Noble Marine RS100 National Championship 2024 at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club - Overall
by David Smart 17 Sep 13:29 BST
Since it's America's Cup season, I think we should analyse the data that we have available:
1) Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club is a super welcoming volunteer-led club. They are friendliness personified and put on four days of varied racing, backed up by great food, fun evenings and lots of booze.
2) The fleet may have been short on numbers this year for a myriad of reasons, but made up for that with high quality close racing. (Just like the America's Cup, but without the painful touchdowns and maybe not quite at 30 knots upwind.)
3) Ian Gregory is quick when the wind is light. We've known this for many years as he's about 20kg lighter than the rest of us. At Eastbourne he discovered his mojo when the wind picked up. So he's now also quick when the wind's blowing. While this is a bit depressing for the rest of us, he absolutely earned the title of National Champion 2024.
4) After nine races, the rest of us were split by the proverbial hair's breadth. There were a mere 4 points separating the rest of the fleet, so mathematically any one of us could finish from second to sixth.
5) Andy Jones showed a cool head when under pressure in the final race, taking the offshore route to sniff out lots more pressure and secure his second place overall.
6) Mike Green is quite new to the boat. His local knowledge (his club Pevensey Bay was just around the corner) helped him to bag some good wins and secure third overall. This included the last race where he called up his own personal gust to fly through the fleet to win, with Mike, Ian and Andy Jones crossing the finish line about a second apart after 40 minutes racing.
7) It's amazing what can happen when you have a small fleet starting on a long line. In one race 50% of the fleet succeeded in piling up on the committee boat, with David Smart, Huw Powell and Ian Gregory all trying to start beside (or in) the committee boat. In the interests of accurate reporting, Ian had the prime spot, while Huw and David were chancing their arms.
8) Steve Jones and Huw Powell managed to find the gust of the day on Sunday, with both gybing to catch it but their gybes were perfectly timed so the gust hit them mid-gybe to send them both swimming. We hope the drone caught the moment.
9) Frank Jones (our most ardent supporter), father of Andy and Steve was able to provide insightful race analysis in our post-race debriefings in the bar. The most succinct version went along the lines of "You went the wrong way!" That applied to most of us in most races. A familiar feeling to all racers I feel.
10) Events don't happen without the generous support of our sponsors. So, a special shout out to Noble Marine and Rooster. Thank you.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 259 | Ian Gregory | Frensham Pond/Stokes Bay SC | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ‑4 | 3 | 1 | ‑4 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| 2nd | 505 | Andrew Jones | Chew Valley Lake SC | 3 | 3 | 4 | ‑6 | 1 | 2 | ‑6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 22 |
| 3rd | 314 | Mike Green | Pevensey Bay SC | ‑6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ‑6 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 25 |
| 4th | 523 | David Smart | Chew Valley Lake SC | ‑5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | ‑5 | 3 | 4 | 26 |
| 5th | 441 | Stephen Jones | Chew Valley Lake SC | 4 | 4 | ‑6 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ‑6 | 6 | 28 |
| 6th | 508 | Huw Powell | Red Wharf Bay SC/Netley SC | 1 | ‑6 | 5 | 5 | ‑6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 29 |