A convincing victory at Grafham Water for
Team Styles at F18 Inlands
28th October 2009
A further report from Insurance4dinghies sponsored sailor, Hugh
Styles.
This weekends regatta was the last in a series of victories this
year for Team Styles, now the UK National and Inland Champion as
well as winner of Carnac and Texel course racing and 3rd place
finish at the F18 worlds. The Grafham event was a great medium to
windy regatta, where Styles Nacra Infusion yet again proved it
pedigree with 4 out of 6 race victories.
Saturdays racing was staged in a great 10 - 13 knots,
double wiring mostly with shifty offshore winds from the South
West. The first race was a tight affair to the first mark with 7
boats all getting there at the same time and a good tussle for the
lead, after the first lap it was down to Styles and Grant Piggott
in second with Luke Yates third. Styles extended for the next few
laps to take the gun and the first win of the weekend.
Race 2
Hugh and Kyle lead from the first cross up the beat and built a
commanding lead over Johnathan Worthington in second also on a
Nacra Infusion, with Grant Piggott Nacra Infusion third. This
changed abruptly when Kyle Stoneham unfortunately hooked onto the
elastic on the last downwind leg to the finish and left Styles
trying to stop a capsize then recover the kite and sailor, the team
dropped from 1st to 9th and Worthington capitalised on the
opportunity to win the race.
Race
3
A perfect port end start for Styles and Stoneham in their
Infusion, giving them a great jump on the fleet, leading at the
first mark and never to be headed! Worthington had another cracking
race, with really good speed, Grant Piggott sailed a great steady
race to finish 3rd another counting result in tough conditions.
Saturday night the social activities flowed, with the F18,
Handicap and Shearwater classes all competing at drinking games,
until everyone went down to the Wheatsheaf pub. Sunday dawned with
a big breeze forecast and an opportunity to blow away the cobwebs
of the night before, needed by some far more than others!
Race 4
Sunday morning and a start in 15 knots with a heavily port
biased line, Styles and Stoneham took full advantage of this and
charged off on Starboard into the left side for the pressure, and
arriving in at the top mark closely followed by Jon Wothington. The
wind built steadily through the race, but Styles was never headed
and it was then down to the minor placings to duke out for 2 -
3 overall.
Race 5
Another 5 knots increase which made the average wind speed 20
knots. Still a massive port bias on the line and this time Styles
played the Joker card with a flying port tack start, then
converging on a tight Starbord lay line just rounding ahead of
Stuart Gummer and Grant Piggott in third. Styles maintained this
through to the finish and Gummer maintained 2nd with Piggott
3rd.
Race 6
Just before the start 24 knots was read on the start boat and by
the time the gun had gone it was over 30 knots. The fleet was down
to 5 boats after a lot of the boats had had gear failure, but this
didn’t deter some tight and testing racing, with Chris Sproat and
Lewis Crawford in their Viper leading for 2 laps with the places
changing a lot behind them. They had a mishap though and just on
the last downwind gybe they capsized and lost the race. Gummer
sailed a really strong race to pull through and win the race from
Styles in second and Piggott in third.
The overall regatta finishing positions ended as follows:
- Hugh Styles and Kyle Stoneham, Nacra Infusion
- Grant Piggott and Andy Sinclair, Nacra Infusion
- Luke Yates and Matt Humphries, Wildcat
Thanks to Grafham water sailing club, and the rest of the
regatta organisers, also for Nacra Europe making this possible with
their Help, Boskalis for their great support throughout the year.
Then to the UK F18 class organisation for making the years regattas
come about. There is one last event which is the Weston Cat Open on
6&7 of November, which is the Nacra UK Nationals 2009, please
come and join in the fun. I am now off to Sydney for some R&R
with my long suffering girlfriend and then a load of Extreme 40
racing over the winter in Hong Kong, then Singapore and final event
in Muscat Oman.
All the best Happy Xmas and New Year.