3000 Nationals at Grafham Water Sailing Club

16 entries for the 3000 nationals at Grafham © Myles Ripley

The 3000 Class National Championships were held at Grafham Water as part of the Laser Multi-Class event. There were 16 entries, with competitors travelling from clubs as far apart as Ullswater and Starcross.

Saturday's sailing took place in bright weather, starting with a F.2-3 with huge, prolonged shifts, rising to F.4 in parts of the last race, giving plenty of trapezing and planing downwind.

In Race 1, Joe Pester & Lyndi Jones were battling it out on the first beat with Tony Hunt & Suzanne Hall when the latter indulged in their first capsize of the year in a gust just after a tack. Joe & Lyndi sailed into a comfortable lead, but all too soon found Tony & Suzanne dogging their wake before finally catching a gust to go past on the last run to the line.

Joe and Lyndi won the race to the first mark in Race 2, leaving Tony to hit it and re-join the pack after a penalty turn. The leaders then got away and won by a huge margin.

Tony & Suzanne snatched the lead in Race 3, but watched in dismay as Joe, to leeward of them, somehow seemed to point much higher without losing speed, until Tony, incredulous, was forced into a penalty turn. Recovering from this, Tony & Suzanne appeared to seal their fate later on the same beat by capsizing to windward in a mini whirlwind; Suzanne was later heard to say that this was fair, since Tony hadn't got wet the first time. Joe & Lyndi disappeared into the distance leaving Tony & Suzanne to fight a downwind battle with Peter Heyes and Adam Bermingham until the two boats sailed to opposite sides of the downwind gate. At the end of the second beat, however, it was not Peter & Adam but Nick Arran and son Patrick in the chasing spot. Tony and Nick's boats then raced on the next run, beat and run, the runs by this time being flat-out trapezing/planing affairs, to find themselves approaching the finish ahead of Joe, who had sailed down the other side of the course. Nick had the advantage and looked set to take the win until he became embroiled with an errant Vago that he was lapping, letting Tony & Suzanne slip though to win, while Nick & Patrick squeaked ahead of Joe & Lyndi to take second, the winner's repeat come-back leading to Joe dubbing Tony, 'the Terminator'!

Next day dawned sunny and warm with a reasonable wind, but which eased by the start of Race 4, into a F1-2 with long, large shifts, this being ironically the day when the event photographs were taken. Tony & Suzanne won the battle for the pin end of what turned into a port-biased line and were just able to tack onto port to cross the fleet into the lead. By the first mark, however, Peter & Adam had managed to get ahead and led down the first run, but promptly lost their lead to Tony & Suzanne on the second beat. Peter and Adam were then relentlessly pursued by Joe & Lyndi over the remaining three laps of a long race, but hung on to take second place after a very exciting final run to the line. At that stage, the Race Officer sensibly decided to give up his unequal struggle with the wind and the fleet gratefully came ashore for leisurely boat-packing.

Down the fleet, people had enjoyed their private battles, in some cases multi-boat, and although Gold Fleet boats occupied the first three places overall, Martin Brown and Max Caston secured 4th overall and first Silver Fleet boat. They were followed in 2nd and 3rd in the Silver Fleet by Rutland's Ed Walker & Chloe Tucker and by Patrick Shellcock & Harry Batty of Sedbergh School, who were also winners not only of the Junior trophy, but also the Prize-Draw for a new Dacron jib generously donated by Vandercraft and topped up with furling gear by the class association. Nick Arran won the Masters trophy while Ben and Graham Blake won the Laser Rose Bowl for the first Laser-hulled boat.

Overall Results: