Race Reports - Eastbourne Sovereign 2009

Spitfires took the top 3 places at the Eastbourne Multihull Open last weekend.

12 Spitfires and 9 Dart 16s were ready to race but Saturday saw fierce conditions that kept most of the fleet ashore. After an hour's postponement the decision was taken to hold 2 races instead of the planned 3.

5 spinnaker rigged Dart 16s and 3 of the Spitfires decided to brave the elements and were pleasantly rewarded as the wind eased soon after the first start giving some great conditions. The event was shared with the Contender fleet and in an effort to show there was no discrimination against sailors with too few hulls, some of the wary cat sailors helped fling Contenders into the surf. It was later suggested that this form of euthanasia was probably cruel, but kind.

The large windward leeward course soon stretched out the fleet, the Spitfire of Johnny Hutchings and Gilly Green taking an early lead that they never looked like losing. Steve Smith and Robert Way made sure of second place by keeping a loose cover on Dave Vercoe and Nick Jerkins who battled round with a badly rigged boat.

Race 2 saw Johnny and Gilly again build up an uncatchable lead as the wind eased another force. Dave and Nick seemed to get their act together and second place looked like being theirs but a bad covering tack on the last beat let Steve and Rob through to repeat the positions of race one. The cautious sailors watching from the shore were really keen for Sunday to provide some racing some having travelled 240 miles for the event.

It was not to be as Sunday saw even more wind than early Saturday, this time it increased rather than dropped and the Committee boat and ribs dashed back to the Harbour as a 40mph squall blew through.

The weekend had not been in vain, 2 races had been completed, the galley had plenty of customers for their famous ‘ranch pasties’ and the cat sailors had been able to spend some time with the Contender fleet and admire all their shiny carbon bits!

Overall Results: