Datchet Water SC Open March 2007

17 Contenders descended on Datchet for the first round of the 2007 travellers trophy series to find the wind about double the strength forecast and increasing. No problem, as the boats are pretty bomb proof, so just question marks over the helms then! So it was a rude awaking for those who had enjoyed a winter layoff finding themselves storming round the course in up to 35knots. Simon Mussell eased out his manly girth and headed off to the right, for the one tack option, to lead comfortably round the first short race, despite a quick dip on a reach. A little behind, Ben Holden eased away from the rest with Gary Langdown holding on to third by judicially wearing round the last gybe in the "gust of the day" rather than joining the gybe swimming party as an alternative.

Race 2 was a virtual carbon copy with Mussell displaying impressive upwind speed to lead again from start to finish. The racing by now was largely a drag and swimming race with most helms opting for the one tack beat approach as any more generally lost too much distance on the short course. Holden again comfortably held second with Stuart Jones, despite discarding his top batten on the course, just squeezing past Langdown for third.

Race 3 once again saw Mussell power off with Holden in hot pursuit but this time with locals Matt Aston and John Browett hanging on to their wakes. The rest of the fleet followed on in various states of disarray. Aston dropped it in on a windward mark bear away to wave his chances goodbye but Browett persevered and used the radical ploy of using the shifts and not overstanding the windward mark to grab the advantage and win this one. Mussell robbed of his clean sweep settled for second.

Saturday night gales moderated to gusts of 50mph on Sunday morning to cause most helms to vote with their feet and de-rig before the racing was officially and sensibly abandoned. Simon dusted off his acceptance speech and thanked Datchet and particularly the rescue team and race officer, Alan Dier, who spent Saturday coping with drifting marks.

Pos	Helm	No	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	Simon Mussell	2372	Highcliffe SC	1	1	2	4
2	Ben Holden	2315	Halifax SC	2	2	3	7
3	John Browett	713	Datchet SC	5	5	1	11
4	Stuart Jones	701	Datchet SC	4	3	4	11
5	Gary Langdown	2373	Highcliffe SC	3	4	5	12
6	Nick Noble	2376	Portishead SC	9	6	7	22
7	David Gautier	675	Datchet SC	6	8	8	22
8	Matt Aston	647	Datchet SC	10	9	6	25
9	Paul Lincoln	682	RNSA	8	10	9	27
10	Peter Nelson	536	Northants SC	12	7	11	30
11	Roger Gates	654	Datchet SC	11	11	12	34
12	Joel McDonald	557	Weston SC	18	12	10	40
13	Richard Gimmler	674	Whitefriars SC	7	18	18	43
14	David Gough	693	Starcross YC	18	13	18	49
15	Martin Jones	2347	Wilsonian SC	18	18	18	54
15	Jim Wise	670	Weston SC	18	18	18	54
18	Chris Kirk	710	Queen Mary SC	18	18	18	54

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