As one season ends another starts…

The season starts here… Apparently!

A quick but informative blog this week as we are all hands on deck here with final preparations for the Dinghy show at Ally’s place (or Palace!) this weekend. According to some this is the official start to the season however for us here at P&B I think the phrase is:-
“As one season ends another starts”

And as cold starts and dark mornings are (apparently) no longer in vogue it must mean it’s also time to conclude/bid farewell to the premier winter season handicap series. Run by www.sailjuice.co.uk the final event was one dear to the heart of all of us here at Pinnell & Bax, the Steve Nicholson memorial trophy. Run by Northampton sailing club at Pitsford Water.

With entries a premium nearly 150 boats braved the snow and cold and with an excellent racing format the P&B sails (and team) showed their strength in depth across a range of classes. with a Solo guest appearance by P&B’s Tom Lonsdale finishing 3rd overall in the single handers. And taking the class win in the Solo there were also a number of other class wins with the Fireball/ 505/ Scorpion and Solo as mentioned.

However, congratulations go to the N12 of :-
Jono Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart. Winners of the Steve Nicholson memorial trophy overall title.

Sailing their DCB N12 with full P&B inventory, they sailed two great races and were backed up by the Scorpions of Jeff and Penny Jeffcoate and Steve and Oli Wells in 3rd and 5th closely followed by ever consistent Fireball of Tom Gillard and Simon Potts in 6th overall. So with 4 out of the top 6 overall powered by P&B sails this was another successful weekend for the Northamptonshire based firm.

So the end of the winter days concludes with the final overall Sailjuice results being listed. Unfortunately no prize giving at Ally’s place this weekend. This series has gone from strength to strength. Encouraging over 700 hardy souls (across the 6 events) to break the ice and don the winter uniforms of balaclavas and interesting headwear.

The series has featured a multitude of national and world champions during the course of the events and has been a chance for P&B to continue to develop sails and rigs against serious competition, whilst taking time out to talk to and gather feedback from sailors from all classes.

As mentioned previously the continual development work we do here during those cold dark ‘ides of winter’ we do like to see reflected in the results, affirming that we are on the right lines.

So frankly it does give us pleasure to see that not only were there a number of overall Class wins namely in the Scorpion/Solo and Fireball and these three also placing in the top ten. With the overall Sailjuice winter series title going to
Zhik/P&B’s Tom Gillard and Simon Potts.

Followed up by 6th Overall: – Zhik/P&B race team Scorpion Steve hall and Oli Wells

Closely follwed 7th Overall: Zhik/P&B Race Team Solo Mike Sims

A special mention should go to the P&B race team of Tom and Simon who have been the dominant force during the winter. Not only wrapping up the sailjuice series with an event to spare, winning by a huge margin.

Scoring 39 points overall with the 2nd place a distant 70 points behind but also completing the double header with the Blithfield barrel series win the weekend before. Well done folks.

I would like to conclude today by not mentioning certain topics that are alive on forums.

My feeling, is that our results should speak for ourselves, but should not be the be all and end all. We, here at P&B work hard and sail hard because we enjoy, are interested in and love the sport (as do many others) and hopefully this shows through in our overall demeanour.

Here’s to the advances of summer everyone, looking forward to seeing you all at the dinghy show on our stands A12 and B34.