Enterprise Northern Series and Training at Scammonden Water Sailing Club

Enterprise Northern Series at Scammonden Water © Calum Hunter

Enterprise Northern Series at Scammonden Water © Calum Hunter

Enterprise Northern Series at Scammonden Water © Calum Hunter

A total of seven home boats and four visitors gathered over the weekend commencing Saturday the 12th of April for training and racing.

The weekend began with Paul Young talking the sailors through the importance of keeping an Ent flat, as well as how best to approach a start on an unbiased and biased start line. Raring to go, the sailors were soon putting Paul's teachings into practise in short training races, which all enjoyed.

Training complete, everyone piled into the galley where they were treated to a choice of delicious dinner options, all of which went down tremendously. After tea, Phil Wilson and Paul Young then gave a demonstration on tuning an enterprise, to make it as competitive as possible. Confident their boats were as fast as they could be, competitors retired to bed.

The following day saw a change in conditions with the temperature marginally lower than it had been on Saturday, and the wind 10 gusting 20mph.

Race 1 began at 11:00, Steve Blackburn and Royston Taggart (23310) seemed to get a brilliant start, however it was in fact too perfect, as it turned out they were over the line. Mike and Lucy Goodwin (22451) took the win, with Paul Young and Jan Kimber (22901) in second, and Chris Smith and Derrick Jackson (23135) in third.

There was then a break for lunch, which like Saturday's tea, went down a treat. After lunch, race 2 started, and after a close beat Phil and Rosie Wilson (472) reached the windward mark first, but it was Steve and Royston who took the win, With Mike and Lucy in second, and Paul and Jan crept into third, after a close battle with James and Owen Holdaway (23159) and Phil and Rosie.

All was still to play for going into race 3, so competitors were ready to try different tactics to attempt to gain an advantage; with 45 second till go James and Owen tried a controversial new one and stopped on the committee boat end of the line, with the boat on its side. This cutting-edge strategy didn't quite pay off. The author of this report regrets that due to this strategy, he was too busy bailing with a bucket to follow the rest of the race, but is reliably informed that Oliver Boocock and Luke Hartshorn (22118) reached the windward mark first, but it was once again Steve and Royston who came in first, with Phil and Rosie in second, and Oliver and Luke just beating Ben and Katie Ratcliffe (21777) to third.

Thanks must be given to all the galley staff, as well as the race committee for running the event.

Overall Results: