Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey show no sign of giving up their title easily.
Nick Craig and Toby Lewis took their second championshp win, but Birrell and Brearey were right there in second place and keep a five point overall lead after four races.
Craig and Toby Lewis are in second with a 9 point advantage over third placed Jon Gorringe and Pete Gray, with Andy Davis and Pippa Kilsby in fourth, Roger Gilbert and James Stewart fifth, and Simon Potts and Ally Pottssixth.
Race four, for the West Country Trophy, started under black flag and Birrell and Brearey were again leaders at the top mark and looked like they would do a horizon job with their clear speed advantage.
However, Craig and Lewis, who had just squeezed round in second, never gave up the chase playing the shifts expertly to keep in contention.
The course was Sausage-Triangle-Sausage-Triangle and the second reach was a toe nail on the edge three-sailer.
On this final leg to the finish Craig and Lewis were able to exploit both his significant leverage on the max transom width of his JT design.
Plus a useful tear in his spinnaker which depowered him enough to be able to drive hard and chase down Birrell and Brearey and pass them at the death.
In the peloton, Chrises Gould and Kilsby again showed great pace and tactical positioning to take third holding off the challenge of Davis and Kilsby in fourth and big climbers Gilbert and Stewart in fifth.
Jon Gorringe and Pete Gray kept themselves in the top three overall with a hard fought sixth.
Merlin Rocket – Aspire 2019 National Championship – Leaders after Race 4
1st 3788 Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey 1 2 1 2 – – 6 pts
2nd 3776 Nick Craig and Tobytastic Lewis 3 1 6 1 – – 11 pts
3rd 3791 Jon Gorringe and Pete Gray 2 10 2 6 – – 20 pts
4th 3684 Andy Davis and Pippa Kilsby 5 5 7 4 – – 21 pts
5th 3722 Roger Gilbert and James Stewart 13 6 4 5 – – 28 pts
6th 3802 Simon Potts and Ally Potts 6 13 5 8 – – 32 pts
7th 3712 Ian Sharps and Alex Warren 7 11 10 9 – – 37 pts
8th 3739 Ben McGrane and Roz McGrane 14 3 12 19 – – 48 pts
9th 3764 Tim Fells and Fran Gifford 11 16 8 13 – – 48 pts
10th 3736 Roger Phillips and Will Crocker 9 14 19 21 – – 63 pts
11th 3726 Will Henderson and Arthur Henderson 4 20 24 16 – – 64 pts
12th 3658 Chris Jennings and Chris Martin 8 24 15 23 – – 70 pts
13th 3795 Alex Jackson and Mary Henderson 15 19 23 15 – – 72 pts
14th 3803 Chris Gould and Chris Kilsby DNF 4 3 3 – – 76 pts
15th 3766 Andy Dalby and Pete Horn 20 15 13 30 – – 78 pts
16th 3742 Pete Ballantine and Rob Allen 15 25 18 22 – – 80 pts
17th 3777 George Yeoman and Sophie Yeoman 24 21 26 10 – – 81 pts
18th 3673 Caroline Croft and Tom Lonsdale 16 22 17 26 – – 81 pts
19th 3796 William Warren and Rachel Rhodes 22 9 27 27 – – 85 pts
20th 3759 Sam Barker and Megan Pascoe 31 12 16 28 – – 87 pts
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