but the cats were trailing back in 17th in lighter airs.

As the wind freshened for the final lap the cats were finding their feet and with minutes to go the two Hurricanes hit the front with Ben Cutler Sharp / Dave Grant (Starcross SC) taking the lead and Mike and Viki Coulson (NDYC) in second with Sam Heaton (NDYC) sailing a Sprint 15 just squeezing through the Comet to take 3rd. The Osprey sailed by Esme and Tim found more speed and took 4th overall and the leading monohull, passing the Horlocks. 6th was the leading Blaze sailed by Chris Dyer (NDYC) holding off Figs Caine / Barnie Dearsly in an FR400 taking 7th followed by Terry Curtis.

So, the stronger winds at the finishing stages helped the faster boats pull through but hopefully all had a great day.

NDYC took the club prize in the Club Championship series sponsored by CMPR and all enjoyed prize-giving sponsored by Allen Sailing. Thanks also to TracAce Limited for supporting the admin for the series.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Type	Hcap	Helm	Crew	Club	Pts
1	280	HURRICANE	719	Ben Cutler Sharp	Dave Grant	Starcross YC	1
2	365 or 485 or 658	HURRICANE	719	Mike Coulson	Viki Herbert Coulson	NDYC	2
3	1972	SPRINT 15	904	Sam Heaton		NDYC	3
4	1175	OSPREY	930	Esme Stevenson	Tim Bowden	Weymouth SC	4
5	503	COMET TRIO	1052	Iain Horlock	Charlotte Horlock	Exe SC	5
6	843	BLAZE	1033	Chris Dyer		NDYC	6
7	411	RS 400	942	Figs Caine	Barney Dearsly	Starcross YC	7
8	69	OK	1104	Terry Curtis		Weymouth SC	8
9	3772	MERLIN ROCKET	980	Dan Heaton	Tom Gurney	Mountbatten SC	9
10	828	BLAZE	1033	Paul Tatem		NDYC	10
11	1615	SPRINT 15	904	Jez Firth		NDYC	11
12	68	FINN	1049	Garry Phare		Royal Torbay YC	12
13	91	OK	1104	Sam Thompson		RNSA	13
14	3695	FIREFLY	1172	Angus Cook	Eva Lewis	NDYC	14
15	3698	MERLIN ROCKET	980	David Downs	Ros Downs	Tata Seel SC	15
16	R249	REDWING	1094	Eric Evans	Stan Pyle	NDYC	16
17	Club Argo	TOPAZ	1075	Matthew Britton	Thom Britton	NDYC	17
18	1906	SPRINT 15	904	Liam Bunclark		NDYC	18
19	164712	LASER RADIAL	1147	Matt Muir		NDYC	19
20	128697 radial	LASER RADIAL	1147	Howard Stone		NDYC	20
21	17	LASER	1100	Jon Farr		NDYC	21
22	87*	TOPAZ	1000	Toby White	Silas Braund	NDYC	22
23	WA2	LASER RADIAL	1147	Dave Barker		NDYC	23
24	16162	LASER RADIAL	1147	Martin Robson		NDYC	24
25	2 Club laser	LASER RADIAL	1147	Mike Harris		NDYC	25
RET	113347 or 135500	LASER	1100	Michael Selter		NDYC	29
RET	7876	DART 18	832	Ben Penny	Dan Craner	NDYC	29
RET	173522	LASER RADIAL	1147	Andy Mellors		NDYC	29