Blaze Inlands, Oxford SC 15/16 October 2005

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"></st1:state></st1:city></st1:place>The Blaze fleet returned to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford <st1:state w:st="on">SC for their end-of-season Inland Championships on 15/16 October.  This year they experienced ideal conditions with just the right amounts of sun and wind.  The combination attracted 29 entrants and a number of spectators, several who seeking to buy boats from regulars who had new ones on order.</st1:state></st1:city></st1:place>

Race one saw a solid F3 across the reservoir with occasional periods of F4 to liven things up.   Newcomer Andy Eliott 715 (Mr Red Eye Sails) led class secretary Mike Lyons 720 to the windward mark closely followed by a breakaway pack that included David Angwin 710, Derek Gentry 680 and Ian Moss 672.   <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons quickly powered into the lead off wind and carefully covered the followers for the remainder of the race.   Moss joined by Peter Barlow 658 pulled past Gentry to finish in 4^th and 5^th.  In Race 2 the RO decided to run a decidedly longer race but the pattern was very similar with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons covering Elliott but eventually pulling away.  This time they were pursued by Dan Partington 668 who had missed race one due to TWO trailer tyre blowouts on what must have been an exceedingly fast run ‘down south’ from Bala SC !.  He was followed by Angwin and Moss.  By now the ‘less than fit’ were wishing the third race was going to be a shorter one in the rising wind and the RO duly obliged as a few decided to return to shore early.  Again <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons pulled away followed this time by Partington, David Turnball 687 and Moss.</st1:city></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place>

Much of the fleet retired to the pubs and restaurants of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford for the evening to reflect on a great days racing at the end of a long season.  The next day again witnessed sun and wind but with a little less of the latter – It looked as if it was going to be ‘revenge of the lightweights’.  Sure enough lightweights Simon Beddows 570 and Ian Foxwell 702 proved exceedingly quick, particularly offwind, to cause the leaders in race 4, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons and Moss, a few headaches.  As the race wore on the wind rose a little allowing Elliott and Partington to came back up the fleet to pose a few problems of their own.  <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lyons won from Moss and with it the Championships followed by Beddows, Foxwell, Elliott and Partington.  </st1:place></st1:city></st1:city></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place>

The final race proved very different.  A start line incident with Moss obliged <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons to do turns and start behind the fleet.  The race was suddenly wide open with Partngton, Moss and Elliott leading after the first lap.  A series of large shifts complicated matters and Elliot found himself on the wrong side of the course losing 14 places in one lap and was replaced by Foxwell who was as suddenly propelled up the leader board by 12 places on the same set of shifts.  Meanwhile <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lyons was steadily working back up the fleet to eventually challenge the lead group of Moss, Partington and newbie, Christian Smart 723.  But it was these three who rounded the last mark in close line astern with 150m to the line.  A combination of desperate covering amongst them and large shifts allowed <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lyons to outflank them and reach some new wind first, piping them to the line.  The main battle was however between Moss and Partington and their relative positions in this hard fought last race determined who was runner up and who made third overall, with just a single point separating them.    </st1:place></st1:city></st1:city></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place>

The Blaze Association would like to thank <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford <st1:state w:st="on">SC for their hospitality yet again.  Farmoor has almost become the class default site for its inlands in recent years.  The next event is the ‘Burghfield SIX-Pack’ that starts on Sunday 4^th December.  The full 2006 programme will be announced shortly but the Nationals are to be held at Warsash between 23-25^th June as the Nationals return to the south coast.     </st1:state></st1:city></st1:place>

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