Results / RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Hayling Island SC - 12/07/2003

23 Competitors travelled to HISC for the 6th Fat Face Racing Circuit event of the season, they were greeted on the Saturday by fabulous sunshine and a reasonable breeze. The race officer set a long square course out in the bay. In the opening race Matt Humphreys took the lead and won comfortably from Pete Sanders in second and Jon Heissig in third. Race 2 started with John Brickwood taking a port tack flier and clearing the fleet by a good 20 yards. David Cummins took an early lead and broke from the pack, chased by Andy Heissig and Mike Bean. However on the last run Matt Humphreys surfed through from 4th to 1st and took line honours followed by David Cummins in second and Andy Heissig in third. Race 3 saw Matt Humphreys take the lead early on and disappear over the horizon leaving the rest to battle it out for second. Jon Heissig came out on top with John Brickwood in third. Sunday morning began with much more breeze and yet more sunshine, unfortunately the breeze died off to a Force 2-3 as the fleet sailed out to the race area, still plenty of breeze to play with. Race 4 saw Jon Heissig leading from Matt Humphreys at the windward mark. Matt surfed past Jon and gybed across his bow only to discover that, because of the very strong tide flowing down the course, they were well below the lay-line for the next mark. Luckily for them the rest of the fleet followed and Matt Humphreys won from Jon Heissig in second with John Brickwood in third. Rob Jones sailed well to come in fourth creating a 1-3-4 for Weston SC. Race 5 was more of the same with Jon Heissig again leading Matt Humphreys at the windward mark, again Humphreys overtook on the run and they both sailed past the lay-line followed by the majority of the fleet. Nick Lowe had his head out of the boat and gybed early moving up to third. The front three positions then remained unchanged until the finish. Race 6 Started with a Port biased line. Paul Smalley started bang on the pin but was rolled by Matt Humphreys who carried more speed reaching down the line. Both sailed on to bang hard left, Humphreys then led by 10 boat- lengths from Smalley at the windward mark and was never seen again. Much place changing in the chasing pack saw David Cummins finish in second with Nick Lowe in third. Paul Smalley hung on to finish fourth. All competitors then had a fabulous ride home, trapeezing down wind in the fantastic surfing conditions created by wind against tide. Overall Matt Humphreys won with 5pts from Jon Heissig 2nd with 15pts and David Cummins 3rd with 24pts.