Billy No Mates Trophy

Stenhouse is still King Billy!!

Blue(ish) skies and a steady south easterly F4 greeted the 41 competitors who travelled to Derbyshire for 2nd Billy No Mates Trophy over the weekend of 26th & 27th April.

The Billy No Mates Trophy was established to pit a variety of single handed boats and their helms against each other in handicap racing.

Our Race Officer Henry Wright set a large oblong course using as much of the water and wind as possible for the afternoon and smartly got a generally well behaved start line underway for race one.

Richard Stenhouse in him Musto Skiff quickly established himself as the man to beat for the second year running with Robin Wood, fresh from victory in the Int Canoe World in Australia following in determined hot pursuit.  The pair finished 1st and 2nd respectively with Kit Stenhouse coming 3rd in the first race.

2 further races followed with much the same pattern – Richard and Robin swapping the lead between themselves – Robin has put the marginal difference down to Richard’s ability to launch and retieve the kite much faster on the Skiff than he is able to on the Int. Canoe.

Race 2 saw Richard Stenhouse once again lead Robin Wood to the start line with John Browett (Contender) taking 3rd place on handicap.  Race 3 saw the duo of Richard Stenhouse and Robin Wood occupying the now familiar 1st and 2nd places respectively with 3rd place occupied by Jon Heissig in his RS700.

Further back in the fleet many other battles took place between the individual fleets who were not able to keep up with the big boys leading to a fantastic days racing enjoyed by all who took to the water.

The day was ended with a beer and curry night courtesy of the Carsington SC galley.

Day 2 dawned with the weather every race organiser dreads – with the only evidence of wind being from those who had indulged the night before the meeting was wound up with no further action on the water.

Overall Results
1st Richard Stenhouse – Musto Skiff – Rutland SC
2nd Robin Wood – Int. Canoe a/c – Llandegfedd SC
3rd John Browett – Contender – Datchett Water

Fleet Winners
Musto Skiff – Richard Stenhouse – Rutland SC
Int Canoe – Robin Wood – Llandegfedd SC
Contender – John Browett – Datchett Water
RS700 – Jon Heissig – GYGSC
RS300 – Tim Keen – Sheffield Viking SC
RS Vareo – John Bumby – Carsington SC
Phantom – Pete Evans – Rudyard Lake
Mixed – Jonathan Saunders (Blaze) – Dovey SC