45th Shearwater National Championships at Stone Sailing Club

21 Shearwaters travelled to Stone Sailing Club over the week of 11th August to 17th August to participate in the 45th Shearwater National Championships.

Once again the team of organisers at Stone laid on a superb event both on and off the water. A special note has to be made on the quality of the courses set by the race team led by David Crispin, managing to lay all but perfect courses on every day in a wide variety of testing conditions. The efforts of Janet Tindale in organising a hectic and tiring social programme can also not go unnoticed.

This years championships were supported by a number of companies, Flexifoil International, Bainbridge International, The Kite Store, Ullman Sails, Yachts and Yachting, Force 4 and Gul, all of whom contributed to the event, and the NSCOA are most grateful to them for enabling every competitor to leave with an award.

A practise race was sailed on Sunday morning in a pleasant force 3 and flying in the face of superstition Greg Wilcox and Ben Farnborough led from start to finish.

Race 1 was sailed on the Sunday afternoon in an ever-increasing wind, blowing a steady force 4 to 5 gusting to more on occasions making for testing conditions. The race, like all races in the week, was sailed over a traditional Olympic course of Triangle / Sausage. With a strong tide flooding Greg Wilcox and Ben Farnborough sailing "Foreigner" were too keen and were OCS, compounded by a collision just after the start they had to return, and perform penalty turns. The rest of the fleet got away and Daniel Tindale and Derek Clark sailing "New Dawn" and Matt Fitch and Shaun O’Connor sailing "UFO," which they had only launched that afternoon, sailed faultless first beats with UFO leading at the windward mark, closely followed by New Dawn. Geoff Tindale and Jack Tindale sailing "Eternal Flame", Roger Crooks and Bonnie Crooks sailing "Ruby" and, despite the head start he gave the rest of the fleet, "Foreigner" was close on their heels. "New Dawn" passed UFO on the 2nd reach but was unable to break clear. Meanwhile "Foreigner" was pulling through the fleet, and by the third round had broken through to the lead. Behind these 3 Richard Hamblin and Catherine Howland sailing " Airflow" had caught "Eternal Flame" and "Ruby" and these 3 were dicing for the minor placings in ever more testing conditions. Eternal Flame was forced to retire by gear failure, despite Geoff Tindale’s attempts to knit a new tiller extension from his jib halyard, and Ruby was able to pull clear of Airflow. Alan Howland and Jenny Howland sailing "Cat et Al et Jen", John and Clifford Hill sailing "Space Odyssey" and Derek Williams and Jamie Farnborough sailing "Metisse" had closed back up to Airflow. The positions remained static at the front as the conditions began to take its toll on the fleet and the race was won by "Foreigner" with "New Dawn" 2nd and "UFO" 3rd .

Race 2 was sailed in a force 4 gusting to 5. The fleet got away cleanly from the start with the leaders favouring the left side of the course. Airflow led at the windward mark closely followed by Metisse and UFO. On the second reach these 2 pulled clear as Airflow dropped back and Metisse took the lead briefly. However New Dawn and Ruby were soon pulling through also and, by the next windward mark, New Dawn sailing superbly had taken the lead, which he held comfortably to the finish. Behind New Dawn a very close race was taking place with Metisse, Ruby UFO and Foreigner, who had climbed through the fleet to 3rd by the middle of the race, battling for position throughout the race. This was also true all the way down to 10th. UFO finally broke clear to take 2nd with Metisse and excellent 3rd and Foreigner 4th.

Race 3 was sailed in similar conditions, however with the tide now flooding the beats and runs were far more tactical. Foreigner made an excellent start as did Ruby, UFO and Eternal Flame, again going left on the beat. The fleet having split into 2 with half going left and half right. Foreigner sailed a brilliant first beat to lead by a good margin at the windward mark, a lead he was to stretch and hold though to the finish. Eternal Flame and UFO were in second and third, followed by Neil Struys and Charlotte Duck sailing New Flame, and Metisse. Again the racing was incredibly close, and New Dawn making up for a poor start sailed an excellent and tactically astute first Run to pull through Ruby, Cajensa et Al et Jen, Kevin and Shelley Saunders sailing "Klass Act" and Airflow to take 4th place going into the third beat. These 6 boats continued to swap places throughout the race with the beats being particularly difficult with both the left and right paying on different occasions, Shaun and Dion Allan sailing "Rumblefish" sailed all of the beats well to pull through to 5th . Foreigner took a well-deserved win, followed by UFO as Eternal Flame slipped backwards with a torn mainsail and Metisse’s Helm took an involuntary swim, leaving New Dawn to grab 3rd and Rumblefish 4th.

Race 4 was sailed in light force 2 occasionally gusting 3. Airflow made the windward mark first closely followed by Cajensa et Al et Jen, Klass Act and Eternal Flame these 4 breaking away in the shifty conditions, with Cajensa et Al et Jen and Eternal Flame passing Airflow, who flew their spinnaker to early on the first reach. On the second triangle Eternal Flame had taken the lead, followed by Airflow, with Klass Act and Cajensa et Al et Jen fighting down the reach when a gust caught Cajensa et Al et Jen out under spinnaker and they capsized. Airflow managed to overhaul Eternal Flame but they fought back to retake the lead going into the penultimate beat, which they held comfortably to the finish with Airflow second and Klass Act following in third. UFO produced a stunning final beat to leapfrog the pack moving up from 9th to 4th.

Race 5 was sailed in light variable winds alternating between a force 1 and a force 3. In the shifty conditions the fleet split left and right and again Cajensa et Al et Jen took an early lead with Ruby in 2nd , Foreigner 3rd and Metisse 4th. Behind them, once again UFO was working through the fleet rapidly as was New Dawn. Again the racing was to close to call with position swaps throughout the fleet. By round three UFO had taken the lead, and was able to extend this to lead comfortably at the finish. New Dawn and Foreigner tussled through the race swapping 2nd and 3rd positions, with Foreigner finally taking 2nd, New Dawn 3rd and Cajensa et Al et Jen 4th.

Race 6 was sailed in increasing winds reaching force 5 in the gusts. Klass Act sailed a faultless first beat to lead, followed by Eternal Flame, New Dawn, Ruby and Airflow. On the first reach Airflow broke a rudder and dropped out. Klass Act continued to extend their lead to what looked like an untenable lead, with New Flame sailing fast through the fleet to second and Eternal Flame and New Dawn battling it out for third and fourth. These 4 extended their lead and on the penultimate beat New Flame found a new gear and overhauled Klass Act to take the lead, which they held to the finish. New Dawn also passed Klass Act to take second and Eternal Flame pipped Klass Act on the line to grab Third. Once again the racing all the way down the fleet was incredibly close leaving the entire championships in the balance for the last 2 races.

Race 7 was postponed on Thursday morning as with the wind reaching the top end of force 6 and gusting more, and wind over tide, the conditions were unfit to sail. Once the tide had turned and the wind moderated to a force 4 to 5 the race got under way. Once again it was UFO and Foreigner making the early running, with UFO rounding the windward mark first followed by UFO. Ruby, Metisse, New Dawn and Airflow were close behind. On the second beat Airflow suffered further problems when the forestay broke and pulled out. The race soon developed into a titanic struggle between UFO and Foreigner who pulled well clear of the chasing pack and were seldom more than a boat length apart. Behind these two New Dawn, Metisse and Ruby were also involved in the closest of races with New Flame joining them. The race went down to the wire with UFO and Foreigner having an all but even share of the lead, Foreigner finally broke clear to take a hard-earned victory followed by UFO. New Flame was able to pull through to take third with Ruby fourth and New Dawn fifth. For the second year running this left the final placings to be decided in the final race, although this year any 1 of the three top boats, Foreigner, UFO and New Dawn had a chance of victory, which in reality all three deserved having sailed consistently well all week.

Race 8 was sailed in a light and shifty force 2 with occasional gusts of force 3 or more. The first beat saw some new faces making the most of the tricky conditions and first to the windward mark were Judith Joplin and John Overton sailing "Coeur de Verre" Richard and Gary Hill sailing "Orwell" and Clint Foreman and Amy Tindale sailing "Cajensa Also" the rest of the pack were close behind. By the end of the second beat Eternal Flame had worked their way to the lead, followed closely by Cajensa et Al et Jen, Klass Act and UFO. The other title contenders Foreigner and New Dawn were "languishing" in 6th and 12th places. On the run positions changed again and by the end of the third beat Cajensa et Al et Jen had taken the lead followed by Airflow, Eternal Flame and UFO. New Dawn had by now passed Foreigner to move into 6th with Foreigner 8th, both needing to pass UFO. With the wind dropping and shifting the race officer shortened on the 4th beat and Cajensa et AL et Jen was able to hold on to win. Eternal Flame a UFO were able to pass Airflow coming into the line, with Klass Act hanging on for Fifth and New Dawn sixth. With Foreigner in 7th and New Dawn 6th this was sufficient to Give Matt Fitch and Shaun O’Connor a well deserved victory for the week, with Foreigner taking second and New Dawn third.

To close the week a Crews Race was held over a short course after race 8 from the club line, and was limited to 1 lap as the wind was fading and the tide running hard. With 20 seconds to go to the start the wind suddenly picked up to a force 4 making for an exciting race for nervous helms sitting at the wrong end of their boats. Jamie Farnborough and Derek Williams in Metisse led off the line followed by Jack and Geoff Tindale in Eternal Flame, Ben Farnborough and Daniel Tindale in New Dawn and Catherine Howland and Richard Hamblin in Airflow. On the long reach New Dawn was able to take the lead as the leading three boats went high, Airflow stayed low and was able to slip inside New Dawn at the mark to lead onto the final beat, but New Dawn were able to pass Airflow just before the line to take the win, with Airflow second and Eternal Flame third.

Once again the Shearwater fleet have had an extremely close week, with tight competition throughout the fleet and a number of new faces enjoying close and exciting racing, in varied conditions. It is a credit to the members of Stone Sailing Club who organise and ran the week that all of the sailors had a memorable time, and a credit to the class and all its members that, in these days of decreasing numbers, the class continues to show an upturn in attendance and offers such close racing.

Overall Results:

Results generated and submitted using Sailwave - completely free Windows sailing scoring software

More Information:

• YachtandYachting.com Shearwater Page