Dart 16 Nationals at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club

Day 1 looked like being a perfect sailing day, with warm sunshine and a building sea breeze. Race 1 started in a force 2 to 3 and Martin and Jamie Stevens from Worthing, soon opened up a commanding lead to take their first win. Paul White and Amy Tetchner from Thorpe Bay closely followed by local youngsters Ben Daigneault and Hugo Jobling coming in second and third.

The second race saw the promising sea breeze start to die away after about twenty minutes of the race. Taking into account his average start Martin Stevens sailed a superb race to take his second win. This time Ben and Hugo managed to edge past Paul and Amy for second and third to keep the points all square after two.

Race three was strange to say the least! Of the twenty-one boats entered, only five finished. The wind had now virtually gone and what there was came from all points of the compass in very localised patches. At one stage of the race Nick Hart and Pete Stebbings of Eastbourne went from eleventh to forth in a matter of seconds. The race almost came to a standstill as the whole fleet tried to make the windward mark but were held by the increasing tide. Eventually Reuben Faro and Robert Clark of Worthing rounded the mark and went on to win race three, their next highest position being fourteenth. The only other boats to finish were Paul White and Amy Tetchner, Martin and Jamie Stevens, Nick Hart and Pete Stebbings and Jon and Claire Day of Bexhill.

Race four was postponed until Day two when there was a welcome return of the wind and more sunshine. Martin and Jamie got straight back to business with another convincing win. This time followed by Tim Bolton and his daughter Chloe from Whitstable.

Race five saw the top three pull clear again in ever increasing wind to show their all-round command of this class, it also made for some of the best and closest racing of the day for positions four to seven between Tim and Chloe Bolton, Ricky Whitmore and Sam Edwards of Eastbourne, Nick Hart and Pete Stebbings and Jon and Claire Day.

Race six and the championship is decided with one race to go. Martin and Jamie Stevens take win number five (their worst position being third in race three, which was a bit of a lottery). Race seven Saw the strongest wind of the day, now force four to five and some new faces in the results, Uwe Nitsche and Renate Zabel from Calshot finished third followed by Roger and Jane Sinnhuber from Shoreham in forth.

Despite the difficult conditions on Day one of the championships the race officer, Nigel Pipe and his team of volunteers did a superb job of keeping the racing flowing without any delays. A big thank you also to the sponsors Cable and Ropeworks, Purple Marine and W.H.Insurance Consultants for their help in making the event possible at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club.

Overall Results: