Blaze Inlands - Datchet 18/19 October

A breezy weekend coincided with the Blaze Inland Championships at Datchet SC over the weekend of 18/19 October with winds ranging from F3 to a full F5 and beyond.

The racers were visited on Saturday by some of eight or so forming a new fleet at Brightlingsea who are either waiting for new boats or looking to buy used. A lot of questions were asked around and with it a fair bit of haggling !

In the event eighteen made it to the first start but sadly eighteen did not finish with a capsized Steve Duncan (525) getting holed when David Angwin (613) ran out of options at speed and ploughed into the upturned hull. The half empty saucer that is currently Datchet was doing its best to catch out the unwary and was exaggerating the already very gusty conditions. At the front Mike Lyons (654) pulled away from the fleet pursued by Chris Coleman (669), Dave Evans (675) and Paul Hemsley (656).

In subsequent races Coleman's upwind technique proved superior in the increasing wind to all others and he dominated the rest of the event. Lyons was usually the lead follower at a respectful distance but was bettered by Hemsley in race 3 and just by Evans in race 5. As the weekend wore on the strenuous conditions started to wear down many of the competitors with the occasional 'formation capsize' at the wing mark to entertain the watchers. This allowed several new names to pop up near the front with David Turnbull (687) of Redoubt SC and David Annan (584) of Surrey University starting to show very promising form.

The Blaze season is now finished but on Saturday evening at the association AGM the members reflected on a very successful season with meeting attendances rising rapidly and the current high demand for boats. The association would like to thank Datchet SC once again for its excellent organisation of the event and its 2003 sponsors, Hewlett Packard and WCI. The 2004 Blaze racing season will commence again in early April with a training open event.

1st 669 Chris Coleman - Warsash SC
2nd 654 Mike Lyons - Burghfield SC
3rd 675 Dave Evans - Calshot SC
4th 656 Paul Hemsley - Burghfield SC
5th 687 David Turnbull - Redoubt SC
6th 584 David Annan - Univ.of Surrey

Paul Hemsley also won the 'Inland Masters' prize