Sailors’ Snowflake honours dished out at Chichester

Competitors at this year’s Snowflake series have suffered either too much breeze or not enough – but on the final day, the weather Gods served up conditions that were just right with the warmest day of the year and a force three to four from the south-west.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Mar 2015, 08:43 BST
Action from the end of the Snowflake seriesAction from the end of the Snowflake series
Action from the end of the Snowflake series

Race officer Andy Conway sent the fleets around a modified M pattern course that delivered a good mix of legs. For the fast fleet, the battle for the series chocolates was a close one with the top three places separated by just four points.

From the gun, the rest of the fleet were shown a clean pair of heels by the Fireballs of series leaders David Sayce, with a subbed-in crew deputising for Fiona, and CYC’s Andy Palmer-Felgate and Richard Anderton.

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Meanwhile, solid sailing by Hayling’s Paddy Gamble and Anna Patient in their RS200 kept the pressure on the Fireballs for the corrected-time result.

When the dust settled that’s the way it ended with Palmer-Felgate and Anderton first, Sayce second and Gamble and Patient third.

The medium fleet were keen to get their race started – a little too keen, forcing a general recall. They got away at the second time of asking with Emsworth’s Ritchie Bailey nailing the pin-end set-up and challenged for the top handicap spot by Felpham’s Guy Mayger in his Solo.

The next five boats through the line were separated by just 27 seconds, CYC’s Ian Payne coming through to clinch third.

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Sally Lorimer and Pippa Jones from Warsash once again demonstrated their command over the slow fleet, taking victory over Emsworth’s Alexandra Sosens and Julia Martin.

The final race of the day and the series saw Lorimer and Jones secure the series win just one point. Sosens and Martin again took second place over club-mates Georgina Cosena and Bella Coote, whose third was good enough to give them second place in the overall standings.

The medium fleet squared up for another hotly-contested race with less than a minute separating the top three boats on corrected time. Bailey once again took first, this time over club-mates Jonathan Townsend and Barbara Langford in their 2000 in second and CYC’s Lucy Boreham in third.

Although his second in race nine was good enough to deliver the series to David Sayce, he closed out in style with a victory over Gamble and Patient in second and Hamble’s Nick Creek in his Blaze in third.

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Final series results: Fast - 1 David & Fiona Sayce (Fireball) Hayling Island; 2 Sophie Mackley & James Warren (Merlin Rocket) Shoreham; 3 William Warren & Mark Oakley (Merlin Rocket) Shoreham. Medium - 1 Ritchie Bailey (Laser) Emsworth; 2 Guy Mayger (Solo) Felpham; 3 Lucy Boreham (Europe) Chichester. Slow - 1 Sally Lorimer & Pippa Jones (Mirror) Warsash; 2 Georgina Cosena & Bella Coote (Pico) Emsworth; 3 Alexandra Sosens & Julia Martin (Feva) Emsworth.

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