Marblehead Inter Club 23 November
12 skippers gathered at a wet and windswept Gosport on Sunday morning to sail their Marblehead yachts. Although the weather was uninviting (understatement!!), the sight of these really fast yachts prowering through the water with a good breeze behind them can be truly awesome. Nobody could blame those who had to cancel as starting out from some considerable distances was an effort in itself, even if the weather had been fine.
Eventually a total of eight heats were sailed and it was no surprise that Roger Stollery, the MYA Technical Secretary from Guildford club, with 5 firsts and 2 seconds was the event winner. The one poor race, an 8th place could be discarded so Roger won with 9 points. 2nd was Bill Parker from Hampton Court club with 20 points which included 4 second places. Consistency the obvious requirement to place well.
3rd was Peter Popham from the Three Rivers club with 35 points with one win. Peter incidentally was recently voted as the MYA Metropolitan & Southern District Councillor - thanks Peter for taking this role on. It was a very close run thing for 4th and 5th places between Paul Midgeley from Guildford club and Dennis Moss from Hampton Court. Paul just edging the 36 points with a 2nd and two 3rd places among the heats.
With Paul Tickner from Guildford taking 6th with 37 points and David Coode, also from Guildford 7th with 38, it can be seen how close the racing actually was as effectively 3 points covered 3rd to 7th places.
In 8th was Terry Colson, 9th Peter Constable, 10th Steve Poole and 11th Robert Hobbs. Unfortunately Eric Crockford had to withdraw at the start of the first heat with rudder problems.
We can certainly see why these Guildford chaps are so good with their Marbleheads. With only Robert Hobbs finally making it onto the finishing sheet from Gosport, it is clear that home advantage counts for nothing in our sport!!
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