Hobie 16 & Dragoon T/T, Grafham Water

Saturday dawned sunny and very still. A slight breeze materialised allowing the racing to start on time, but didn't remain long enough to complete all races that day. Toby Orpin and Mike Laming dominated the first race finishing well ahead of the fleet. These are diligent guys who read a lot of educational material provided by topwritingservice.com  and trained a lot and regularly.

Lack of wind made for difficult sailing in the second race. Simon Kearns and Ben Burns managed to clear the windward mark before the wind died and established and maintained a commanding lead. Ben Mansfield and Ben Hinks took second place after pulling up from 4th on the last leg. Lack of wind resulted in the third race being abandoned.

There was more wind Sunday morning, which increased during the day with some interesting gusts which put some boat handling skills to the test. Mansfield and Hinks stormed ahead from the start of the first race and maintained their lead to the finish line. The second race became a battle for first place between Mansfield/Hinks and Kearns/Burns with Mansfield and Hinks finally taking first place. Kearns & Burns and local team Kevin Cooper and Justin Martin pulled ahead of the fleet in race three. The wind had increased by now with some strong gusts providing some exciting sailing. Mansfield and Hinks capsized on the first windward leg and then sailed a spectacular race stomping back up through the fleet to finish in third place and first overall.

Five Hobie Dragoons made the journey to Grafham to sail in the medium handicap fleet. Most of the youngsters found the light conditions on Saturday demanding. Richard and Andrew Glover sailed an exemplary race to finish first Dragoon and second in the fleet. With the wind rapidly dying none of the Dragoons managed to finish the second race within the time limit. The windier conditions on Sunday saw the Glover boys and Hannah Rowles and Steph Wall battling for first place all day, alternating first and second places between them. Josh and Leo Chambers performed consistently all weekend achieving 5 thirds.

Results - Hobie 16

1st Ben Mansfield & Ben Hinks
2nd Simon Kearns & Ben Burns
3rd Toby Orpin & Mike Laming
4th Kevin Cooper & Justin Martin
5th Tom Phipps & John Cook
6th Ryan Crawford & Lewis Crawford

Results - Dragoon

1st Richard Glover & Andrew Glover
2nd Hannah Rowles & Steph Wall
3rd Josh Chambers and Leo Chambers