Stewartby Topper Open 17th May 2003
28 Toppers made it to the Topper Eastern Area Open at Stewartby sponsored by http://www.dbboatbits.com. For the most part the threatened rain stayed away and good solid breezes were the order of the day.
Race 1 saw Matt Undrell of Haversham produce one of his consistent starts and he led of for a good part of the race, before he had to retire with a kicking strap failure. This left Jonathan Brown of Norfolk Broads Yacht Club and Robert Spencer of Broxbourne fighting for first and second. Entering into the final run Adam Fox now featured as part of the equation. Fox had recovered well from a 720 infringement and took Spencer with his downwind planning speed, but Jonathan Brown managed to keep the flying Fox at Bay to take a deserved win.
Andi Riely the race officer altered the course for the next race but kept the fast reaches which gave spectacular sailing for sailors and spectators. This race was led by Richard Henderson of Stewartby for the first lap, but with the increasing wind he was not able to hold off Adam Fox who opened out a sizable lead. Sailing well in the Breeze was a Oliver Tweddell of Grafham Water who posted a second followed Jonathan Brown.
After lunch the competitors had a new course, to take advantage of a shift in the breeze. Adam Fox made a clean exit out of the blocks, used his boat speed and was never threatened. This race produced the strongest breeze of the day and this produced a good number of capsizes throughout the fleet. James Hofman of Grafham was one of the victims and capsized whilst lying second, he recovered well to finish in third place leaving Jonathan Brown to take second place.
With one more race left, either Jonathan Brown or Adam Fox could win the meeting. The fleet got away cleanly with Jonathan Brown in the lead. Fox held onto his transom for most of the race but as the leaders got absorbed in their battles, Matt Undrell split them on several occasions by sailing his own race. Come the final leg it was all to play for with Robert Spencer also in contention. The tension was held right until the end, with the top 3 all finishing within a boat length of each other. Brown was first followed by Fox and Spencer. Jonathan Brown sailed an intelligent final race and defended well throughout, this was enough for him to win the meeting on count back. Adam Fox took second followed by the consistent Oliver Tweddell in third.
Generous sponsorship by the local mobile chandler Fred Morris of http://www.dbboatbits.com enabled prizes to be awarded to a third of competitors. With the top prizes being quality sailing bags or clothing.
1st Jonathan Brown (Norfolk Broads) 2nd Adam Fox (Stewartby 3rd Oliver Tweddell (Grafham Water) 4th Robert Spencer (Broxbourne) 5th Matt Undrell (Haversham) 6th James Hofman (Grafham Water)