Champion Decided as Racing Goes to the Wire

Racing concluded on Friday in one of the closest fought I14 events for a long time. An event that saw, for a whole week, big courses and hard close racing, coupled with fantastic sun.

Racing was incredibly close in the top four going into the final race on Friday. Any one of them could have won the event and by the end there was only ten points separating the top four. For much of the final race, overall positions changed as fast as the race positions. Going into the first downwind leg, runner up going into the last race Geoff CARVETH and Adrian MURPHY were looking like comfortable overall leaders.

One lap later, and unable to be in the three places at once necessary to cover all their closest competitors they were third! By the end of the race it was 14 veterans James FAWCETT and Bruce GRANT, who finished fifth in the race and did enough to take overall victory. Neil UPTON-BROWN and Ian MITCHELL beat Carveth and Murphy into third place by a single point.

Fawcett and Grant sailed an intelligent and consistent series and were deserved winners by the end of the week.

57 boats from four nations took part in the event, a useful practice for the forthcoming World Championship in Japan, and one that included the prestigious Prince of Wales Trophy, won by Rob GREENHALGH on Tuesday.

Full results are available on the event website at the address below. In the meantime, here’s a summary of the top ten.