Tom Gillard and Rachal Gray wasted no time in getting back into winning mode for the 2023 season.
Their choice of weapon, from their quiver of classes, was the Merlin Rocket and their target was the first round of the 2023 Craftinsure Silver Tiller series.
This was a two day meeting at South Cerney SC and Gillard and Gray finished the first day with a 2, 1, 1, scoreline and 4 points.
This placed them ahead of Chris Gould and Caroline Croft with a 1, 2, 4 scoreline on 7 pts and in third place Matt and Hannah Greenfield on 11 pts.
Day 2 added a drop more breeze and a recharged Jon Gorringe and Matt Currell who recovered from their day 1 UFD to add a second place behind Matt Biggs and Beka Jones in race 4.
They then continued with a win in race 5 to take the overall podium battle into race 6.
Here Gorringe and Currell continued their recovery with a final race win, this one ahead of James Goodfellow and Roger Phillips
But Gillard and Gray kept overall control . . . doing just enough with a third place finish to claim overall victory.
Gorringe and Currell took the second podium spot and Gould and Croft the third.
The next Silver Tiller will be hosted at Midland Sailing Club on 26 March.
Merlin Rocket Craftinsure Silver Tiller Round 1 – 6 Races (15entries)
1st 3759 Thomas Gillard and Rachal Gray – – 2 1 1 ‑4 3 3 – – 10 pts
2nd 3791 Jon Gorringe and Matt Currell – – (UFD) 3 5 2 1 1 – – 12 pts
3rd 3803 Chris Gould and Caroline Croft – – 1 2 4 ‑6 2 4 – – 13 pts
4th 3801 Matt Biggs and Beka Jones – – 3 (UFD) 2 1 4 5 – – 15 pts
5th 3687 Matt Greenfield and Hannah Greenfield – – 4 4 3 3 7 (DNC) – – 21 pts
6th 3793 James Goodfellow and Roger Phillips – – 10 5 6 (UFD) 8 2 – – 31 pts
7th 3749 Colin Anderson and Sean Anderson – – 6 6 7 ‑8 6 6 – – 31 pts
8th 3732 Ben Hollis and Alex Pausey – – ‑9 7 9 9 5 7 – – 37 pts
9th 3746 James Wells and Jenny King – – 8 8 10 5 10 (DNC) – – 41 pts
10th 3815 Mark Barwell and Lou Johnson – – 7 10 ‑11 7 11 8 – – 43 pts
11th 3702 Duncan Salmon and Ruth Hanstater – – (RET) 9 8 10 9 9 – – 45 pts
12th 3627 Ali Wallace and Catriona Wallace – – 5 11 (RET) 11 DNC DNC – – 59 pts
13th 3805 Mark Reddington and Lewis Fowler – – (RET) 13 12.5 RET 12 10 – – 63.5 pts
14th 3730 Paul Hollis and Mark – – 11 12 12.5 (RET) DNC DNC – – 67.5 pts
15th 3686 Kevin Rose and Emily Charles – – 12 (RET) DNC DNC DNC DNC – – 76 pts
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