GKO RS Feva Grand Prix at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Ollie Cooper & Callum Ellis win the RS Feva Grand Prix at Hayling © Peter Newton

The first race got away after a black flag was needed to keep the fleet behind the line due to a strong tide. The second race started after two attempts & a 45 degree shift to the left then 30 seconds into the race a 40 degree shift to the right. PRO was faced with very awkward decision but let the race go. Third race was back to being peachy.

Riding high after 3 and no discards were three boats clean away from the pack. Ollie Cooper & Callum Ellis led the way with Ruth and Tess Alan in hot pursuit. Third of the trio are Debbie & Tom Darling. The reason they are gone and away is that they got 3 single digit results in. Everybody else decided on a different regatta strategy and went the high scoring route, no doubt to lull our heros into a false sense of security. Currently it seems their strategy is bang on course.

Other’s worthy of note were Intermediatel Squad sailors Robert & Emma Loveridge & Owen Bowerman crewed by Charlie Darling.

Sunday's star performers though with an awesome 1,6,1 were Robert Badderley and James Taylor. Shame Robert was on Oppie summer camp on Saturday so he counted 2 DNCs. If James had been allowed his results from the first day, he'd have wound up 2nd overall - so first merit prize went to James & Robert.

Ollie Cooper and Callum Ellis kept it together but still needed to perform in the final race after getting the compulsory big score in the penultimate race. Hot on their heels were Ruth & Tess Allan but they had got a big one in that one but last race too. Ruth & Tess got second overall but title of most consistent over all 6 races goes to Alice and Lucy. Further proof of how hard the event was that they posted the best discard of the fleet - a 15th!

Merit awards went to Kellie Carmichael and Emily McCall. Terrific improvement over the 4 weeks since the nationals and top boat from Scotland. Just starting their double handed careers were Ollie Harrison and Molly Frost fresh from Optimists. What a dream debut.

So how is the season panning out? Extraordinarily I'd say. Since the Inlands last October we have now had seven different event winners. What we do have is the most amazing aray of people who could light Garda up. So next stop Garda for the Allen RS Feva European Championships.

Overall Results: