The 29ers made their debut at the Holt Tide Ride at Hayling Island SC last weekend, and the event attracted the top teams including three of the RYA Youth Squad who finished in the top ten of this years world championship.

However, it was the slightly older team of Charlotte Odell and Dave Hall who wrapped up the series races on Saturday and early Sunday morning. With a 1st and four 2nds they won the first section of the event by a wide margin from Justin Vissar and Simon Wheeler. However, it only counted for one result and it was still all to play for on Sunday afternoon in the final.

With the knockout heats taken place and the final 12 teams decided, the two final races took place on the ebbing tide and a very interesting start line. Sophie Jones and Ben McVie took the first race followed by Odell and Hall with Justin Vissar and Simon Wheeler 3rd. Going into the last race it was still Odell and Hall in the lead, but only just. Any one of the top three boats could win. Vissar and Wheeler stole the start leaving the fleet in its wake. Jones and McVie followed with Ed Chapman and Tom Peel. Odell and Hall were left in 4th and failed to make any places crossing the line 4th – their worst result of the event. Vissar and Wheeler crossed the line 1st to give them overall 1st place with 7 points against Odell & Halls 8 and Jones and McVies 9.

Overall Results

1 VISSER/WHEELER 2, 3, 1, 6 pts

2 ODELL/HALL 1, 2, 4, 7 pts

3 JONES/MCVEIGH 5, 1, 2, 8 pts

4 CHAPMAN/PEEL 3, 5, 3, 11 pts

5 MCINTYRE/ANDERSON 8, 4, 5, 17 pts

6 WALKER/GOTREL 6, 7, 6, 19 pts