Following the four way tie in the Snowdrop Series, Wednesday Series 1 ended up almost as close. Competition at the front of the fleet is increasing with new helms,
boats and sails appearing.
Wednesday night racing as been popular over the last few years
and this season has been no different. The first series of the year so 47 entries over the ten race series with an average of 20 starters per race.
Early series leaders where the two crewed Lark and RS200 of Nick Marlow and Paul Warren respectively. However after seven races it was the single
handers in the lead with Kevin Milton in his Phantom 0.5pts behind Mike Pritchard in his Laser. Mike missed the next two races but Nick and Kevin
failed to gain an overall lead due to the excellent performance of Duncan Adams and Zelia Bradley who won the two races in their Kestrel. So with one race to go
Mike was still 0.5pts ahead of Kevin and 1.4pts ahead of Nick Marlow. The overall result therefore depended upon the last race with any
three able to win.
A delayed flight meant a jet-lagged Mike arrived back at the club from Beijing with 30 minutes to go to the start. The early race lead and effect overall series lead
was taken by the Lark of Nick Marlow and John Shepherd, with Mike in 4th place and Kevin Milton well back in the 26 strong fleet after a poor start. However, the in-form Kestrel
with Duncan and Zelia slowly over-hauled the Lark whilst Mike moved into third position. An impressive third lap saw the Kestrel take
the overall lead which she extended by the finish to complete a hat-trick of Wednesday night wins and it was only due to the Kestrel entering only five races that she did not win overall.
Nick and John finished in second place, ten seconds ahead of Mike Pritchard on corrected time. However, third place was enough for Mike to take the series overall from Nick and Kev Milton by
0.4pts and 0.5pts respectively.
Overall results were:
1st Mike Pritchard, Laser 11.0pts
2nd Nick Marlow & John Shepherd, Lark 11.4pts
3rd Kevin Milton, Phantom 11.5pts
4th Paul Warren & Will Taylor & Vicky Ellis, RS200 24.6pts
5th Roger Day, Phantom 27.0pts
6th Kevin Last, Supernova 27.6pts
7th Keith Brereton, Phantom 28.0pts