Speed Solo finishes 3rd at the UK Solo Nationals 2011

by Race Team 2 8. September 2011 01:56

Our new solo showed it can take on the competition at this years Solo Nationals which were held at Abersoch.

Speed Sails stepped in and without much practice this year showed great results throughout the week. Comments of the week were " The boat felt great down wind and seemed faster than others around me, there were many times i didn't have a great first beat, mostly due to lack of practice but by the leeward mark on the first lap I found myself in top 3 or top 5." 

Abersoch gave all conditions and really tested the sailors hard Speed Finished 3rd overall just 6 points off Matt Howard who won and four points from Charlie Cumberly in second.

We used the Speed Sails Radial Kevlar Mainsail with carbon battens, the same setup that Speed had been using pre-season.

A big thank you to Phil Milanes whose boat Speed Sails borrowed.

 

Bookmark and Share

Speed Sails Solo Wins At Solo Midland Traveller Northampton 2011

by Race Team 2 7. September 2011 02:37

The Solo Midland traveller event took place at Pitsford in light, variable winds.

Thirteen boats ventured out to a calm reservoir hoping for the breeze to fill in enough to start racing and after a short delay, a little wind did fill in allowing a small course to be set.

All three races were managed with victory for the new Speed Solo as well as a win for a Speed Sails sailmaker in his first solo open. In light winds he pulled away with an edge of boatspeed on the rest of the fleet, posting two firsts and a second from the days racing. Saying he was pleased with the win and hoped to do more Midlands Solo events in the future.

Bookmark and Share

New Speed Solo Wins Hayling Island SC Solo Open 2011

by Race Team 2 1. September 2011 01:03

Speed Race Team won the first day blast at the Hayling Island SC Solo Open Meeting for the Tyler Trophy and completed his weekend with a win in the first race on the second day and then a second place behind Matt Howard to take the event, when the third race was cancelled as the weather strengthened again.

Sailing the first boat off the Speed Sails new mould, held off the challenge of Howard and local helm, David Macgregor, and also a charging Charlie Cumberly. Cumberly who had missed the Saturday race, needed all three races to be sailed on Sunday to be in with a chance, but it was not to be.

Saturday started with the wind howling across the dinghy park and the promise of more to come. A course was laid in the harbour and 16 boats, including two with Brigs, launched to run to the start. At the windward mark David Macgregor was closely followed by Speed Sails. These two diced down the reach to an incident packed gybe mark. McGregor recovered first but Matt Howard had caught them and the three fought it out to the lee mark. At the end of the second beat, Howard sailed over Speed Sails as they both over stood the mark. McGregor bore off in a lull, then a ferocious 35 knot gust laid him over. The leading pair fought it out to the finish at the end of the next beat with Speed Sails just ahead of Howard. Tim Polglase had sailed a steady race to take third from McGregor and Andrew Bonsey.

On Sunday, the wind was around 20 knots for the start of Race 2 which was held in Hayling Bay with 23 starters. Speed Sails chose to go left out to sea and rounded the windward mark in the lead. Charlie Cumbley, who had had gear problems yesterday, was next just ahead of Howard. With decent waves rolling across the bay, the down wind legs enabled the experts to demonstrate their skills. The leaders maintained their order to the finish and pulled away from the fleet. The wind shifted, delaying the start to the next race and increased to 25 knots. The same trio took the leading slots without changing as they rounded the course, although this time the order was Howard, Cumbley and then Speed Sails. McGregor improved to fourth. With the third race of the day cancelled, this left Speed Sails winning the Tyler Trophy with Howard second and McGregor third.

Overall Results: (top ten)

 

PosSail NoHelmClubR1R2R3Pts
1st 5198 Speed Sails Beaver 1 1 2 4
2nd 5211 Matt Howard LOSSC 2 3 1 6
3rd 4984 David McGregor HISC 4 6 4 14
4th 4925 Andrew Bonsey Northampton 5 4 6 15
5th 5192 Ian Pinnell HISC 6 5 5 16
6th 5145 Tim Polglase HISC 3 8 9 20
7th 5078 Stephen Chiverton HISC 9 7 7 23
8th 5178 Nick Rawlings HISC 7 9 8 24
9th 5202 Charlie Cumbley TCYC DNC 2 3 31
10th 5129 Tim Deacon Frensham Pond SC 11 15 13 39

 

Bookmark and Share

15% OFF ALL SOLO SAILS & COVERS

by Race Team 31. August 2011 01:02

for 14 Days Only 15% OFF ALL SOLO SAILS & COVERS 

http://www.speedsails.co.uk/C~Speed_Sunday_5531.html

Bookmark and Share

New Solo wins Midland Solo Open 2011 at Edgbaston

by Race Team 2 1. July 2011 05:22

Sailing the new Solo for the first time one of our sailmakers decided to head up to Midland to do the solo open. 15 boats turned up to a grey and rainy day at Edgbaston, this certainly didn't put off the enthusiasm showed by Midland. Mike Anslow the OOD put on 3 good courses in the difficult shifty conditions. Race one was won by Stuart Hydon. After after a fantastic cooked lunch Speed Sailmaker remembered how to sail a Solo and went on to win the next to races showing superb speed in the gusty and shifty conditions.

This is a great result for the new Solo which had a lot of interest by sailors, comments from the weekend were "the boat feels light, responsive and stiff, if it's that quick straight out of the box then I'm certainly looking forward to getting back in the Solo next year".

Bookmark and Share

New Speed Solo finishes 2nd at the Pre-Champs Reggatta

by Race Team 2 14. June 2011 02:37

We put the new Speed Solo to the test at the Pre-champs Reggatta held at the Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy.

Speed Team had a consistent set of results (2,2,3,3,1) to finish second to Matt Howard. Conitions were brilliant, perfect sunshine at 12-15 knots on the Saturday. On Sunday the wind was a bit more of a handful, 30 knot gusts were recorded over the commitee boat. These conditions were excellent for testing the new Solo, Saturday racing was held outside of the harbour which gave competitors good sea sailing conditions, Sunday saw racing take part inside the harbour.

The boat stood up well to the test, we certainly felt the boat planed earlier than any other Solo he has sailed before, he also mentioned that it felt stiff and responsive. using the same rig setup that he used last year at the nationals to finish 3rd but this time using the New Speed Hull, he felt he was a lot closer to Matt Howard and was able to give him a good race compared to last year. Matt being the current Finn coach and an ex member of the GB Finn squad has certainly moved the bench mark up in the Solos, last year Matt dominated at the nationals showing excellent down wind speed which nobody could hang onto, I suppose hours of training in his Finn over the years has helped him to have great downwind technique. So we certainly felt that the boat is something special and was certainly up beat having pushed Matt hard around the race course.

 

Bookmark and Share

Speed Sunday - Offers Mailing List

by Race Team 11. June 2011 07:43

Sign up to the Speed Sunday Offers Newsletter, The Newsletter is a weekly event with all the Offers being Online Exclusives only and most running for a Week Only.  Featured in the Newsletter will be primarily Offers we have on certain lines, New Products coming into stock, Offers on Sails, Covers, Class Spares etc..

For Email Marketing you can trust

 

Bookmark and Share

New Speed Epoxy Solo!

by Race Team 16. March 2011 01:51

Details of the NEW Speed Epoxy Solo below.

Speed Sails are proud to launch their NEW Epoxy Solo, designed by Phil Milanes, Speed Sails and built by 2 expert builders Kevin Driver and Ian Teasdale from the Boatyard at Beer.

We have spent the winter designing the NEW Speed Sails Solo and added in years of knowledge to provide you with the ultimate boat. 

The packages available make this NEW Speed Solo suitable for all ranges of sailors.  It won’t be long before you see this boat at the front of the fleet

All our NEW Speed Sails Solos are being fitted our by rigging guru Nick Beloe. Nick will fit your new boat to your spec, or if you prefer he will fit out as a standard package as used by Speed Sails

Bookmark and Share

New Speed Sails Buckles For Sale

by Race Team 10. November 2010 21:01

Our quick release buckle takes the hassle out of packing up your boat - simply push the specially moulded connector fittings together to ‘click’ home. Easy!

Now for sale in 20mm or 25mm via our website www.speedsails.co.uk

Bookmark and Share

Speed Sails at the 2010 Bartley Burn Out

by Race Team 10. November 2010 04:11

A light northerly shifting breeze made for tough sailing for handicap racing sponsored by Speed Sails, 2 races were sailed with the fleet split into Fast and Slow fleet starts.

In the first race the 3 Merlin Rockets and the Phantom of Mike Tustin romped ahead leaving the Slow Fleet trailing far behind as the breeze died. Matt Biggs crewed by Ben Hollis in his Merlin established a 3 minute lead over Andy and Richie Adams whilst Richard Dee and Chris duelled with Mike Tustin in his Phantom. The Albacore of Neville Herbert finished 4th on handicap.

The slow fleet had a closer tussle between the Bartley Streaker of Debbie Degge leading the Solo’s of Brian Stammers and Graham Robinson over the line.

The second race started in a reasonable breeze and Matt Biggs tussled with Andy enjoyed another Merlin benefit with a very close finish and Richard Dee followed in 3rd place. The Albacore again came through on handicap in 4th place.

The slow fleet slide further back as the wind faded after Fast Fleet leaders finished their race. This led to more mixed results in the fleet with Solo’s leading the way on handicap with Dave Brand winning race 2 from Trevor Thomas but Debbie Degge scraped in to win overall from Brian Stammers and Graham Robinson.

Mike Biggs won overall with 2 first places after a very good display of light weather sailing.

The Junior Fleet was led home by Crispin Beaumont and Nick Wilson sailing a Feva whose race included 2 Feva’s starting on an advantageous port tack on a busy start line in the first race and nearly succeeding in clearing the fleet in a slower boat. Crispin and Nick finished a creditable 8th overall.

Overall Results:

Slow Fleet

 

PosBoat TypeSail noHelmClubPYR1R2Pts
1 Streaker 1688 Debbie Degge Bartley 1155 1 6 7
2= Solo 4196 Brian Stammers Bartley 1155 2 5 7
2= Solo 4301 Graham Robinson Bartley 1155 5 2 7
4 Solo 4236 Dave Brand Bartley 1155 8 1 9
5 Streaker 1697 Peter Colliers Bartley 1155 3 8 11
6 Solo 4015 Trefor Thomas Bartley 1155 9 3 12
7 Laser 165537 Steve Thomas Bartley 1080 6 10 16
8 Feva 2755 Crispin Beaumont Bartley 1189 4 13 17
9 Laser 193194 Garry Butter Bartley 1080 7 11 18
10 Laser 6545 Rob Barnes Bartley 1080 10 12 22
11 Feva 2680 Megan Davis Bartley 1189 11 15 26
12 Solo 3279 Pete Hadley Bartley 1155 12 15 27
13 GP14 13846 John Cheel Bartley 1127 13 15 28
14= Laser 2000 21609 Pete Isherwood Chase 1090 15 14 29
14= Feva 2678 James Roe Bartley 1189 14 15 29

Fast Fleet

 

PosBoat TypeSail NoHelmClubPYR1R2Pts
1 Merlin 3705 Matt Biggs Blithfield 1006 1 1 2
2 Merlin 3684 Speed Sails Chase 1006 2 3 5
3 Merlin 3610 Richard Dee Midland 1006 4 2 6
4 Albacore 7143 Neville Herbert Maidenhead 1065 3 4 7
5 Phantom 1325 Mike Tustin Bowmoor 1010 5 6 11
6 Super Nova 687 Mike Gibson Bartley 1063 7 5 12
7 Phantom 1243 Paul Lester Bartley 1010 6 7 13
8 Fireball 14682 Neil Wilkinson Shustoke 982 8 8 16
9 Albacore 6956 Mat Metcalve Smith Ogston 1065 9 9 18
10 Phantom 1225 Andrew Hemfrey Bartley 1010 13 10 23
11 RS400 1063 Guy Mason Bartley 950 11 5 16
12 RS200 383 Chris Bownes Bartley 1057 10 17 27
13 Super Nova 1015 Ken Saunders Bartley 1063 16 11 27
14 Merlin 3492 Steve Ward Bartley 1016 15 12 27
15 RS400 1201 Neil Peacock Bartley 950 14 13 27
15 RS400 751 Howard Eeles Bartley 950 12 22 34
15 Laser 4000 4444 Sam Knight Bartley 908 21 14 35
16 505 8526 Olly Hopkins Draycote 902 19 16 35
17 RS200 1184 Ed Badger Bartley 1057 17 19 36
18= Iso 1024 Lyndon Gommersall Bartley 926 18 20 38
18= RS600 887 Jason Mcdonnell Bartley 920 20 18 38

 

Bookmark and Share