Solution National Championship 2024 at Felpham Sailing Club

Solution National Championship at Felpham © Ian Morgan

The Solutions arrived on Saturday to a sunny and breezy Felpham Sailing club for the first day of the Nationals. With thirteen boats registered and the first gun at 12:00 boats started to congregate on the beach ready for launch.

With disputes about how windy it really was in the shifty Northerly the boats headed out to a trapezoid course a long way off shore. Some mild chaos followed with a few capsizes and people realising it was in fact windier than expected. The smart boats turned back but for the first race we had nine brave sailors.

Ready for a breezy start there was a strong port end bias capitalised on my Ian Morgan who nailed a port hand flyer and crossed the entire fleet. It was tight racing with more then a few capsizes on the hairy down wind, overall Ian sailed well and won the race with Mike and Richard in second and third respectfully.

Solution National Championship at Felpham - photo © Ian Morgan

Race 2 was more of the same the wind reaching gusts of mid twenties and a few offshore waves developing it was a true show of grit to keep it going upwind.

Andy Maskell sailed well in the strong winds bagging a second followed by Mike in third, Ian was once again in the lead, a reoccurring performance throughout the weekend.

Race 3 again more hard work and arguably with even stronger gusts we went from nine down to seven with two retirees Three boats pulled away with Ian in front, Tom in second and Mike in third. After a quick two laps the race was over and people were very appreciative of that.

Day 1 left Ian in first, Mike in second and Tom in third.

After a great quiz in the evening, Day 2 began. A much lighter day still from the North blowing 9 knots gusting 15. With a full 13 Solutions on the start line the racing began.

A very port end bias saw Ian and Tom fighting for the pin end and in the end everyone started on port. A very shifty first beat saw a lot of changing positions with Ian reaching the top mark first, but everyone was very close together, the downwind was a fight with a lot of covering and tactics resulting in a very tight rounding of the bottom mark. After a tight two laps again the recurring theme Ian was first, Andy was second and Mike was third.

Race 5 was postponed for a decent amount of time due to horribly shifty winds before the sea breeze kicked in and set south westerly. Now a strong and consistent 15 knots racing began a starboard end bias saw a vicious fight for the committee boat end, in which Ian came out on top.

It was a close overall race with a lot of position changes. Ian again in first now with five bullets, Mike in second and Richard in third.

Solution National Championship at Felpham - photo © Ian Morgan

For Race 6 Ian stepped out to let someone else get a bullet and also got some great footage, after a long weekend of hard work there were some tired legs for the final race again a starboard start Jon steward got off best but tacked off early and got caught in a header.

Tom was first to the windward mark followed closely by Andy and Jon. It was a close downwind with a lot of rules though about in a final attempt for a win.

After two laps Tom just stayed on top with Jon and Andy mere seconds behind. Overall it was a great race and an even better weekend. As shown by the results it was very close for all positions after Ian.

Congratulations to all. Thanks to all the competitors and Felpham SC for holding the event. It was a great turn out and the facilities were all amazing, locally known as the best little club on the south; it is a must visit for great wind and big waves.

Overall Results:
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