Colin and Oly Murray beat the 115-boat fleet in their Norfolk Punt at the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, the first of eight events in this season’s Seldén SailJuice Winter Series.
The Murrays finished 5th on corrected time in race one but then scored a hat trick of wins in the next three races on Saturday.
With the tallest rig in the fleet, the father and son duo in the Norfolk Punt made the most of the conditions where they were running at full power much of the time while most teams were still crouching.
Sunday’s non-discardable Pursuit Race was abandoned due to the fog and lack of breeze, and the results from Saturday’s four races determined the final positions in the Draycote Dash.
So the Murrays were the winners, followed by some class acts who filled the top 10 places.
Steve and Sarah Cockerill raced their RS400 to second overall, ahead of Ian Dobson and Andy Tunnicliffe in their World Championship winning GP14.
Tom Morris and Guy Fillmore proved that an RS800 can be competitive even when they’re not twin-trapezing, the Hayling Island crew coming fourth overall.
For fairly light conditions, Tom Morris and Guy Fillmore proved that an RS800 can be competitive even when they’re not twin-trapezing, the Hayling Island crew coming fourth overall.
There were six top-class GP14s present at Draycote, with Sam Watson and Andy Punter finishing on equal points with Pete Gray and Geoff Edwards in 5th and 6th place respectively.
Aside from the old faces, there were lots of new entrants to the Series for the first time, and a significant growth in family and youth participation.
This event also served as the Inland Championships for the Hadron H2 class, with Richard Leftley finishing first in class, and 21st overall.
The next event in the Series is the Datchet Flyer on the weekend of 7 & 8 December.
Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash – Overall leaders (115 entries)
1st FAST Norfolk Punt Colin MURRAY and Oly MURRAY – – 3 pts
2nd FAST RS400 Stephen COCKERILL and Sarah COCKERILL – – 9 pts
3rd SLOW GP14 Ian DOBSON and Andy TUNNICLIFFE – – 13 pts
4th FAST RS800 Tom MORRIS and Guy FILLMORE – – 16 pts
5th SLOW GP14 Sam WATSON and Andy PUNTER – – 20 pts
6th SLOW GP14 Peter GRAY and Geoff EDWARDS – – 20 pts
7th FAST Fireball Martyn LEWIS and Daniel LEWIS – – 23 pts
8th MEDIUM 2000 Simon HORSFIELD and Katie BURRIDGE – – 23 pts
9th SLOW GP14 Nick CRAIG and Emma CLARKE – – 29 pts
10th FAST Scorpion Thomas GILLARD and Rachael RHODES – – 29 pts
11th SLOW Laser Radial Alastair BROWN – – 31 pts
12th MEDIUM Comet Trio Alex HORLOCK and Bob HORLOCK – – 33 pts
13th SLOW Laser George SUNDERLAND – – 35 pts
14th SLOW GP14 Andy SMITH and Phil HODGKINS – – 36 pts
15th FAST RS800 Robert GULLAN and Mari SHEPHERD – – 38 pts
16th SLOW GP14 Hugh DEVEREUX and Ellie DEVEREUX – – 38 pts
17th FAST B14 Mark BARNES and Charlotte HORLOCK – – 42 pts
18th SLOW Streaker Graham SEXTON – – 43 pts
19th FAST Phantom Norman BYRD – – 55 pts
20th SLOW OK Russ CLARK – – 56 pts
