Wanderer 2006 Inland Championships May 20/21st 2006

David & Simon Pegg (duly slot-gasketed post 2006 AGM) stormed their way through a weekend full of wild winds and driving rain to win, in spectacular fashion, all five races at South Cerney SC over the weekend of May 20/21. The Peggs, father and son, have now won the Dolphin Cup on three occasions.

Adam Wickenden and Jack Mann did everything they could think of to challenge the Peggs and led the rest of the fleet bashing up the beats, rollicking on the reaches, and rolling on the dead runs. Occasionally they got ahead of the Peggs but ultimately they had to be content with five seconds.

On the first day only two races were run due to the rough weather with swirly and boisterous SW gusts up to F6 and rarely dropping below the top end of F4. Retirements and non-starters meant that only seven and then five finished the first two races respectively but there were some exceptional personal performances by those who completed the courses. Toby Elliot and Trafford Parsons (3rd in the first race), Chris King and Jon Redshaw (3rd in the second race and test-driving the Esprit) and Tim Robertson and Edward Hines-Lindo, kindly standing in for seven year old Niamh Robertson given the state of the weather (4th on the second race) well deserve mention. Richard Woodman enjoyed a watery baptism on several occasions in his first Wanderer race event helmed by Andy Whitelock. On a screaming reach in the second race in front of admiring non-starters in the clubhouse they got their boat planing on every lap with the metre-high bow waves originating two metres aft the bow. Awesome stuff.

Sunday’s racing started in relatively calmer conditions but a squally and rainy Westerly F6 arrived mid-morning and managed to wreak havoc. Notable 3rd place results in races four, five, and six for Mike Hamilton & David Oates, Peter & Elva Wallis, and David & Jill Davies gave these crews something to remember. The Meadowcrofts challenged the Peggs and Adam & Jack in the early laps but could not sustain threatening contact and had to be content, along with the Gilberts and the Wallis’s, avoiding a capsize at any time during the event (perhaps they just weren’t trying hard enough ?) . Before the start of the final race, the Peggs decided to examine their slot gaskets and saw the rest of the fleet start without them. The Peggs then set off in pursuit and whilst the rest of us were beginning to feel the effects of a weekend of heavy weather racing and the pleasures of the previous evening, they drove their way to the front of the fleet. Now that was more than awesome.

Saturday night at a Wanderer South Cerney event means a slap up Fleet Dinner at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester followed by the Annual Inland Tugboat Racing Championship. Played with the usual mix of excessive and questionable competitiveness, it was David Davies who emerged triumphant and exhausted.

Not surprisingly the first four final places belonged to four of the five crews who finished every race and with Andy Whitelock needing to finish just one place ahead of Mike Hamilton to pip him for overall 3rd place – he did just that. And then just one point separated the Davies’s. Chris King & Jon Redshaw, and the Meadowcrofts.
Behind these, the Wallis’s, Toby Elliot & Trafford Parsons, and the Gilberts all finished with the same points. It sure was tough in the middle of the fleet – one bad decision could have harsh consequences.

At prize giving, Chris King and David Pegg paid warm thanks to John Penfold and his SCSC team for sterling and reliable work in managing our racing and hooking out rather of lot of helms and crews who went swimming. The SCSC Endeavour Trophy, awarded to the helm and crew whose performance on the water was particularly eye, catching was won by Toby Elliot and Trafford Parsons. Colin Grant, an SCSC member, took some fabulous photos of the on-water action and SCSC catering with, as ever, Gill Grant and Vicky King leading the galley brigade, delivers the best and most exotic grub and the gooiest cakes on the Wanderer circuit.


OVERALL RESULTS:

1st	W1226	David & Simon Pegg	Slaughden SC	4pts 1 1 1 1 1
2nd	W1087	Adam Wickenden & Jack Mann	Silverwing SC	8 pts 2 2 2 2 2
3rd	W1046	Andy Whitelock & Richard Woodman	CMYC	18 pts 4 5 5 6 4
4th	W992	Mike Hamilton & David Oates	Civil Service SC	19 pts 5 8 3 6 5
5th	W318	David & Jill Davies	Salcombe YC	25 pts Ret DNS 7 4 3
6th	W1567	Chris King & Jon Redshaw	SCSC	26 pts DNS 3 8 8 7
7th	W1541	Philip & Jill Meadowcroft	Salcombe YC	26 pts Ret DNS 4 5 6
8th	W893	Peter & Elva Wallis	Burghfield SC	31 pts Ret DNS 6 3 Ret
9th	W462	Toby Elliot & Trafford Parsons	Exe SC	31 pts 3 8 Ret Ret 9
10th	W1163	Colin & Sally Gilbert	Hunts SC	31 pts 6 8 10 9 8
11th	W1552	Jonathon Gillmore & Mick Church	SCSC	43 pts Ret DNS DNS 12 10 10
12th	W1038	Tim Robertson & Edward Hines-Lindo	RNLI	67 pts DNS 4 DNS DNS DNS
13th	W1567	Chris & Vicky King	SCSC	70 pts 7 DNS DNS DNS DNS
14th	W450	Bill & Kathryn Smith	SCSC	72 pts DNS DNS 9 DNS DNS
15th	W1038	Tim & Niamh Robertson	RNLI	84 pts DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS

Philip Meadowcroft May 29th 2006                                                       Photos by Jenny Renouf W1518
 

home ~ back ~ no navigation?