Craftinsure Lark Open at Barnt Green Sailing Club

Craftinsure Lark Open at Barnt Green © Matthew Brown Photography / www.matthewbrown-photography.com

12 boats contested the Lark open at Barnt Green SC on Saturday, with two local boats being joined by 10 travellers from as far as Ipswich. This would be the 8th event of the year to count towards the Craftinsure Lark Travellers Series for the Belle Isle trophy. The fleet arrived to a warm and sunny day with the breeze as forecast at a south westerly 8-12 knots.

Big shifts were the theme of the day and played their part from the off. The line was quite heavily biased to the port end as the clock ticked to the start of race one, however within the last minute the breeze shifted to the right, the line squared up and the fleet got away cleanly. The visiting youth team of Hannah Carruthers and George Cox-Olliff (Frensham Pond/Waldringfield) nailed the start and rounded the first mark with a nice lead over the rest of the fleet which was quite compressed. In second place were Stuart and Julia Allen (Banbury SC) being chased hard by Jonny Coate and Nic White (South Staffs SC) and Samuel Bailey and Mia Hateley (South Staffs SC).

Craftinsure Lark Open at Barnt Green - photo © Matthew Brown Photography / www.matthewbrown-photography.com

Towards the end of lap 1 Coate and White took advantage of a nice gust and just managed to get an inside overlap on the Allens promoting them to second place. On the next beat Coate and White played the shifts and managed to sneak into the lead, and the resulting battle for 2nd 3rd and 4th places allowed them to extend and take the win in race one. Bailey and Hateley showed their good speed and inland experience to claim second while Carruthers and Cox-Olliff defended 3rd from the Allens.

After a leisurely lunch ashore, the fleet got back on the water in the afternoon for races 2 and 3. The wind had shifted a little further to the right, so the course was changed for the afternoon races but the breeze remained as shifty as ever. After a heavy starboard end bias resulted in a general recall on the first attempt, the fleet got away on the restart. Bailey and Hateley led from the start and for a couple of laps, before Coate and White managed to split tacks with them and slip by on an upwind leg. Guy Brearey and Alexa Pinner (Royal Thames YC) led the rest of the pack to take 3rd place.

Craftinsure Lark Open at Barnt Green - photo © Matthew Brown Photography / www.matthewbrown-photography.com

With 3 races scheduled with one discard, the event was now in the bag for Coate and White. However the open at Barnt Green is unusual in that they have a magnificent trophy for the winner of race 3, so there was still some silverware for everyone to race for. Another clean start and a fine first beat by Nigel Hufton and Katie Keith (Frensham Pond/South Staffs) put them in the lead at the first mark.

As they held a good breeze along the short starboard tack reach, by the time they had gybed at mark 2 onto the long port tack reach across the pond they had already pulled out a significant lead. However Coate and White managed to pick away at that lead over the next 2 laps and again took the lead to finish the day with a perfect scoreline. Hufton and Keith held on to 2nd to finish 3rd overall, and Bailey and Hateley finished 3rd which would be their discard to finish a strong 2nd overall.

Jonny Coate and Nic White win the Craftinsure Lark Open at Barnt Green - photo © Matthew Brown Photography / www.matthewbrown-photography.com

Overall Results: