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2007 Asymmetric Open Report The
Asymmetric Open Meeting at the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Sailing Club (GYGSC)
is a two day racing event held for this group of high performance sailing
dinghies. The open meeting is an annual event and it attracts asymmetric sailors
from both local sailing clubs and also from more distant clubs in the south
eastern region of the country. During the weekend the club hosted the B14
Travellers Trophy as well as staging racing for an all-comers asymmetric class.
As a large number of club members are asymmetric sailors the club is ideally
suited to staging this event and the meeting gives these members an excellent
opportunity to compete in a large fleet of similar classed boats. Over
the weekend a series of six races were held, two on Saturday and four on Sunday.
On Saturday both the B14 and the all comers fleets raced together; on Sunday
there were separate starts for the two different fleets. The contrasting weather
conditions on the two days, with light winds and a calm sea on Saturday and
force four to six winds and rough sea on Sunday meant that competitors were
tested over a wide range of different wind and sea conditions. On
Saturday the weather conditions in the morning appeared very poor with little
wind and poor visibility due to the sea mist. However, by the time the boats
were afloat for the afternoon the mist had cleared and a light southerly breeze
with sunshine resulted in excellent conditions to start the meeting off with.
Steve Knight was OOD for both days and a constantly changing wind direction on
both days meant that the committee boat needed the help of the two rescue boats
to repeatedly alter buoy positions. On Saturday the course was laid initially
for a meagre easterly wind but just before the race was due to get underway the
wind shifted to due south and all the buoys needed to be repositioned.
Fortunately the wind quickly strengthened to a light force 1-2 breeze and the
sausage course with a leeward gate proved to be excellent. A
total of 14 boats entered for the first two races on Saturday afternoon, five
B14s and nine boats in the all comers class of asymmetrics. There were several
general recalls at the start of both races and when the boats finally got racing
it was Jon Heissig (Lymington Town SC) in an RS700 who took first place in each
of the races in the all comers class. Further down the fleet was Ian Nolan (Hunstanton
SC), also in an RS700, with a fourth and a third place. The RS400 of Martin
Browne and Dinah Holmes (GYGSC) achieved a second and a fourth place. In the B14
class Mike Bees and Ferrett (Brightlingsea SC) were first in both races
with Tim Harrison and Jonny Ratcliffe (Brightlingsea SC) taking third and second
places respectively. Piers Lambert and Kathy Sharrat (Brightlingsea SC) were
second in the first race but were disqualified in the second race. On
Sunday the wind was still from the south but had strengthened overnight to a
force 3-4; it increased in strength throughout the day and by the early
afternoon it was a force 6. With a strong tide ebbing north and large waves
there was a long beat against the tide to the windward mark, these conditions
were back breaking for the competitors. There were four back to back races
during the day and as the wind strengthened there were increasing numbers of
capsizes and retirements. By the fourth race there were only two B14s and two
RS400s still sailing. In the B14 class it was Mike Bees and Ferret who again
dominated, they achieved three firsts and one fourth place over the four races
as they coped well with the tough conditions. Second overall over the four races
were Tim Harrison and Jonny Ratcliffe who were also able to continue racing in
these conditions- they achieved a first and two second places. In third place
were Alan Davies and Pete Nicholson (Whitstable SC). In the all comers class the high performance RS800 and RS700 boats found the conditions tough as the wind strengthened and it was the RS400s who were able to cope better. Both Martin Browne and Richard Fyrer were the only two boats from the all comers class who were able to finish all four races. With the big waves and strong gusts the gybes were good entertainment for the committee boat! 2 Veronica Falat/Ben Falat RS800 GYGSC 10 pts 3 Richard Fryer / Carol Smalls RS400 GYGSC 11 pts 4 Jon Heissig RS700 LTSC 15 pts 5 Jim Rosser / Robyn Rosser RS400 HBSC 26 pts 6 Tim Graham / Mike Deith RS4000 GYGSC 28 pts
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