8th at the Southport Junior 12hr race
Visit Tim Yeates’ gallery
Same boat, same venue, different team and very different
weather.
With the wind blowing a steady 10-11 knots with gusts in the
region of 15knots, several of the 32 teams entered in the 2011 Junior 12 Hour Race at Southport SC were seen to be rigging cut-down sails on their boats in an effort to help the teams through the day. With options severely limited to only one suit of sails, the LLSC Juniors (also known as the Flash One’s) took to the water in the Enterprise belonging to Team Manager Mike Baldwin about 15minutes before the start gun.
As the one minute signal went, the Enterprise fleet entered the exclusion box behind the start line and as the gun went, Andy Green, crewed by Brogan Griffiths made a superb start up the beat to the top end of the marine lake, closely followed by Chester CSC Green Team and Etherow Country Park SC, both of these clubs keen Enterprise fleet clubs.
With a trophy at stake for the fastest first two laps by an Under-18 crew, LLSC and Etherow came around the first leeward mark well ahead of the rest of the fleet with about 50 yards between them, Etherow leading LLSC. By the time the two boats were running down the back of the lake again on the second lap, Andy had whittled the lead down to about a boat length and the two boats rounded the leeward mark nose to tail. As they came up the lake Andy took an early tack by the clubhouse in the hope of crossing the line ahead of Etherow. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as Etherow just kept their nose ahead, crossing the line 1.5metres (less than 2 seconds) ahead of Andy – a really exciting beginning to the day!
With the wind strength holding, the long run down the back of Southport Marine Lake favoured the GP14’s who flew their spinnakers down the whole of this section and they soon started to make their mark on the leader board. By the end of lap 12, the team had dropped to 7th position despite some good sailing by Lucy Yeates, crewed by Chris Barnes. Jenny Cant crewed by Hannah Bristow, as one of the lightest crew combinations, struggled with the wind strength as they took their turn on the water and the team slipped to 9th place for a short while. Andy G then went back out again, this time with Matt Leckie as crew, as some of the team were still travelling to the venue and suffering from the vagaries of the rail transport system. Working hard, the two put in some great lap times with one lap recorded at 83% of the running average, bringing the team back up to 6th place. At this point LLSC were third Enterprise behind Etherow and West Lancs
A; West Lancs having made, for them, a very bad start but had fought their way back through the fleet.
During the afternoon, the wind initially dropped for a while and then came through with a vengeance, making it hard work for Jenny and Brogan, especially as Brogan had done two crewing stints in a row. Having been debating who should crew for Lucy in the Female Helm race at 4.00pm, the increasing wind strength made the decision a no brainer as Lucy, crewed by Andy Price (having finally arrived early afternoon swearing he would never travel by rail again and already having done a helming slot) took over in the boat just before the 4.00pm deadline. Despite some good lap times, Lucy could not get close enough to West Lancs A (helmed by Abi Hewitt, an ex-Topper squad member and frequent Enterprise sailor). In the end West Lancs A were about 3/4minute faster, Lucy coming second in this section of the race. At the end of their stint the wind strength was still holding up leaving Mike with very few of the right crew weight combinations available and Andy Green went out for his third session with
Hannah as crew. Despite their light weight, they posted some great times, slowly increasing the gap between LLSC and Bolton A.
As the race entered the final stages, the time came around for the Under 14 Race where under 14 helms with any age of crew were entered. Andy P and Bobby Hewitt went back into the boat with their roles reversed from the earlier part of the day, Andy at the front with Bobby Hewitt helming. Last year Bobby had helmed in this part of the race and had taken second place. This year he nailed it, winning by almost a minute over the second boat and claiming the Under 14 Trophy for the club.
As Andy and Bobby came out of the boat with about 50minutes to
go the team of Green and Leckie went out once more, this time to try and win the Last Gap Trophy for the fastest last two laps by an Under 18 team. Despite the fact this was his fourth sessionon the water, Andy posted a time of 26.38 for the last two laps against 25.54 for the winners and 26.33 from West Lancs A. The fourth team were
over 20 seconds behind Andy and Matt so once again this was a great result.
Overall the team came 8th, being the 3rd Enterprise in the rankings and the Under 14 trophy is now displayed behind the bar. Whilst on first appearances this looks like a lesser performance than last year’s 7th place, we were 4th Enterprise last year and failed to win any of the secondary prizes. To be so close to the fastest first two laps and fastest last two laps with a team with an average age of 14½ years
old with helms who had either not sailed an Enterprise before (Lucy and Jenny) or whose experience had been limited to last year’s race or one or two races at the Flash in the couple of weeks before (Andy P, Andy G and Bobby) and crews who had not sailed together before this was an exceptional performance and one which they and the rest of the club should be very proud of.
Thanks to all the team members, Andy G(reen), Andy P(rice), Archie (Leckie) (our lightweight reserve crew who stayed all day but couldn’t sail because of the wind), Bobby (Hewitt), Brogan (Griffiths), Chris (Barnes), Hannah (Bristow), Lucy (Yeates) and Matt (Leckie) and all the parents who supported the event, we couldn’t do this without
you. Here’s to next year!
For full details of results and timings go to
http://www.southportsailingclub.org.uk/NewWebsite/12%20Hour%20Race/12HourFrameset.htm