Carsington Summer Trophy

Carsington Summer Trophy © John Steer

Carsington Summer Trophy © John Steer

Sunshine and showers give a stormy backdrop at the friendly Peak District venue

The Derbyshire weather threw a bit of everything at the competitors for Round 1 of the 2014 Garmin Summer Series, the Carsington Summer Trophy, held on Sunday 11th May.

With a pretty grim forecast and a number of events cancelled over the weekend a few entries withdrew, but the stunning setting of Carsington had dramatic scenes of both sunshine and squalls during the day, with some superb racing had by all who went out. The wind averaged around 16knots all throughout the racing with lulls down to 12kn. Race 2 saw the best of the sunshine and (slightly!) lighter breeze - interestingly this is when the SailRacer GPS trackers recorded the top speeds for the day, presumably where optimum speeds could be achieved. A sting in the tail for race 3 featured the worst of the rain squalls and gusts up to 26kn.

Race Officer Howard Jones set a large trapezoid course and reminded sailors that, if the fast fleet were over, he would still start them first but under black flag. The warning was heeded and the very efficient race team got the 2 starts for each of 3 races away cleanly. Not only that but the overall results for the event were calculated before the committee boat came ashore - unsurprisingly there were a number of comments from the competitors praising Howard and his team. One race in the morning was followed by an excellent lunch from Carsington's galley crew and a two further races in the afternoon.

Kevin Hope and Alex Piggott in a Fireball revelled in the breezy conditions to win all 3 races, with the singlehanders of both fast and slow fleets having a very close battle, on the water as well as on handicap. Second placed Tom Gillard of North Sails was in his brand new Butler Boats Streaker with a Superspars/North rig and took two solid second places before Carsington member Joe Scurrar in his not-so-new Laser Radial took second in the last race to secure 3rd place overall. The Contender of Malcolm Hall was pushing for first place in the fast fleet for most of the day, leading at the top of the run on at least one occasion and in 4th overall ahead of Tim Keen, another fast singlehander in his RS300. Top placed Solo was Michael Sims, finishing in 6th place overall with father Richard 7th in his Phantom.

The fleet split at 1100 put all the doublehanders in the fast fleet, with the slower rated singlehanders on the second start, including a strong Solo fleet. Every boat was fitted with one of SailRacer's GPS tracker units with quite an audience for the live coverage in the clubhouse. These tracks and the speed wall for the day are online here...

Top ranked on the speedwall, using Great Lakes corrected speed were:

Generous sponsorship from Garmin saw a Garmin VIRB Elite Camera (GPS enabled) presented to early entry prize draw winner Matthew Pallett at the briefing and another (each worth £350) presented at the end of the day's racing. Garmin VIRB cameras were mounted on Tom Gillard's Streaker and Michael Sim's Solo. A brief taster video is here... with more to follow shortly.

Carsington Sailing Club Commodore, Pieter Ten Haven, presented that second Garmin VIRB to Fireball sailors Kevin Hope and Alex Piggot from Notts County as overall winners of the event. Kevin & Alex had obviously enjoyed their day with Kevin commenting "I have been to Carsington a number of times but never actually sailed here. It was a great event, great racing and great prizes."

Tom Gillard was also enthusiastic about the friendliness of the well run event and will "definitely be heading back". Perhaps next time arriving more than 45 minutes before the start of the first race will be better preparation and it will be he who takes top position.

Next event in the Garmin Summer Series is the Datchet Summer Flyer, to be held over the weekend of 31st May & 1st June. The Saturday will take the same format as the one day Carsington event but with overnight camping, a barbecue on the Saturday evening (£9.50 including a drink from the bar) and a long-distance pursuit race on Sunday. And of course another couple of Garmin VIRB Elite Cameras to be handed out. Get your entry in before the end of Monday 19th May to be entered into the early entry prize draw to pick up a camera at the briefing like Matthew! Winner to be announced at the on-line briefing which will be published that week.

Enter now at garmin.sailracer.org

Overall Results: (top ten)

Carsington Summer Trophy - photo © Nick Arran