Introduction
This is Issue 14 of the FD UK Newsletter designed for the WWW.  Please email contributions to the Editor. Contents
 

Midland Area Championships
The race officer managed to get 3 excellent short races in on Saturday before the storm made sailing impossible on Sunday. Toby Dale & James Cole won the first and third race thereby beating David Wilkins and Richard Stenhouse who counted a 1st & 2nd. Tony Lyall & Colin Burns were third overall. Although 10 FDs attended the event, the gusty force 6 winds on Saturday deterred some from sailing/starting a race.

British Section Rules
A copy of the British section rules is now available on the website. click here

AGM
The AGM was held on Saturday 26 October at Rutland Sailing Club. Main matters arising were:

• Carbon masts are permitted in any UK event until 31 December 2004 Carbon Spars
• Stephen Parry was elected as Chairman
• Rosie Pye was re-elected onto the Committee
• Toby Dale was co-opted onto Committee.
• The rules will be changed to permit electronic communications as official notices to members

John Best
John Best did not seek re-election as Chairman at the AGM. John has worked very hard to keep the FD Class in GBR at the forefront of the world stage of FD racing having been the prime mover for the very successful Worlds at Lee-on-the-Solent in 1999 and having achieved the best UK position in an FD Worlds (3rd in 2000) since Rodney Pattisson won the FD Worlds in 1971.

John has also assisted with several FD training sessions and has encouraged Toby Dale and James Cole to race his FD so successfully. John has also been experimenting with carbon masts in the hope that IFDCO will soon remove the restriction on carbon spars so as to make the Class more attractive to younger and lighter sailors.

John has also recently received an RYA Community Award for services to  racing.

50th Anniversary Regatta
The UK was very well represented at the 50th Anniversary regatta in Loostrecht. Apart from many former FD sailors who were there for the social activities, the on the water team was led by Rodney Pattisson who was narrowly beaten in the race of former Olympic sailors and World Champions by the Boysen Mollers (DEN). The Boysen Mollers also won the main event which was a series of 5 races. For the first 3 races the fleet was split into 4 groups and each group sailed against the other group. The points were totalled and then the fleet was split into a Gold fleet and a Silver fleet. By judicious non sailing on the first day John Berry &  and Julian & Cathy Bridges were in the silver fleet and John Berry won one of the two final races whilst Julian & Cathy had a 6th and 4th. Tim Lester & Keith Paul who had a combined age of over 120 years were amongst the oldest teams on the water and survived the cold and blustery conditions. In the Gold fleet, Toby Dale & James Cole led the Brits having given the  leaders some hot competition

Overall British results
Gold Fleet

13

GBR382

Toby Dale/James Cole

22

GBR384

Tony Lyall/Colin Burns

32

GBR377

Peter Doran/Richard Phillips

Silver Fleet

8  GBR380

Julian and Cathy Bridges

9  GBR378

John Berry/Andrew Edwards

12 GBR264

Keith Paul/Tim Lester

Links to Full Results and Photos

Travellers Trophy
The Travellers Trophy for 2002 resulted in another close finish with Peter Doran & Richard Phillips just beating Tony Lyall & Colin Burns who have shown the greatest improvement of any boat in the UK this year following an intensive regatta campaign in the UK and Europe.

Despite only sailing in 3 regattas (4 to count) John Best & James Cole finished third overall as a result of being first GBR boat in each event that they attended.

Click here for Full results

FD Worlds - Tavira, Portugal

The British team enjoyed excellent weather and great racing at the Worlds in Tavira

See IFDCO website for photos and full results

British Results
 

10

GBR382

John Best & James Cole

34

GBR377

Peter Doran & Richard Phillips

38

GBR385

Tony Lyall & Colin Burns

41

GBR380

Julian Bridges & Cathy Bridges