Inaugural Xenon National Championship at Bewl Valley Sailing Club
by Graham Lawson 16 Jun 2015 14:57 BST
6-7 June 2015
Bewl Valley Sailing Club in Kent hosted the inaugural Xenon National championships over the weekend of 6th–7th June, 2015.
Ten local boats were very pleased to welcome visitors from Haversham SC and Jersey.
The two days provided very contrasting conditions. Saturday was predominantly sunny with a south-westerly force 4 – 5 wind. The excellent husband and wife team of Jeremy and Ali Short set a windward-leeward course with gate. The conditions ensured plenty of excitement including capsizes aplenty, broken gennaker halyards and tiller extensions. After the four races on day one, Nicola and Jonathon Griffiths were joint leaders with Graham Lawson and David Brewer. Last year's open winners Dave Radford and Richard Hayden were lying third. The whole fleet stayed for a delicious meal in the clubhouse watching the sun go down over the 700 acres of water that is Bewl Water reservoir after which some returned to their tents for the night.
The forecast light winds for Sunday proved accurate and the fleet were faced with a north-easterly force 1 – 2 with brilliant sunshine. The race team made the very wise decision to run three races back to back. This avoided a long and slow beat back to the clubhouse for lunch before reassembling for the final race.
The trapezoid course was challenging with many holes in the wind. Dave and Richard made the best of the conditions with two wins to pip Nicola and Jonathon to second place while Graham and David just clung onto their lead. A special mention must be made of the teenagers Jon and Toby Lloyd-Davies. They had never raced their newly acquired Xenon before and acquitted themselves very well.
A magnificent spread of home-made cakes was enjoyed while Peter Wibroe (Commodore, BVSC) and Russ Dent presented the prizes. Thanks were given to the many individuals too numerous to mention here that had contributed to making this a very successful event.
Topper were very generous in providing positions 4th to 6th with goody bags while all competitors received a £25 voucher to spend on Topper parts.
The home fleet was also very grateful to Jon Manners from Topper for providing a Xenon master-class the previous Saturday.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 5859 | Graham Lawson | David Brewer | BVSC | ‑3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | 3939 | Dave Radford | Richard Hayden | BVSC | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ‑4 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | 3893 | Nicola Griffiths | Jonathan Griffiths | BVSC | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 2 | ‑8 | 16 |
| 4 | 4222 | Mike Corby | Tristan Corby | Haversham SC | 4 | 4 | 4 | ‑5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 24 |
| 5 | 4371 | Gavin Thorpe | Alex Duffield | BVSC | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | ‑6 | 6 | 30 |
| 6 | 6259 | James Michel | William Michel | St Catherines SC Jersey | ‑10 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 32 |
| 7 | 6258 | Paul Gilbert | Debbie Gilbert | BVSC | 9 | 10 | 9 | (DSQ) | 2 | 7 | 5 | 42 |
| 8 | 4971 | Peter Knapp | Elaine Knapp | BVSC | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | ‑11 | 10 | 7 | 45 |
| 9 | 5525 | John Todd | Debbie Todd | BVSC | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | ‑11 | 46 |
| 10 | 7523 | James Selby | Andre Newman | BVSC | (DNF) | DNF | DNF | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 61 |
| 11 | 4198 | Tim Brewer | Mark /Luca | BVSC | 8 | 9 | (DNF) | DNF | 10 | 11 | 10 | 61 |
| 12 | 9731 | Jonathan Lloyd‑Davies | Toby Lloyd‑Davies | BVSC | {13 DSQ) | 11 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | DNF | 68 |