GILL Series #1 at Bristol Corinthian

Nineteen boats took part in the first GILL Series event of 2007, held in winds blowing dogs off leads in all directions. After some confusion as to the correct starting time, Fran Gifford & Sophie Mackley were first to cross the port biased line and continued to lead for the first lap, closely followed by Tom Stewart & Liz Ross. After Tom & Liz capsized at the gybe mark, Richard Williams & Lindsey Iles pulled through to second to take up the chase. Richard & Lindsey took advantage of large right shift to overtake Fran & Sophie on the second beat. Tom & Liz showed good pace to climb back to second but suffered gear failure on the last lap, allowing Graham Camm & Zoë Ballantyne to finish second with Fran & Sophie in third.

In the second race, after a short break ashore to assess the suitability of conditions for racing, Tom & Liz started well and gradually built a comfortable lead over the first three laps. Second place was held by various competitors throughout the race, including Sam & Fiona Mettam, showing good speed in their first Gill Series event. Richard & Lindsey recovered from a spectacular pitch-pole right in front of the clubhouse, at the first windward mark, to climb to second on the final upwind leg and then pass an inverted Tom and Liz on the final run to take the gun. Tom and Liz finished second with Graham and Zoë third.

One minute before the start of the third race, the wind shifted left leaving the fleet unable to cross the line on starboard. Richard & Lindsey and Tom & Liz found their way to the front at the windward mark after a heavily biased beat. Tom & Liz passed Richard & Lindsey on the second reach and sailed consistently to take first. Graham & Zoë and John Ibbotson & Andrew Douglas overtook Richard & Lindsey on the penultimate lap to finish second and third respectively.

The class arranged for Nick Martin to do some on-the-water coaching with a whole fleet video debrief in the evening after dinner. Surprisingly, although having to spend much of his time pulling people out of the water, some good footage was obtained and even the national champion was given some hints on how to improve his boat handling! This was followed by a games evening involving various skills from the hilarity of Twister through to the challenges of playing Jenga after finishing the barrel of real ale provided by the club.

On the Sunday there were no dogs left and people were in danger of being blown out of their boots due to wind speed at times in excess of 30 knots, so racing was abandoned. This left Richard & Lindsey in first place by one point from Tom & Liz, with Graham & Zoë in third.

The National 12 class would like to thanks GILL for their support and generous sponsorship of the prizes. More information about GILL’s range of sailing clothing may be found at www.gillmarine.com . Details of the GILL National 12 series are available at www.national12.org.

Photos: Frances Wilkins

Overall
 

Full results including Admirals cup, junior and family on the Gill Series results page