Worlds and Junior Europeans Selector 2
Hayling Island 5/6 April 2003
Hayling Island provided 8 very testing races for the 2nd regatta of the International 420 class selection series for the Worlds Championship this year. All weekend the wind was between 6 and 12 knots from the north east giving many shifts and making consistency very difficult. Stuart Bithell and Jonathan McGovern of Hollingworth Lake, new to the class from the Mirrors, managed 7 races in the top 10 to win the weekend from Pippa Wilson, current girls World Youth Champion, and Harriette Trumble, and winners of the last meeting Callum Macdonald and Haakon Karlson.
Mike Dawe, the race officer set a course well inshore to minimise the effect of the tide in the light weather. Despite this, with the tide under the 58 boat fleet, it took a couple of starts to get the first race away. It payed to go right and Macdonald and Karlson led comfortably at the first mark from Nick Cherry and Joe Henry, Bithell and McGovern and sister Jo Macdonald and Laurie Marsden, who steadily worked at the other leaders to slip into 2nd place. In race 2 it wasn�t so clear which way was good. Left seemed reasonable and Oliver Dix and Phillip Lasko sailed to a comfortable win from Matt Burge and Jez Nicholls with Bithell and McGovern again stealing 3rd.� Half way up the first beat in race three the wind went left. Simon Lambert and Chris Evans screamed up to the first mark with a huge lead from Dix and Lasko and Charlotte Savage and Maia Walsh. But as the race progressed the wind died a little and Savage and Walsh steadily made ground to slip past on the last run and add another first place to their 3 from the last meeting. Race 4 was the ladies race. Savage and Walsh led from the first mark. Wilson and Trumble picked off the boys to finish 2nd� with Joanna Brigg and Jane Turner in 3rd Lucy and Nicky Macgregor in 6th and Alison Martin And Bethan Carden in 8th. Only Bithell and McGovern, Macdonald and Karlson and Dix and Lasko made any impression for the boys. By the end of the day Savage and Walsh were just at the head of the standings.
Sunday�s weather was similar but greyer. But the results did not follow the same pattern. Burge and Nicholls tended to go left on the first beat and were rewarded by comfortable wins in races 5 and 7. But race 6 was not so good and a badly torn spinnaker in Race 8 dropped them down the results list. Laurie Fitzjohn Sykes and Jonathan Frazier started with a 12, but were looking good after finishing 1, 4 and then 1 again in races 6,7, and 8 only to find that they had been over the line at the start of the last race. Joanne Macdonald and Marsden managed 2nd in both race 5 and 8, and were the lucky boat promoted when Fitzjohn was disqualified. While all this was going on Callum Macdonald and Karlson, Bithell and McGovern and Wilson and Trumble each managed 3 good races to consolidate their regatta positions.
The selector series is now past its halfway stage. Callum Macdonald and Karlson have extended their overall lead a little, but in 2 and 3 places the two girl pairings of Savage and Walsh and Wilson and Trumble are only one point apart and 2 points ahead of Bithell and McGovern.� With 14 places each at the open and ladies Worlds, the top teams can now be pretty sure of their places, but lower down the standings the competition continues to be intense.
Overall this was a great weekend�s sailing, and the benefit of the experience of sailing on the� World Championship course is beginning to be seen.