707 Northern Championship at Royal Northumberland Yacht Club

RNYC hosted a superb 707 Northern area championships over 3d ays - 8,9 & 10th July, as part of their East Coast Week Regatta. Sadly only five 707s made the trip (it is a long way from Burnham); 3 local(ish) boats, 1 from Scotland & Beaver Hunter.

We were warmly welcomed on the Thursday evening, after our long trip, with pie chips & peas, cheap beer & a brilliant but very loud band!

Friday saw good sailing conditions, although a bit of a north sea swell! which was much better than the day before when the east coast week racing was curtailed due to the loss of the course buoys due to the conditions.

Race 1 started well enough for the fleet with the exception Beaver Hunter, who were a touch to far up the course at the gun, so had to go around the ends, leaving her a fair way back! this turned out to be a touch fortunate as the fleet were aiming for a mark that wasn't part of the course (club marks were used but still gave good windward leeward legs) and hadn't noticed BH heading for the right one! This resulted in a win for the Beaver. Race 2 got underway after a long break due to straggling other classes finishing, leaving some of the crew a bit nauseous due to the swell.

This time the beaver managed to stay the right side of the line & the rest of the fleet sailing the correct course, close racing was had between Sharkey, Beaver Hunter & Outlaw, with Outlaw being the winner. Race 3 was not such a long way behind race 2 thankfully as there was still a big swell! Again racing was close but Beaver Hunter got to the windward mark first with Outlaw & Sharkey in close combat exciting down & up wind legs follow with BH ending up taking line honours. Back on shore a drink or 2 were needed & with a Jug of Dark & Stormy (half a bottle of rum & a bit of ginger beer) at £5 a throw the Beaver Hunter Crew took full advantage!

Saturday emerged. Rain, shifting light winds, swell & hangovers! Still the first race got of to a good start with the Beaver first at the windward mark with a decent gap over the rest of the fleet, then the wind changed direction, making the runs & beats, reaches! eventually the wind settled back to its original direction but buy this time Beaver Hunter was well out in front for its 3rd win of the series. After 3 hours of thunder storms & no wind, 2 attempted starts the rest of the racing was abandoned for the day. 'Pimms Nite' & curry followed!

Sunday followed. A decent breeze & no swell. With 3 wins Beaver Hunter could still be beaten by Outlaw with 2 races still to go! Beaver Hunter again got to the windward mark first, very closely followed by Outlaw & Sharkey but with an error of judgement when dropping the spinnaker saw outlaw & Sharkey leave the Beaver behind. for the next hour this remained the position with Outlaw looking the likely winner but the last leg saw Outlaw taking a different side of the course to the Beaver & Sharkey giving Sharkey its first win & with Beaver Hunter finishing second enough to secure the championship. The last race of the day saw Outlaw winning from Sharkey with Beaver Hunter third.

Overall Results:

1st Beaver Hunter (RCYC) 7pts
2nd Outlaw (SYC) 9pts
3rd Sharkey (T&HYC) 13pts
4th Sin Bin (SYC) 20pts
5th SeaWord (PEYC)