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International
Flying Dutchman |
FD Southern Area ChampionshipLee-on-the-Solent - 24/25 July 1999This year's Southern Area Championships were held as a precursor to the Worlds enabling the many visitors to our shores the opportunity to experience the tidal and wind conditions of the Solent. Many of the British fleet were on Worlds duty so were unable to compete in all the scheduled races. The event took place on the Saturday and Sunday before the worlds. Saturday produced marginal trapezing conditions for the competitors whilst Sunday's wind was light to fickle frustrating both the competitors and the race officer in setting a course. Racing took place around the standard (old) Olympic course. The first race saw ESP 66 and DEN 21 battling for the lead with NZL 110 and the NED 325 with the Spanish team of Romero and Sanchez- Herrero coming up trumps at the finish line with the Danes second, the Kiwis third and the Dutch fourth. The British section represented by 382 and 350 were 14 and 10 respectively. Race 2 was held in similar conditions back to back with Race 1. This time the New Zealand team, Tayama and Flint took line honours while in hot pursuit to the final gun was the Dutch team NED 32. Third and fourth spots were taken by NED 312 and DEN 21. Again the British were contesting top twenty places with GBR 382 in 11 and Peter Weeks and Steve Mummery in 14th place. So after two races GBR 350 was slightly ahead of John Best and James Cole (382) for the Southern Area Championships and since they were so close it was going to be a fierce contest on Sunday. Race 3 eventually started after the fleet had chased the committee boat around the Solent looking for the breeze. Eventually enough came to hold a race and it the fickle conditions the teams in the right place at the right time were in with a chance. The eventual winners were the Danish pairing of Schonherr and Boysen Moller (DEN 21) -who only decided they were competing in Worlds ten days before the event started. The second team home was the Australian team of McCrossin and Cook (AUS33); third place was filled by the Kiwis with ESP66 in fourth place. Top British boat in race three was GBR 382 in fifth spot closely followed by US based Brits GBR 367 Jonathan and Anna Gorbold. Weeks and Mummery scored a 15th position, which meant they had to really turn the screw in the next race to win. The fourth race started in the similar conditions as the third one and it was going to be hotly contested as a number of boats could win the event (but not the trophy) including DEN 21-3pts, ESP 66-5ptsand NZL 110-4pts. Also in with a shout were AUS 33 and NED 32. ESP 66 came out the winners by taking line honours with a total of 6pts, the van der Pols (NED 32) were second, AUS 33 third and another team form the Nederland popped up in to fourth place. DEN 21 was fifth. GBR 350 did there best to clinch the championship by turning a very creditable 7th place but it was not enough to stop GBR382 winning with a tenth place in the final race. Results 1 ESP 66 Romero/Sanchez-Herrero 2 DEN 21 Schonherr/Bojsen-Moller 3 NZL 110 Tayama/Flint 4 NED 32 van der Pol/van der Pol 5 AUS 33 McCrossin/Cook 6 NED 312 Staal/Roos 7 NED 15 van Vianen/Wulffers 8 NED 325 Wijgers/Kamphuis 9 GBR 382 Best/Cole Southern Area Champions 10 DEN 33 Sogaard/Barlebo 11 GBR 350 Weeks/Mummery 19 GBR 380 Bridges/Bridges 20 GBR 383 Parry/Parr 21 GBR 373 Lester/Poole 22 IRL 13 Clancy/Sanderson 27 GBR 377 Doran/Phillips 32 GBR 384 Lyall/Burns 33 GBR 359 Daigneault/Holt 34 GBR 327 Vick/Barker 36 GBR 381 Austin/Rogers 37 GBR 369 Bulstrode/Bulstrode
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This page was last updated on 15 February 2000 - Please send contributions and comments to Richard Phillips mailto:100446.2371@compuserve.com . For more sailing links see www.sail-cd.demon.co.uk/index.htm |