ISO Open - Glossop & District SC (2nd & 3rd October 2004)
Glossop's ISO open meeting, part of the ISO Travellers Series was held over the first weekend of October. A severe weather warning of strong gales for the weekend meant that only eight boats turned up though the field did include Graham Shaw and Alan Jones, who were 4th at the 2004 Eurocup and 2003 National Inland Champions Pete Lindley and Annie Smith in ISO 1013 who had won this event for the last five years. The plan for the event was a six race series results of five races to count. This being Team RTS home event hopes were high for a podium finish especially as they had been third for the last three years in this event.
Racing started at 1pm in a gale force five south-westerly breeze, occasionally gusting up to force seven. Race one was a windward leeward course using the whole length of the 1 mile long reservoir. Dave Burke & Stef Lucas in ISO 682 Team RTS, used all of their strong wind experience to win the first race by over 5 minutes being the only boat not to capsize during the race. The blustery conditions taking its toll on competitors with a total of four boats retiring through gear failure or the inability to cope with the strong wind. Race two quickly followed on the back of the first race with fewer boats on the start line due to the severe conditions. Team RTS took the lead right from the start and powered away to win comfortably
As the wind built up to a steady force six with even bigger gusts Race three saw only two boats prepared to start the race. Once more, Team RTS lead for the whole race using their greater size to power away from the lightweight Shaw and Jones to win. Whilst waiting for the start of the next race Team RTS had their first capsize of the day and in the confusion missed the starting signal. This was to be the only blip on the weekend. Having given the other competitors a huge start team RTS tried to close the gap before retiring from race 4, which was won by Shaw and Jones.
The forecast storm force winds for the Sunday didn't materialise and Race five was sailed in a fresh breeze over a simple two-mark course. Team RTS again lead from start to finish and now only had to finish race six to win the event Shaw and Jones were second and teenagers Chris Etchelles and Mike Melles were third. In race six, with the pressure off Team RTS again showed the rest the way round the course only being headed for the first 200yds from the start line before a quick tactical use of a wind shift opened up a lead that Team RTS never looked like losing. The 1,2,3 was the same as race five
A perfect score of five wins gave the event to Team RTS with Shaw and Jones in second and local youngsters Etchelles & Melles making it onto the podium for the first time in third place.
Full Results Here....
