Team Pillings again showed their class with four wins out of six races at the RS500 Stokes Bay Sailing Club Open Meeting on 9-10 June.

The remaining places were hard-fought, with the Todd sisters continuing to fight with a 2nd, Giles/Hatton in 3rd, and the younger teams of Holmes/Ellis and Team Ackroyd in 4th and 5th.

Saturday was pretty light – Race 1 saw the Ackroyds vanish up the first beat, but the Pilliings soon reeled them in and went on to win. Race 2 saw a 180-degree wind shift on the first downwind leg, so the Race Officer abandoned and allowed all to return to the beach for an ice cream while he relaid the course.

Race 2 was restarted and, though the wind direction had changed, the result was still the same. Pillings also won race three. In light air, they were almost unbeatable.
The crews got to stretch their legs and start trapezing on Sunday, with more breeze for the first two races. Race 4 saw the Pillings run of firsts come to an end, when the Todd girls finally got in front of them. Race 5 saw some proper breeze – finally the crews were trapezing hard. Giles/Hatton had the better boat speed upwind and went on to win. Race 6 started as the breeze died, so the Pillings were back to their winning ways and claimed the weekend.

Overall Results

1st 523, Pilling and Pilling, Hickling Broad

2nd 566, Tod and Tod, Datchet Water

3rd 547, Giles and Hatton, Weir Wood

4th 551, Holmes and Ellis, Emsworth Slipper

5th 546, Ackroyd and Ackroyd, Norfolk Broads

6th 519, Mallaband and Young, Whitefriars