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Unicorn Nationals

Stone Sailing Club

6 August to 10 August 2007

A fleet of eleven Unicorns and one guest boat met for their Nationals as part of the superb Stone SC Regatta on the Blackwater River. Conditions during the week varied from perfect F4 to highly variable F1 to 2 with many large wind shifts. Racing was both around the club cans and from a committee boat.

Race 1 - Monday 6 August, F2~3 W

The fleet had a committee boat start with an Olympic course. Bob Dorks led the way closely followed by John Wade, Peter Toft and Richard Taylor. After a fast reach to the wing mark the fleet sailed in procession down to the leeward mark. Gary Piper had started mid fleet but had already worked his way up to third place. Wade led briefly at the end of the second lap before Piper powered through on the beat. Dorks dropped back to fourth and Toft worked his way through to 2^nd. The final lap saw Piper take the win, Dorks worked some of his magic, passing Wade (4^th) and Toft (3^rd) for 2^nd place.

Race 2 – Monday 6 August, F2~3 W

Wade led up the first beat with Piper half a boat length behind. They battled around the first lap with Piper taking the lead at the start of the 2^nd lap. Toft was chasing the pair hard and then there was a big gap to the rest of the fleet. Piper stretched his lead leaving Wade and Toft to battle over 2^nd place. Wade got his tiller jammed during a tack and came very close to capsizing, letting Toft through to take 2^nd place.

Race 3 – Tuesday 7 August, postponed lack of wind

Race 4 – Tuesday 7 August, F0~1, E

The fleet started in variable conditions, some boats were caught in ‘holes’ and drifted up river on the fast tide, David Taylor coming off worst with the comment ‘I thought I was going to end up in Maldon’. Three boats went out into the river in search of more wind while the rest of the fleet hugged the shoreline. The wind died for 5 minutes so the boats in mid river drifted back at high speed while those near the shore lost much less ground. Eventually a steady breeze kicked in and Julius Mach was in the lead followed closely by Piper and Dorks. There was then a large gap back to Paul Conway, David Elias and Wade. Mach and Piper battled all the way round the lap with hardly a boat length between them at any time. Piper had got slightly ahead, spotting mark 6 before Mach and in a very tight finish, Piper held the starboard advantage beating Mach by 4s over the line. Dorks was 3^rd.

Race 3 – Wednesday 8 August, F3 NNW

All the fleet seemed to be bunched up jostling for places in the reach/beat up to the windward mark with Richard Taylor leading the pack. With starboard boats taking advantage, several boats went from the front to the back of the pack. Iain Rogers emerged in front and led back to the A mark. During the first lap, positions changed constantly but Paul Conway was finding his new boat to his liking and was pushing on with the leading group. During the 2^nd lap, Piper started to stamp his authority on the race, stretching out a good lead while Dorks, Toft and Wade were battling for the remaining honours. Wade got a great lift in the fluctuating conditions and managed to get in front of Dorks and Toft. He held this position to the finish line, followed by Toft and Dorks.

Race 5 – Thursday 9 August,  F3~F4 NNW

Everyone got away well with Piper hitting the front early followed by Dorks, Toft and Wade. Nobody could match Piper’s boat speed as he stretched a good lead. Dorks Toft and Wade battled for all the remaining laps, swapping places several times. Wade eventually gained the advantage over Toft and Dorks. The prize of first capsize of the week went to Geoff Moss, while searching for the next mark he got caught by a wind shift and went over.

Race 6 – Thursday 9 August, F3~4 NNW

David Elias got a cracking start and led the fleet chased by Dorks who tacked in error at the first mark leaving Piper to take the lead followed by Elias and Taylor. On the next reach, Wade gained 3^rd place and followed Piper and Taylor passed buoy 7 in search of the next mark. Unfortunately they had gone in the wrong direction and only realised their mistake when Toft immediately tacked back down river at buoy 7. Toft was now in the lead, followed by Dorks, Elias and Rogers. Over the next two laps, Wade and Piper gradually closed down on the leader but Toft made no mistakes and took the win by 29s from Wade and Piper. Rogers decided to try and light up during this high speed race and the inevitable happened, a capsize. However, he was successful in swimming after and collecting his waterproof box of fags – we are not sure about the boat!!   

Race 7 – Friday 10 August, F1~2 N

In spite of being a committee boat race, the start line had quite a bias so half the fleet started on port, gaining even more advantage as a large wind shift hit just as the start gun went. At the windward mark Toft was leading followed by Piper, Mach, Dorks and Taylor. The fleet struggled to find the wing mark, Toft spotting it first and holding the lead from Wade and Piper. The lead three boats built up a good gap from the following boats and were joined by Dorks who appeared from nowhere having taken the scenic route via the start can! On the 2^nd lap the lead boats became becalmed near the leeward mark while the rest of the fleet had a good breeze and all caught up. In the final lap, the four broke away again, Toft leading with Piper taking Wade for 2^nd at the leeward mark. However, another wind shift arrived and Wade took full advantage to regain 2^nd and Dorks just pipped Piper for 3^rd.

Race 8 – Friday 10 August, racing abandoned, no wind

Congratulations to Gary Piper who clinched his 8th Unicorn National Title.

We would like to say a particular thank you to all the folk in Stone SC who laid on such an excellent event, we had some great races, great weather and we all enjoyed the brilliant apres sailing events. This Regatta is highly recommended to anyone who wants a week away combining sailing and social events (and great entertainment for children as well). See you there next year.

Sail No	Helm	Club	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Points	Pos'n
1098	Gary Piper	Stokes Bay	1	1	1	1	1	3	4		8	1
1074	Peter Toft	Stone SC	3	2	DNF	3	3	1	1		13	2
1092	John Wade	Weston SC	4	3	4	2	2	2	2		15	3
1073	Bob Dorks	Stone SC	2	7	3	5	4	4	3		21	4
1091	Julius Mach	Weston SC	7	5	2	4	DNF	7	5		30	5
1088	Richard Taylor	Stokes Bay	5	4	DNF	8	5	6	6		34	6
1084	Iain Rogers	Weston SC	6	6	7	6	6	DNF	7		38	7
1	Paul Conway	Stone SC	8	9	6	7	8	DNF	OCS		50	8
1067	David Taylor	Stone SC	9	DNC	8	9	9	9	9		53	9
1075	Geoff Moss	Stone SC	DNF	10	DNC	10	DNF	8	8		60	10
			Discard

David Elias sailed as a guest of the Unicorn Association and would have finished in 8th position. An excellent result to get to grips with the Unicorn in such a short time.

John Wade

1092 Silent Wings