Shadow X vs Spitfire.

Due to the change of date, only three Shadows managed to make the event at Weston Sailing Club on Southampton Water.  Robin Leather left his boat there on his return from Grafham the previous weekend.  This was very kind of Weston SC and made attending two open events at each end of Half Term possible.  The Shadows sailed in the slower of the two fleets with the Spitfires.  This provided great fun and allowed the Shadow X to show its new turn of speed against the Spitfire.  The fast handicap fleet (F18, A Class and Tornado) started 5 minutes before us on the same course.  It's a shame the A class was not in our start as we seemed to be gaining on them all the time (and some of the slower F18s as well!!). 

The wind direction was not the best for Weston being SW which made things gusty with a relatively short course, so lots of rounds.  The wind picked up on Saturday range from 16 - 18 knots with gusts 20 to 22 with the highest of 27 knots recorded at 2.00pm.  Robin got off to a good start in race one leading the spits around the windward mark with Paul in second and Rob in third.  This was the first time Paul Tanner had sailed against the Spitfires with the new kite and he was amazed how the Shadow X we can go lower and faster now and certainly on Saturday found himself making up ground and passing the Spits downwind. Robin won race one on the water.  The Spitfires did better in race 2 with Robin finishing 3rd on handicap.  Paul finished second Shadow ahead of Rob Forester.  In Race 3 Paul got the best of the start and rounded the windward mark in front of the Spits with Rob second and Robin third. With the wind picking up and the gusts at times coming from 15 to 20 degrees away, downwind was very much hang on and bear away like mad !!!!!  Robin passed Rob but capsized on the downwind leg during a gybe when a large gust caught him out. Paul finished first Shadow in Race 3 with Rob second and Robin retired.  So after day one Paul had 2,2,1 Rob 3,3,2 and Robin 1,1, RTD. Robin also managed to swallow a large amount of Southampton water resulting in an attack of Monte Zuma's Revenge that caught up with him when he returned to his B & B. 
 

Thank goodness I decided to sleep in 'Hotel Honda' and not go to the B&B with Robin........

The wind dropped slightly for Sunday but again gusty at times. Robin now several KGs lighter continued on his winning ways taking all three wins.  Paul and Rob had some good close racing with Rob taking the upper hand in the last 2.  So overall for the Weston Shadow TT was Robin first, Paul second and Rob third. In the handicap fleet Robin missed out by one point coming Second, Paul was Fourth and Rob sixth so a good result for the Shadow X. The new Spinni has certainly made us much more competitive downwind so we should consider more general cat opens for our 2012 TT.

Congratulations to Robin on winning the Weston TT and the travellers series for 2011.

Final TT Places -

1. Robin Leather
2. Paul Tanner
3. Rob Forester

Contributed by Paul Tanner and edited by Robin Leather