Sutton Dinghy Club father and son pairing Peter and Stephen Boyle had a very good second day at the GP14 UK National Championships in Abersoch to be top Irish boat in 14th place writes Andrew Johnston.
The Boyles had just competed at the RS400 Europeans in Lake Garda last week. While their first time racing an RS didn't go so great, the time on the water together seems to have paid off today in the 56-boat fleet.
Speaking to Stephen last night, the duo had been looking forward to the increased 20kt+ breeze forecast for Monday after the lite stuff on Sunday.
'We had had good clean starts and blasted left up first beats. Sam Watson & Andy Thompson were the pathfinder in the first race. They had to go right and fortunately got a header just as they were released. They were about 10 boat lengths clear of us at the weather mark and we had probably another 10 to the chasing fleet. Held 2nd for triangle and sausage until we had a slow hoist on 2nd triangle allowed chasing pack to close in. Finished 4th. Sam and Andy won by a good distance. Second race same plan we went hard left up the beat. Third to the weather mark. Course was 3 triangles. At the second weather mark and subsequent weather marks, we lost a few due to a problem with the spinny halyard, dropping us back to ninth. Overall happy with boatspeed in the heavy weather. 6 races to go. Bring it on.'
Full results here