420 Autumn Championships at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club

Day 1 by Alice Davies

Saturday morning of the 420 autumn championships dawned with great wind and weather; 32 boats launched and sailed four races in 6-9 knots. As the wind was from a northerly direction, racing proved to be very difficult and shifty in the light winds, but the fantastic race committee easily dealt with this far from ideal weather and got the races away.

The shifty direction made for some close racing in the first race, but Joe Warwicker and Hugo Valentine managed to pull away from the rest of the fleet to win the race with a substantial lead. Some distance Imogen Wade and Teddy Dunn took second with GP6 winners, Harry George and Ralph Cawthorne taking third.

In the second race, fresh faced Arthur Greaves and Angus McEwen led to the windward mark, at their maiden 420 event, but were overhauled by the more experienced teams on the long reach! Harry George and Ralph Cawthorne took the win after making gains around the course, with George Creasy and David Bromilow in second, closely followed by Alice Davis and Oliver Rayner.

Harry George and Ralph Cawthorne during the 420 Autumn Championships at Torbay - photo © Jon Cawthorne

In race three George and David improved on their previous result, playing the shifts well upwind, Joe and Hugo in second, and Alice and Oliver with another third. The final race on day two, saw Harry and Ralph taking another win, again proving themselves in the light conditions as they led overnight. Imogen and Teddy took second with Heather Quinn and Gwyneth Lanyon in the third spot. After a day of long reaches we all sat down to a nice class meal prepared by the Royal Torbay Yacht Club.

Imogen Wade and Teddy Dunn during the 420 Autumn Championships at Torbay - photo © Jon Cawthorne

Day 2 by Oliver Rayner

The second day of racing was looking promising with some similar winds to yesterday, same direction and similar strength. The points where also tight in the top with 5 points separating the top 4 so whatever happened today would be deciding. The first start was a recall due to a right shift reducing everyone's sailing distance to the line, quickly the course was shifted and reset to the new direction but it wasn't to be as the new wind was below 5 knots.

After a period of drifting the wind began to fill in and after another false start, this time to the wind shifting left leading to boats being unable to cross the line on starboard we finally managed to start a race.

Off the start the tide was weaker to the left of the course and so those boats had a slight advantage, but those that came from the centre seemed to have the best of both worlds with the better pressure from the right and the reduced tide on the left. First round the windward mark was Sabine and Merle (if I remember correctly) who'd played the frequent shifts excellently, and the overnight top two boats also rounded in strong positions with it all still very much in the running.

As the race progressed the wind began to drop and change the angle of our final downwind into a reach and therefore the last reach into an upwind. The order coming into the final mark was Alice and Oliver, Harry and Ralph and Joe and Hugo. We decided to keep our spinnaker up to see if we could hold the angle - we couldn't so dropped after a couple of boat lengths.

Harry and Ralph weren't so lucky and a slow drop cost them as Joe and Hugo, who'd seen us drop, had time to come round the mark on a tight angle with their kite down rolling Harry and Ralph and causing Alice and I some worry.

It was a straight drag race to the finish but we managed to retain the lead by squeezing some extra height out that couldn't be matched.

The outcome of which decided the winners as if Joe and Hugo had won that race they would have secured the event but as it was with everything so tight on points Harry and Ralph took the trophy on countback!

Joe Warwicker and Huge Valentine during the 420 Autumn Championships at Torbay - photo © Jon Cawthorne

Overall Results:

Alice Davies and Oliver Rayner during the 420 Autumn Championships at Torbay - photo © Jon Cawthorne