David and Mal win FF15 inland championships
The Inland Championships was held this weekend over two days at Grafham Sailing Club near Huntingdon. For those that haven't been there it is a very large reservoir in an area of attractive open countryside. This is a very large water but never the less an inland one , that can prove tricky to sail on. This year's conditions were particularly testing.
On Saturday it was very cold in the morning and there seemed to be a reasonable wind however this became unstable as the day went on with flat patches, shifts and swings. On a large course if you chose the wrong side it could make a considerable distance. David and Mal were Dovestone's only representatives and they started badly with a start line incident in race one. This required turns and put them last over the line. In the difficult conditions there were few passing lanes resulting in a 24th. Things improved in the next two races with a 5th then a third . In both races more ladders were encountered than snakes and progress was going forwards in the fleet. Overnight David and Mal were in 6th place, just 1 place from joint 2nd.
On Sunday boats launched in what looked to be windier and more stable conditions. This was not to be. Again it was very tricky with the start delayed on two occasions to let the wind fill in again. The wind was shifting through 45 degrees. The name of the game was to try to stay in pressure and work out what was going to happen next. In the first race all was very testing however David and mal managed to swap a 9th place at the beginning of the last lap for a second on the water that was upgraded to a win as the first boat was recorded as OCS. The next race was again tricky but forward progress produced a scrambled 7th. The wind then failed altogether and the last race was cancelled. On the face of it these didn't look like championship winning results however after the calculations were completed it became clear that due to the difficult conditions everyone had struggled and it was a high points scoring event. In the end consistency paid and David and Mal therefore followed their win at Windermere last weekend by becoming Inland Champions this week. A dream start for the new pairing.
The results can be found at here
