The second Crewsaver super series event took place at Stone sailing club on the black water over the weekend of 10th/11th June. Competitors were met with full on sunshine and a force 3 which built during the afternoon to give perfect Phantom conditions.

The first race got away with local sailor Neil Fulcher and first time visitor Nick Orman from Castle Cove/Sutton Bingham showing first at the windward mark, with Tyler Harmsworth, Shoreham and Paul Beesley, Thorpe Bay in close attendance, the P shaped course provided some excellent reaches, the whole fleet stayed quite bunched for the first lap. Harmsworth made his way past Orman and Fulcher downwind to take the lead, Fulcher regained the lead on the next beat just rounding in front of Harmsworth, Orman and Beesley were having a battle royal behind with Orman managing to keep his nose ahead. Harmsworth again took the lead on the first reach a started to pull away until he encountered a vision problem up the final beat when he lost his glasses over the side, whilst attempting to recover them (lost cause really, as without them he couldn’t see) both Fulcher and Orman passed. Giving up on recovery Harmsworth carried on trying to keep close enough to Fulcher to find the marks. Orman got himself stuck in irons during a tack for what seemed like a life time letting Beesley through to third and Rod Thorpe, Creeksea through to Fourth.

The second race started with the breeze freshening, the windward mark saw James Case, Wells SC (welcome back to the fleet) first just rounding in front of Orman, Fulcher, Harmsworth and Beesley, Harmsworth again made his way to the front and started to pull out a comfortable lead which he maintained to the finish, behind the next 4 boats positions were changing like a game of snakes and ladders, upwind and down, Beesley used his superior down wind speed to take second ahead of Fulcher, Orman and Case.

Race 3 got underway after a short delay due the changing tide, which caught a few out at the start. Windward mark saw the usual suspects Fulcher lead with Harmsworth, Case, Orman, Thorpe and Beesley, Fulcher and Harmsworth battled all the way until again Harmsworth again sneaked past downwind (must be a weight thing). This race saw a number of retirements as the breeze strengthened, With the course tweaked to allow for the tide there were two fantastic fully hiked reaches to fly down. At the finish Harmsworth took the gun followed by Fulcher and Case, Orman crossed next to silence (the start of a trend) moving Thorpe up to fourth with Beesley fifth. Back on shore those who wanted watched some football game that had been recorded for them while the rest sat in the sun with Stella. The evening continued with a excellent meal at the club and banter with the Snipe fleet.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, but unfortunate'y the breeze was also taking time off to sunbathe as well. Racing did get underway at midday in a light breeze that by all accounts should have built with the sea breeze, but didn’t. Orman and Harmsworth made the best of the first beat finding enough breeze to beat the tide, Case and Beesley were close behind. The ride down tide was pain full at times, Orman kept his concentration to lead through the gate the first lap, the next beat saw Case change up a gear finding more breeze on the right of the beat to take the lead at the windward mark.

Orman rounded just ahead of Harmsworth but then made a tactical mistake when he elected to try and cross in front of a cruiser making his way down tide, this allowed Harmsworth through to second. The race officer shortened to two laps with Case nearly throwing it away by over standing the finish as the wind swung, Harmsworth Second, Orman third, Beesley fourth. Race two started after the course was reset to the slightly steadier breeze. Case made no mistakes and lead from start to finish with Harmsworth, Beesley, Orman and Chris Roberts, Creeksea SC having a better race only to find he was OSC along with Beesley and Orman (again, must have been all that laser sailing he used to do) This promoted Nigel Blake of NH&EB into third, Fulcher to fourth and Jim Frost, Buckingham SC to fifth (good to see as he had put his back out during the second race on Sunday).

The final race started in the best breeze of the day, sadly it only lasted for half of the first beat, when it dropped and started shifting left, Case again aced the first beat with Orman on his heels, these two started to pull away from the rest until the wind went walkabouts coming and going from every direction, the whole fleet was reversed at one point. The race officer shortened as the fleet made its way to the down wind gate. Beesley was 10 yards from winning until the rest of the fleet blanketed him on the bear away to the mark Dave Hawkins, Denver SC found some extra momentum to take the gun, Orman slipped over second , Beesley third and Case recovering to Fourth. Back on shore tales of frustration and elation were exchanged until the prize giving. Superseries prizes were supplied by Crewsaver and taken from their fantastic new range of dinghy clothing and included the new Sphere cag.

As generous as ever, additional prizes were donated by Seabrook Developments and Jim Frost continued his luck at the prize giving again by being drawn as the spot prize finishing 10th overall, this time picking up a new spray top, this shouldn’t be as difficult for his wife to swallow as the carbon mast he won during the nationals held at stone in 2004. Thanks goes to Stone Sailing Club who as ever put on fantastic event both on and off the water. Thanks Guys.

Pos Helm Club Pts
1st Tyler Harmsworth Shoreham SC 8
2nd James Case Wells SC 14
3rd Paul Beesley Thorpe Bay YC 17
4th Neil Fulcher Stone SC 22
5th Nick Orman Castle Cove SC 29