UK: Kielder 'A' Class Cat TT and Dam To Dam Race 2014

Report sent by Gordon Upton:
Thanks to Adrian Langford for the photos.

"Because the club was so welcoming and friendly last year, and the beer was so magnificently cheap, ten heroic 'A' cat sailors and the occasional accompanying WAG, ventured to the grim North on our pilgrimage to Kielder Water and the most remote sailing club in the UK, over the Mayday Bank Holiday.

Kielder Water SC organize an open every May, with round the cans racing for two days, and the epic Dam to Dam Challenge on the Monday. The British A Class Catamaran Association had designated it as a Ranking Event on the TT circuit this year, and it is only a couple of hours drive for the Hon Treasurer, Derek Gibb, so it was positively local for him. Even the trip up was an adventure for that other Scotch drinker and President Struan Wallace. His trials started after he drove his newly acquired Merc Camper all the way from Thorpe Bay to within 30 miles of the venue when his van decided it didn't like the thin air this far North, and resolutely decided to have a transmission failure. 90 Minutes later the RAC man arrived and pronounced it 'Aall knackered like!' and called the recovery pickup. Another 90 minute wait, one turned up."

...

The first day saw the beautiful remoteness of Kielder reflected in the mirror-like waters. It made for great pictures, but not much good for sailing. The postponement flag was hoisted just in case, but then, as Windguru predicted, the 6-8mph breeze filled in from the West. The 10 A Class sailors set off for the start line and to explore the wind patterns in the course area. The start sequence was 3, 2, 1, but poor Struan was caught out at the top mark in a hole, and, as the race officer wouldn't wait for him to get back in time, this caused signs of grief and distress from him as the other 9 boats passed him drifting back and they were already on the first beat. Lessons learned?"

Results Below.
More pics & full report at http://www.aclasscatamaran.co.uk/news.html

Rank No Club Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Total Nett
1st 73 Snettisham Fletcher 1 -3 2 1 3 1 11 8
2nd 55 Rutland SC Phil Neal 2 2 1 2 1 -3 11 8
3rd 4 Rutland SC Gordon Upton 4 4 3 3 -7 7 28 21
4th 2 Largo Bay SC Derek Gibb 3 1 4 (11 DNF) 6 8 33 22
5th 39 Rutland SC Dave Lowe 5 -7 5 4 2 6 29 22
6th 15 Thorpe Bay SC Struan Wallace -10 6 7 7 4 5 39 29
7th 44 Rutland SC Richard Bartholomew 9 -10 8 6 5 2 40 30
8th 0 Grafham SC Toby Winchester 8 9 9 5 (11 DNF) 4 46 35
9th 45 Rutland SC Jamie Walker 7 8 6 8 8 -9 46 37
10th 40 Rutland SC Tony Lampitt 6 5 10 (11 DNS) 11 DNS 11 DNS 54 43