West Country Boat Repairs 2000 Inland Championship at Carsington Sailing Club

2000 class Inland Champions Paul Cullen and Verity Hopkins © Louisa Ching

Now this really was game of two halves

Twenty 2000s gathered at the lovely surroundings of Carsington Sailing Club on Oct 19th/20th for an eventful 2000 Inlands sponsored by West Country Boat Repairs. The 18 travelling boats included boats from Sunderland, Cardiff and Portsmouth.

Saturday was a glorious Autumn day with lovely sunshine causing many sailors to scrabble through their sailing bag looking for at least factor 30. The 4-12 knot breeze was sort of from a general westerly direction but on each beat it swing rapidly with 60 degree variation.

Defending Inland Champions Paul Cullen and Verity Hopkins were in imperious form scoring two very convincing wins in the first two races. Former National Champion Rob and Gemma Burridge at one stage pulled out out a very big lead in race 3 but were being reeled in towards the end by Paul and Verity but held on for the win. Very new to the class Paul and Sharon Freeland from Llandegfedd in only their second event were on fire scoring 3,2,3 in the tricky conditions. Also always in the tussle at the front were father and daughter team Jonathan/Louisa Ching with a 3rd and 4th.

Sunday could not have been more different, with storm something or other hitting Scotland the competitors were greeted by heavy rain, very low clouds, very gloomy light and plenty of breeze. Luckily the wind was not as gusty and as feisty as forecasts had predicted. After consulting the class PRO Alf Hawksworth felt the conditions were race able so the vast majority of the fleet launched although many were apprehensive.

Race 4 was held in 18-24 knots with the occasional bigger gust and was led early on by Matt Sargent/Ross Southwell finding the conditions much more to their liking. Paul and Verity though took the lead on the 3rd run to win. Matt/Ross had a major issue with their kite at the leeward mark and ended up capsized on the lee shore to recover the kite. Father/son team Ed/Ruben Dodwell were equally at home in these testing conditions and scored an impressive second place with Pete Vincent/Sarah Burridge well clear in third. With not that many capsizes 16 boats finished.

With the wind up a little it was a depleted fleet that started race 5. Paul and Verity won in style from Matt/Ross now with a kite that would come down in 2nd and the Dodwell's impressive in 3rd. Everyone agreed with PRO Alf's call to bank the 2 races and head for warm showers.

Paul and Verity thus defended their title emphatically. The Freelands were an impressive 2nd overall; the consistent Vincent/Burridge team 3rd overall with Dodwell's 4th overall and first family/Junior team. Matt and Helen Cook won the Silver Division in 8th overall.

Many thanks to Carsingtom SC for being excellent hosts. Look out during November for announcement of the exciting Millennium Series calender for 2025. With the Nationals at Hayling Island with an expected step up in entries 2025 is promising to be a cracking year for the 2000s.

Overall Results: