Contender Eastern Area Mini-Series Overall

by Tony Brooks 30 Sep 2015 21:51 NZDT 26-27 September 2015

The Contender Eastern area Mini-series Championships were concluded this weekend 26th/27th September at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club. The championship is decided on the competitors best 3 results from the 4 events held at Bough Beech, Hythe and Saltwood, Downs and Thorpe Bay.

The series started on 7th March at Bough Beech Sailing club with a 1 day event to get things started for both the Travellers Trophy Series and the Eastern Area Mini-series, the event was held in a gusty force 2-5 with plenty of sunshine. It all came down to the last race with Nick Grace needing to beat Stu Jones for the event. Unfortunately Nick managed to misjudge the start, arrived too early, hit the pin and capsized. The rest of the fleet headed off for a tight race in plenty of breeze. Stu won and took the event with Mr Grace 2nd overall.

It was then onto Hythe & Saltwood Sailing Club on the 17th May with a day that started light and fickle with the wind building throughout the day to produce 20+ knots and a lumpy sea. This event was won by local sailor Tom Coley, with Tony Cook second and Peter Noble third.

For the third event of the miniseries it was on to Downs Sailing Club with a light wind forecast for the day, it all started with tea drinking and talks of the good old days before a sea breeze appeared and racing finally commenced at 12:30. This event gave us another winner in the name of Adrian Smith with Chris Boshier second and Dave Adams close behind on points for third.

The final showdown was to be held at the delectable Thorpe Bay Yacht Club, so on a beautifully sunny weekend with 3 out of the top 4 competitors making this event, the final results were only decided on the last race of the last event. Peter Noble was the eventual winner of the series with a 1st at Thorpe Bay, Chris Boshier was second overall and the third place spot was taken by Tony Cook.

This was the first attempt at an eastern mini-series that used 2 of the events from the Travellers trophy series and 2 additional one day events and was deemed by all to be a success with a number of new faces taking part from the local clubs including the two young lads David Hopper and Harry Boygle from Thorpe Bay who kept up with the pace until the wind gave the advantage to the larger pie eating and Ale supping oldies.

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Bough Beech	Hythe & Saltwood	Downs	Thorpe Bay	Pts
1	Peter Noble		48	47	50	145
2	Chris Boshier	44		49	49	142
3	Tony Cook	x39x	49	46	46	141
4	Adrian Smith	42	47	50		139
5	Tony Brooks	43			47	90
6	Alan Mollat		45	44		89
7	Tony White	41			45	86
8	Stuart Jones	50				50
9	Tom Coley		50			50
10	Nick Grace	49				49
11	Martin Frary	48				48
12	Dave Adams			48		48
13	Rodger White				48	48
14	Mike Murley	47				47
15	Brian Whitmey	46				46
16	Rob Smith		46			46
17	Peter Dives	45				45
18	Peter Griffen			45		45
19	Dick Butner			43		43
20	Jack Watts			42		42
21	Jerry Hone	40				40
22	David Hopper					44
23	Harry Boygle					43
24	John Mclean	38				38