Barnt Green Sailing Club Solo 2007 archive
Class Captain : Richard Ash Tel : 01562 882792 EMAIL 
Our 2009 Solo Open meeting is on Saturday 4th April, poster advert' here, click here or here to visit the Solo Class site pages.
2008 "events" follow....

Click the image for an enlargement of Tim Joinson
Our 2008 Solo Open meeting was on Saturday 5th April, click here or here to visit the Solo Class site pages.

Club member Bob Suggitt # 3845 was the highest placed Barnt Greener in 4th place.
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Barnt Green Solo Open Meeting 5th April 2008
Nineteen helms from twelve clubs entered Barnt Green Solo Open Meeting in the Midland Area Traveller Series. On a cold grey morning with a Brisk NNW wind Chris Brown 4861 (RYA) lead throughout the first race. Stuart Hydon 4844 (Shustoke) lost his second place to Colin Newton 4336 (Staunton Harold) and Bob Suggitt 3845 (Barnt Green) held fourth.
After lunch the wind shifted a couple of points to the east giving a longer beat and fast planning reaches for the second race. Chris Brown, Stuart Hydon and Colin Newton lead the fleet by a distance for the whole race taking first second and third. Ian Harridge 4833 (Nantwich) had a close race with Neil Wilkinson 4578 (Shustoke) who took over the fourth place from the third of four rounds.
To the left : Hannah Showell 4843 planing ahead of Farren Goding and Nick Thornton.
Photography by Richard Wallace. Gallery here |
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The final race was sailed in sunshine, showers and a gusting wind from NNE. Stuart Hydon took the lead from Colin Newton in the second round of a close race. Bob Suggitt always looked safe in third place while Neil Wilkinson and Gareth Wilkinson 4851 (Chelmarsh) each picked up places to finish fourth and sixth. First five placings were:-
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1st |
4861 |
Chris Brown |
R Y A |
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2nd |
4844 |
Stuart Hydon |
Shustoke |
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3rd |
4336 |
Colin Newton |
Staunton Harold |
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4th |
3845 |
Bob Suggitt |
Barnt Green |
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5th |
4578 |
Neil Wilkinson |
Shustoke |
Full results here (New page)
To the right, Hannah Showell # 4843 from Shustoke Sailing Club was placed 12th, she was very consistent with 12th place in all three races !
Report by Richard Ash.
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Barnt Green sailor Keith Heyes # 4034 completed all three races. Many didn't !
A gallery of images from the event can be seen here
2007
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Brian Allen, 2007/8 Commodore |
Autumn / Winter 2007 Class report.
Our summer series could not have had a closer result with Bob and Brian each scoring the minimum 15 net points. The decider, under club rule 17, was only at the “Nth” discarded first place in favour of Bob. Congratulations to both. Well done runners up Tim (Joinson), Keith, Nick and a special cheer for Paul in his first season. Seventeen boats turned out over the 58 race series. Solos had an enthusiastic turn out for the Wednesday pursuits and the result of the first series was a hat trick of Bob, Tim (Jobson), and Phil being first in for supper!
Turning to the dark arts, this year’s handicaps were derived by giving the fastest nine helms from the 2005 and 2006 seasons yardsticks which added between one and six minutes per hour. All the others sailed off scratch. At the start of the season I thought the handicaps were really tough and at the end, – well it made surprisingly little difference! The reason; the series has so many discards it is scored for match racing rather than handicapping. Next year I will turn the screw and give scratch boats up to 10 minutes over the fastest boats of 2006/7 and I would welcome any feedback from the class on this. Well done prize winner Keith and runners up Nick and Paul. | |
Finally, a date for your diaries. Solo open meeting next year is pencilled in for Saturday 5th April so no prior engagements please. If you are not competing it’s great fun to help out and greatly appreciated by the competitors. I have a growing list of contacts and hope to attract a bumper entry. Richard.
Summer 2007 class report
The Summer Series is well under way and with 22 races sailed, 15 count and 7 are discards at present. Keith leads with 43 points nett followed by Bob (131) and Brian (172). So far there are only 8 entries and with 36 races left, everything to sail for. Your class captain would exhort more of you to join in but is embarrassed by his own failure to appear on a Sunday so far. My next task is to issue provisional handicaps based on last year’s performances so that the Handicap Series can be scored.
Finally, there appears to have been some incestuous boat sales within the fleet. Although it is sad to see Kate Brooks leave our Class to become a nomad, she has sold her dinghy to Keith Heyes who as reported, is the current leader in the series. In addition, we also welcome Alan Gilmour to the fleet in Keith’s well loved boat. Richard Ash, Class Captain.
Here is a little information about the Solo
“The National Solo is a classic, one-design, single-handed dinghy. Designed by Jack Holt in 1956, the Solo remains a popular dinghy, sailed at many clubs in the UK, Holland and Australia.
Originally designed in wood, competitive boats are now widely available in Foam Reinforced Plastic (FRP) or composite construction (FRP hull and wood deck) as well as wood.
2006 is the 50th anniversary of the design, and the National Solo Class Association is organising a series of events to celebrate.” Vist the Solo website by clicking here ( Opens in a seperate window )
Visit the Solo Archive page here
Report on 2007 Solo Open Meeting
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National Solo Class Association, Traveller Series Midland Area. Solo Open Meeting at Barnt Green SC, Saturday 14th April 2007 attracted an entry of 19 boats. Three races were sailed in a light NE breeze and an unseasonably warm 22 degrees C. Andy Davis 4767 (Chase) led for most of the first race but was passed on the final beat by Stuart Hydon 4644 (Shustoke). |
Stuart Hydon covers Jon Clarke |
There was a very close start to the second race with Bob Suggitt 3845 (Barnt Green), Chris Brown 4727 (RYA) and Jon Clarke 4712 (Draycote) leading at the weather mark. By the third round Stuart Hydon, Jon Clarke and Chris Brown led the fleet by a distance in a very patchy breeze with Gareth Wilkinson 4575 (Chelmarsh) and Bob Suggitt in a close duel for fourth.

Andrew Liddington 4771, Hannah Showell and Bob Suggitt complete a round
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A breeze from the E favoured the starboard end of the start of the third race and little separated the first eleven boats by the second mark leading to a spirited discussion of the rules. As the breeze filled from the E, Stuart Hydon took the lead from Colin Newton 4336 (Staunton Harold) and Chris Brown. Jon Clarke worked up from fifth to take the lead late in the third round but was beaten to the line by Colin Newton and Stuart Hydon. |

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Once again many thanks to everyone who generously gave their time and made the day run so well.
Results
Pos. # Name Club Points Gross Net
1st 4644 Stuart Hydon Shustoke 1.0 1.0 (2.0) 4.0 2.0
2nd 4712 Jon Clarke Draycote (4.0) 2.0 3.0 9.0 5.0
3rd 4336 Colin Newton Staunton Harold 5.0 (7.0) 1.0 13.0 6.0
4th 4727 Chris Brown R Y A 3.0 3.0 (20DNF) 26.0 6.0
5th 4767 Andy Davis Chase 2.0 (6.0) 5.0 13.0 7.0
6th place and first Barnt Green boat was Bob Suggitt 3845. Report by Richard Ash. Class Captain.

Stuart Hydon, the winner of the meeting.

Hannah Showell 4551 (Shustoke)
Photographs by Richard Wallace.