Lewis Coop picks up more trophies than he can carry at Guy Fawkes Pursuit
After Doomsday predictions from the weathermen, sailors arrived for the rescheduled (due to no wind) Guy Fawkes Pursuit race with a little trepidation; the weather clearly put a few off with only a lower than normal 25 turning out. Seeing 25-30 knots plus rain blowing through an hour before the start everyone expected a full-on day’s racing.
But behind that squall there was a huge lull and the OOD Howard Green had to be on his toes to relay the course 3 times as the wind spun around before settling back to the S-SW forecast, but with only 5-6 knots. The lone Optimist of Lewis Coop got away on time in the lighter conditions, and a Topper and 5 Fevas made chase, including Bobby Hewitt taking a break from 29er sailing and trying his hand back in the boat where he took the World Champs. The faster boats were fancying their chances as the wind started to build to around 10 knots with promise of more by the time the Solos and Streakers got going. Lasers followed and the asymmetric fleet brought up the rear with the RS400 starting last.
Initially the Lasers and Radials made good progress with Haydn Griffiths, Oliver Blackburn & Gary Knott starting to overtake the Fevas by the middle of the race, and the RS400 of Richard Catchpole and Gary Coop was making good progress through the fleet.
However, events took a strange turn as the wind decide to buck any of the forecasts and die to less than 5 knots for the last lap. Lewis had a commanding lead by this stage and no one was going to catch him in those conditions and he took the race with a 2 leg lead, followed by the Laser of Haydn Griffiths and with the RS400 making a late charge.
An excellent course with a good mix of beats, runs and reaches led to a very fair pursuit for all classes. Lewis cleaned up winning the overall Guy Fawkes Trophy and the Guy Fawkes Jnr trophy.
The Revett Series starts Sunday 8th as part of the LLSC winter series. The next pursuit race is the New Years Day pursuit.
Gary, Richard, Lewis and Haydn in the chocolates
