THE INTER SERVICE FORMULA CHAMPIONSHIPS 28/29 OCT 06
This year’s competition took place at Portland Harbour, Weymouth and kindly hosted by the RAF.
There were 33 competitors in total at this premier Inter Service Windsurfing Competition; we would have expected greater participation, but had to take into consideration the current tempo of operations at this present time. Nevertheless, as always there was close rivalry between the teams, who said we are all on the same side, with the top formula sailors from each service coming together on the start line for the first of 4 races scheduled.
There was much to fight for in this individual and team event. The first race started in the offshore 15 – 18 knot wins which did take a few sailors by surprise as they struggled with their equipment round the 3 laps of the box course.
The 2 early leaders were Maj Gareth Baker and Flt Lt Mark Thompson who was using all their sailing skills to try and stay ahead of one another. But it was Gareth persevered by setting the pace with his 1st win for the army, with the rest of army team hot on his heels giving the army team an early lead.
As the race officer set us on our way for the 2nd race of the day without an opportunity to change sails it obviously took its toil on the sailors as most where well out of their comfort zone.
The rest for lunch couldn’t have come sooner as the fleet had an opportunity to change down. Needless to say after a quick replen of food and fluids we ventured out once more for another 2 back to back races.
As the afternoon wore on it was obvious to see that the army team was too strong for its competitors, so after the final race of the day and the associated discard the results where as follows:
Individual Results
1st Place Maj Gareth Baker ARMY
2nd Place Flt Lt Mark Thompson RAF
3rd Place
Novice Results
1st Place LCpl Neil Vidot ARMY
2nd Place Lt Rupert Fisher RN
Team Results
1st Place Army Team 125 points consisting of:
Capt Allan Cross RLC (Army Team Captain)
Maj Gareth Baker RE
Maj Si Morton REME
Capt Steve Jones RE
WO1 Brian Greive REME
SSgt Doc White
2nd Place RN Team 154 points
3rd Place RAF Team 181 points
So the Army has a clean sweep after winning all categories.
Army Be The Best
