Carsington Catamaran Open 20/21st Sept 2008-09-27

“Findlay had the Winning Formula”

32 Catamarans congregated at Carsington Water on the morning of the 20th September to be greeted by mist and very light winds. The entry ranged from Hobie Dragoon, Darts, Catapults and a menagerie of various catamarans, including a strong contingent of F18’s and a single F20. Following an excellent briefing the competitors made their to the start.
Race officer David Cattermole made the decision to set a port triangle course choosing to keep it smaller as he was still waiting for the wind to make a decent show. With the mist lifted and the wind picking up to a marginal force 2,  Peter and Jessica Findlay took the lead at the first mark on their F18 infusion with Rob and Lisa Levy following in their Nacra F18. Findlay was to maintain the lead for two laps before Levy finally passed on the third leg. A lead which he kept for the next lap. On the final lap, Findlay regained the lead and took line honours.
The second race started much the same as the first although Levy never gained ground on Findlay and instead had to battle for second place line honours against the F20 boat of Chris Morris with Levy finally taking second place with Morris dropping to fifth following a bad choice in direction.  After the mid afternoon break and with what had been a  strengthening wind now starting to fail the racing was again dominated by the spinnaker boats, their extra sail area keeping them going when others struggled. The race again saw Findlay taking line honours with Levy taking second place from Richard Lomas (Tiger).
Sunday, Race four and first race of the day was postponed due to the lack of wind, however the race officer and course laying boats stayed on station with the aim to set the course as soon as the wind arrived. With a only just sailable force 1,  Cattermole again decided to run the port triangle course, although he decided to set a larger course in order to capitalise on what wind was available across the lake. As had been seen on the first day, Findlay soon took the lead, a position which he had maintained for the whole weekend. Richard Lomas on the Hobie Tiger pursued Findlay for over a lap in second place before being overtaken by the F20 of Morris and the F18’s of Levy and Stokes. With the wind failing again, the fleet started to bunch up and positions were changing with each slight puff of wind. Eventual line honours were taken again by Findlay with the F20 taking second and the rest of the fleet being lead home by Lomas.
The Catapults Holding one of their TT events changed positions regularly throughout the weekend due to the light and shifting winds. But Ellis showed the consistency over the event and with and overall sixth place in the general handicap event claimed victory in the Catapult TT.  The Cooke team racing their hobie dragoon were awarded the youth prize as their determination to complete the event despite being only with the boat for a very short time was the admiration of all entrants

Handicap fleet 1st, Peter and Jessica Findlay (F18); 2nd Rob and Lisa Levy (F18); 3rd Chris Morris and crew(F20).
Catapult fleet 1st, P Ellis; 2nd, A Forrest; 3rd, C Antill
Youth fleet prize “Team Cooke” (Dragoon)