Two Islands RYC
Midlands District Championship
8th October 2016
The final Six Metre Open event of 2016 started out with a nice breeze from the North east, a good direction at host club Two Islands RYC as it takes most of the Island effect out of play. We started out dry, the wind stayed kind but the dark clouds gathered and the rain began continuing rained for what seemed like the entire morning, with great difficulty our scorer managed to get the results down on the wet paper and preserve them for later adding up.
Eleven boats on the water, from the beginning Shaun Holbeche from Fleetwood et a blistering pace, sailing impeccably and spending most of his time at the front of the fleet with only the occasional relapse into the minor placings, Mike Ewart, Dave Green and Geoff Earle also recording firsts, and Shaun would have surely gone on to an event win but for a winch failure in race 13 which put him out of the event and relegated him to a fourth place finish.
Eleven boats on the water, from the beginning Shaun Holbeche from Fleetwood et a blistering pace, sailing impeccably and spending most of his time at the front of the fleet with only the occasional relapse into the minor placings, Mike Ewart, Dave Green and Geoff Earle also recording firsts, and Shaun would have surely gone on to an event win but for a winch failure in race 13 which put him out of the event and relegated him to a fourth place finish.
There was much close racing throughout the fleet and quite a few close finishes for places all with good humour, better when the rain did eventually stop around lunch time, just after we were all wet through, wet but our spirits not dampened.
A good time was had by all with racing in the spirit of six metre racing mostly, many commiserations to Shaun who travelled from Fleetwood sailed impeccably and lost out to an equipment failure even with 4 DNS and one last place he was only 5 points behind the winner Mike Ewart who tied on points with Dave Green they had to be separated by countback Mike winning out with five firsts against Dave's two.
A welcome return to six metres at Two Islands RYC for Mick Shillington who had a mishap here at his last outing and came in with a well deserved third place, Shaun eventually ended up in fourth tied on the same score as Geoff Earle who had travelled up from Harwich and Dovercourt.
A good time was had by all with racing in the spirit of six metre racing mostly, many commiserations to Shaun who travelled from Fleetwood sailed impeccably and lost out to an equipment failure even with 4 DNS and one last place he was only 5 points behind the winner Mike Ewart who tied on points with Dave Green they had to be separated by countback Mike winning out with five firsts against Dave's two.
A welcome return to six metres at Two Islands RYC for Mick Shillington who had a mishap here at his last outing and came in with a well deserved third place, Shaun eventually ended up in fourth tied on the same score as Geoff Earle who had travelled up from Harwich and Dovercourt.
From my point of view an excellent end to a good season with the sixes one I certainly will remember fondly, to all the competitors throughout this year of racing these majestic yachts well done, we have completed more races with more competitors this year than in the previous 10 years or so, by your participation and support of the open events this year, we have hopefully despatched the rumours from a few years ago that the Six Metre is a disappearing class.
Thank you
Mike Ewart
PRO Class Captain
Pictures by Alan Smedley
Thank you
Mike Ewart
PRO Class Captain
Pictures by Alan Smedley