29er GP1 Sponsored by Allen

The Allen flags were flying as sailors arrived at WPNSA on Saturday morning welcomed by a brisk northerly breeze.

One by one the masts went up as the sailors prepared for what they thought would be a light and slightly shifty day. With the boats rigged it was time for the briefing. It was a solemn briefing as we had a minute’s silence in memory of her late Majesty the Queen. The briefing provided lots of useful information for both the experienced sailors and the many teams competing in their first ever 29er event. Recognising that it can be quite daunting for new teams transitioning to the 29er fleet the class association organised a support rib and coach for the new teams, giving these sailors pre-race boat set-up tips and an opportunity to ask questions and act as a base between races.

The fleet launched into a light 12 knots of breeze with the sun warming up the chilled air making for some perfect 29er racing conditions in the flat waters of Weymouth harbour. Until that is we were about to get racing underway when the wind decided it didn’t like where it was coming from and shifted 90 degrees!  This delayed the start as the course was shifted to the new wind angle. 

Finally, we started, with a pin biased start causing some boats some trouble at the pin, Santi and Kuba, lead at mark 1 which seemed to be secure however it’s not that simple in Weybiza with the shifting wind causing them to drop to 4th by the bottom mark with new partnership Charlie and Sam making some good calls and taking the race win. The racing carried on with a building breeze with Santi and Kuba taking the next two race wins.

We started race 4 but once again the wind had other ideas and a sustained 120-degree shift hit the fleet leading to this race being abandoned.  Despite the best efforts of Race Officer  Ian Bullock and his team, we were unable to restart this race and the fleet returned to the shore.

The next day conditions wise looked relatively the same. A shift in Race 4 lead the run to be a one gybe run which caught out the early gybe setters  Zeb and Fin took the race win. Race 5 followed swiftly with a rapid turnaround time as we had another 4 races to get through. 

Race 5 started with a building breeze, and the fleet remained compact throughout the race, making for some tight racing conditions, Charlie and Sam took the race win in this one and in Race 6.

James and Noah then took a swift race win in race 7 with a standout performance from Morven and Ollie who controlled the race most of the way round overtaking Jamie and Jamie at the bottom gate. 

However, the main drama was unfolding between James and Noah and Charlie and Sam who went into Race 8 tied on countback. Race 8 was close between the two teams from the offset with the final event result coming down to the last downwind leg, in the end, Charlie and Sam pipped James and Noah by a meter at the line, making them the event winners.

It was a great event and we have to thank WPNSA for allowing us to carry on with the event with the circumstances and a huge thank you to Allen for their continued support of the class.

The next event is GP2 at Lymington, the class will also be offering coached support to new teams for this event and this can be booked via  29er Our Club Admin.

Written by Jamie Wilkinson

SHOP 29ER PRODUCTS