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Event Reports

29ers at Holt Tide Ride
It was the first time for the 29ers at the Holt Tide Ride, the event attracted the top teams including three of the RYA Youth Squad who finished in the top ten of this years World Championship. However it was the slightly older team shall we say of Charlotte Odell and Dave Hall who wrapped up the series races on Saturday and early Sunday morning. With a 1st and four 2nds they won the first section of the event by a wide margin from Justin Vissar & Simon Wheeler. However it only counted for one result and it was still all to play for on Sunday afternoon in the final.

With the knockout heats taken place and the final twelve teams decided, the two final races took place on the ebbing tide and a very interesting start line. Sophie Jones & Ben McVie took the first race followed by Odell & Hall with Justin Vissar & Simon Wheeler 3rd. Going into the last race it was still Odell & Hall in the lead, but only just. Any one of the top three boats could win. Vissar and Wheeler stole the start leaving the fleet in its wake. Jones & McVie followed with Ed Chapman & Tom Peel. Odell & Hall were left in 4th and failed to make any places crossing the line 4th - their worst result of the event. Vissar & Wheeler crossed the line 1st to give them overall 1st place with 7 points against Odell & Halls 8 and Jones & McVies 9. - Dave Hall

B14 at Holt Tide Ride
Another eventful B14 Tide Ride took place over the weekend. The racing was tight and no quarter was given with the umpires being kept busy but no serious damage was reported. This was due to having 25 boats racing on a 400 - 500 m. course with two downwind gates compressing the fleet. Many of the favourites ended up collecting black flags so tumbling them down the days final order. The most notable race was race 3 of 4 in the Saturday round robin that binned 4 of the first 5 on lap 2.

The overnight leaders not collecting any black flags was Steve Fish/Neil Barber, followed by Dave Hayes/Sean Dwyer (Seasure) and Tim Fells/Shaun Barber.

Sunday started with the overnight position counting as the score equivalent to 1 race. On Sunday the fleet was split into 2 flights with flight one being named the flight of death due to most of the top circuit boats being in that half. The top six of each flight would go through to the final two races with the rest sailing a reportage final.

Race 1 was hard faught with the pin end of the line being over and having to re- round (black flag not applying). This really opened up the race. There were many changes during the race with lead being shared by 6 of the boats. Boats showing there metal on the first beat were Wayne Dixon/Trish Dixon (Rogate), Dan Willet/Stu Philips The eventual winners were Mark Barnes/Tom Pygall (ReadyCrest) followed home by Chris Bines/Dave Gibbons (CSC) who had recovered from the back on the first beat with the comment that they had used up all the vouchers on there prayer mat. Willet/Phillips were deemed PMS so letting Fells/Barber through to 6 and final qualifier. Overnight leaders Fish/Barber had a mare of a race fouling the warps on the gates and so were eliminated.

Race 2 Was again hard faught off the start line but Nils Jollaffe/Jonathon Branch (Boatracer.co.uk) led from start to finish hotly pursued by Seasure, Simon Hadley/Pete Nicholson (HSBC) and Alan Davis/Alison Wilson.

The final race one and second point scoring race was going to be interesting, the line was short, the tide ripping across the line. Several boats fowled the committee boat warp (comment from the boat was to successfully sink the line would take about 2 tons). At the pin end it was ReadyCrest who were away first closely followed by Fells/Barber and Boatracer. co. uk. The race was hard faught at the front with a dog fight ensuing between these 3 with the ReadyCrest repelling first one then the other of the 2 boats. However at the second lowered mark, Boatracer. co. uk took the inside berth and lead to the finish finishing first followed home by ReadyCrest then Fells/Barber, CSC and Seasure. The rest of the fleet followed in hot pursuit with several place changes at the finish.

Race 2 and final points race was going to be a hum dinger. Fells/Barber had to finish worst than second and one of 3 protagonists who had to finish first. The race got clean away on the ebb tide with a lot of ducking and diving taking place. Two boats that had been on form but were now up there were Matt Gill/Ben Cooper (Pica) and Davis/Wilson. The first 7 boats could not be separated on the first lap and the heat was up. CSC eventually broke out to a 25 m. lead but this was to prove enough to win the race. Second ended up being hard faught between ReadyCrest and Fells/Barber. This one went down to the wire with Fells/Barber claiming second and winning the Tide Ride but they seemed to have the ability to pull the rabbit out of the hat when required and won a well deserved Tide Ride. Fourth was Davis/Wilson followed by Pica in fifth.

Our thanks must go out to Tim Hancock and his team for running a colourful event and the B14 class will try to not give the Umpires so much work (pleasure) next year (comment made in the briefing on Sunday morning. - Mark Barnes & Jonathon Branch

EVENT GENERAL INFORMATION
Leading performance hardware manufacturer Holt is the title sponsor of the Holt Tide Ride, to be held at Hayling Island SC over the weekend of the 16 and 17 October 2004.

Now in its fourth year, the Tide Ride is the first competition of its kind to involve high performance dinghy classes in an elimination slalom event, held over short courses through to a sudden death final. This year the race will be restricted to five major classes: - International 14, RS800, B14, RS700 and 29ers.

Each class will compete in ‘crash and burn’ slalom style racing, culminating in a six-boat final to win top prizes from Holt."This event is as extreme as it gets in sailing," explains Holt’s director Ben Dunton. "Hayling Island is the perfect venue, due to ideal tidal conditions at this time of year. The course will give spectators a great view of the action and a rare opportunity to witness such extremity and excitement close up."

Breaking away from the traditional open meeting race series, the action kicks off on Saturday morning with four qualifying races in a round robin format held over short courses with gates to keep the action compact and maintain maximum boat contact. Each class is whittled down to 24 by Sunday when competitors are ranked and the start of the sudden death stage begins.