Yachting-Live

Partington’s Prevail Over Pinnell in Force 6 Finale

After four years sailing together, father and son duo Andy and Tom Partington have taken their first Prince of Wales Week victory in the International 14s. They relish the heavy weather, and Weymouth delivered plenty of that today for the concluding two races of POW Week.

The first race was an epic six-lap mission to make up the 2nd part of the Island Commemorative Trophy. In the big breeze there was no chance of flying spinnakers on the reaches, which is all well and good until you need to gybe one of these high-speed skiffs in high winds. Two-sail gybes are never easy and there was capsizing aplenty.

Down to the wire in Race 7. Ian Pinnell needed to finish top 3 and not more than one place behind Andy/Tom Partington - in the windiest race conditions of the week. Off the start, on a four-lap course, everyone sailed for speed, just out of range of each other, with Pinnell tacking slowly, just underneath WSI Internet, letting the Partington RMW12 sneak just ahead at the top mark.

The Partingtons pushed on in their heavy weather mode, enjoying some challenging two-sail gybes. The chasing pack diminished, but only after a challenge by Douglas Pattison/Daminan Ash on the second lap. The conditions were such that all admitted to chickening out of the gybe and “wearing round” a mark at some point! With the Partingtons winning the race and Pinnell/Mitchell coming in fifth, the top two teams were tied on points and tied on discard. However the series victory went to the Partingtons on countback. An incredible result for the family team, and a good morale boost before the World Championships in Germany two weeks from now.

In third place were Martin and Neale Jones, with new youth team Tom Heywood and Ed Clay sailing their six-year-old ‘loan boat’ to great effect, coming in fourth overall in their first major championship together. — Andy Rice

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 9:10 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.