Ripon Open Meeting

5th Oct 2024

At this years Ripon N12 Open the water was shared with a club single hander Open, the only traveller for which was curtesy of the Gore family with Jack taking the opportunity to sail a Streaker while Rosie crewed for Philip David in his Feeling Foolish and Ian & Alex sailed together in the DCB. The Hampshire family were split across two boats as usual but this year Chris was at the helm of the Big Issue 2 with his 420 helm Fin, crewing for him while Em and Tim borrowed John Cheatham’s Numinous. John sailed his Crusader but minus his normal crew, who very unreasonably, declined to fly back from Australia for the event. Rounding out the fleet was Alan Mason & Jonathon Bradley sailing their Proctor Mk4A, the  only vintage at the event.

As ever, Ripon provided shifty and gusty conditions with the wind gradually veering more Westerly as the day progressed. For the first race the race officer set a long beat with a committee boat start in the top lake, gains were to be made by picking the shifts and staying in the pressure. This was especially apparent at the start line with Ian & Alex, Philip & Rosie and Chris & Fin using the better pressure on the left of the start line to get away from the rest of the fleet. Tim & Em managed to get ahead of Chris & Fin at the windward mark with John close on their heels, but neither could make it stick and the finish was in much the same order as the start.

After lunch John had a change of crew with Lucy Priest switching from her Streaker for one race. The course was a repeat of the mornings. Chris & Fin had started to get to grips with the Big Issue and were close enough to Philip & Rosie to challenge, however they could not shake free of the loose cover enough to get ahead. Further back, John & Lucy challenged Tim & Em all the way but could not make it stick for the finish line.

The last race of the day saw Chris & Fin get ahead of Philip & Rosie and push hard to catch Ian & Alex. They pushed too hard and went for a swim, just getting back upright in time to stay ahead of Alan & Jonathan. They manged to catch Tim & Em, but nearly lost it again at the last mark forcing  Tim & Em to take avoiding action which ended with a capsize, caught out by the difference in stability between the Big Issue and the Numinous.

 

Overall results

Position	Sail Number	Helm Name	Crew Name	Club
1st	3525	Ian Gore	Alex Gore	Up River YC
2nd	3499	Philip David	Rosy Gore	Yorkshire Ouse SC
3rd	3502	Christopher Hampshire	Fin	Ripon SC
4th	3468	Tim Hampshire	Em Hampshire	Ripon SC
5th	3209	John Cheetham	Jan Trzybinski / Lucy Preist	Yeadon SC
6th	1607	Alan Mason	Jonathon Bradley	Redesmere SC

Jack managed a 2nd overall in the single hander open, ending the racing with a 1st.