To all RA-Class Skippers,

I find it difficult to understand why a 2 day event at Fleetwood this weekend is not appealing to all you A-Class enthusiasts. Four weeks ago Hampton Court had 22 entries for a days racing, yet only a handful can be bothered to turn up to Fleetwood. Surely all you enthusiast should be itching to race, after your A-Class yachts haven't seen the water in a month? For everyone who has an A-Class but keeps it at home without a sound and creditable excuse for racing this weekend, should think I have let down the class and the hosting club. Excuses like: I am sailing my IOM, We are going away for the weekend, just doesn't cut it!!!

I ask the Class Captain, please do more!!

JT

Entries for Fleetwood this weekend to Derek Priestley, Email: yottyderek@tiscali.co.uk

Saturday

Racing started with a light but steady breeze from the northwest, the sunshine provided the perfect conditions. 3 entries to the event was all that Fleetwood could manage but racing was allowed to continue. A couple more entries would have forced the Race Officer to call 2 fleets There were some close racing at times, Derek Priestley with his famous 'Hard Tack' proto-type design enjoyed the most success, but he was closely followed by Dave Stewart, sailing his 'Dave Hollom' design upgrade from the 'Hard Tack' series. Dave Stewart's yacht is much lighter in displacement (12kgs) compared to other established designs.

Results: 1st Derek Priestley, 2nd Dave Stewart and 3rd John Taylor.

Sunday

There was a much better turn out for this event. A large fleet of 5 yachts sailed towards the start line for the first race. The Race Officer again was undecided if he should call 2 fleets and weather our scoring system would cope with the overload. Infact during the weekend the count down system had to be re-calibrated, due to being over used. Still good clean racing was observed during this event. Not a shout, scream or swear was to be heard from the skippers taking part. By lunchtime there had been some close racing, Roy Stevens and Derek Priestley were tied in 1st place with John Taylor closely following behind.

In the afternoon though Roy Stevens, sailing a Sweet 9 design yacht managed to achieve some creditable scores, achieving a top 2 finish in 4 out of the last 5 races. Derek Priestley, consistently was always challenging throughout the day. A good performance from Damian Ackroyd was observed sailing another upgraded version of Dave Holloms 'Hard Tack' design. Damian won 2 of the 11 races completed during the day.

Results: 1st Roy Stevens, 2nd Derek Priestley, 3rd Dave Stewart, 4th Damian Ackroyd, 5th John Taylor.

Fleetwood hopes for a better effort from all A-Class enthusiast come the National Championships in August. Thanks to all those that traveled, because if it wasn't for these people, this event wouldn't have happened.

Edited April 8, 201511 yr by Guest

Pictures

Close Racing

Hi John

It was a shame that you had a low turnout but may be due to a number of issues,

1. Hampton Court event was well advertised and is part of the PRACC series and it was the first A boat event of the year

2. Easter Bank holiday weekend may keep a number of skippers away due to holiday etc.

3. It was also hot on the heels of the very busy IOM ranking weekend at West Kirby the weekend before and there were at least 7 A class skippers at that event that were not at Fleetwood

I race an A class but only saw the prompt on the MYA website during the week and as I am away this weekend and next weekend sailing I need to get browny points with my better half.

The A class needs supporting at as many events as possible but we have to let the fleet know what's going on well in advance And unfortunately the year book was late coming out this year which I don't think helped. For future reference an email to the class captain well before the event may have helped.

Terry

Hi Terry

1 This event was always part of PRACC but for some reason this year it was removed. It was also scheduled by our sec to be later in the month but it was moved by the calendar planners!

2 It was at Easter last year, but it was well supported by amongst others your goodself!

3 It was "hot on the heels" of a busy IOM ranking race last year also.

It was in the calendar from the start & the calendar was published early so the late year book idea doesn't really wash.

HERE IS NOTICE NOW THAT THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE CLASS IS IN THE CALENDAR & YEAR BOOK so, make your accommodation arrangements and get here. We will be very disappointed if we don't get 30+ boats!

HERE IS NOTICE NOW THAT THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE CLASS IS IN THE CALENDAR & YEAR BOOK so, make your accommodation arrangements and get here. We will be very disappointed if we don't get 30+ boats!

 

Will do my best Derek, but we have to talk about 67

It s on our Calendar, VA and RA

I will be there for the Nationals, that's for sure. Not missing out on Uncle Derek's pies on Saturday - they only reason besides a beer at the Mount why I keep going to Fleetwood.

Can anyone share details on the new Dave Hollom RA design and were it might be available to buy?

THanks

Nigel

GER 87