Marblehead Nationals at Chelmsford Radio Yacht Club

Graham Bantock the winner of the Marblehead nationals © John Richmond

The Radio Marblehead National Championships held on 3rd/4th April attracted 17 skippers from 7 clubs including 3 skippers from France, not only to determine the National Champion but also for the ‘Team Of Three (TOT)’ Championship.

Chelmsford RYC’s lake at Channels near Chelmsford, Essex was the venue for 20 races on the first day and another 14 on the second day giving a total of 34 races sailed in relatively dry conditions but a variable wind.

Race Officers Graham Bartholomew and George Beacroft from the host club had their work cut out providing a testing course for the 17 competitors which due to the relatively low number of boats all raced in one fleet.

The wind was not kind as it veered back and fro during the first day with varying strength. After the first race it was evident that the windward mark was too easy to reach and was moved. After the second race the whole course was changed which remained with only small changes until the lunch break.

After the third race the skippers were split into five teams of three, with Peter Stollery and Graham Bantock volunteering not to be included in the ‘Team Of Three’ Championship. After the first four races Peter Stollery and Mark Dennis appeared to be the pace setters and only one point separated all five teams in the TOT’s Championship. However, by lunchtime Graham Bantock had got his act together and was only trailing Peter by four points and it was obvious the championship winner was going to be between these two.

After lunch the new course was introduced to the competitors, which involved two triangles which was then later changed to two circuits of a rhombus shape course. All these changes tested the memories of all in attendance as evidenced by a few veering off in an unexpected direction from time to time chasing the old course.

The whole day was blessed with good humour along with all racing incidents being resolved on the water this along with the single fleet resulted in 20 races being completed by the last race conclusion at 6-10 pm. At this stage Peter Stollery and Graham Bantock were the event leaders with Peter taking the honours for the day by virtue of his eight first places to Graham’s six.

The top four skippers at the close of day one were 1st Peter Stollery (32); 2nd Graham Bantock (37); 3rd Gilles Di Crescenzo (77) and 4th Dennis Astbury (89).

Sunday provided a much stronger wind and from a more northerly direction. The rescue boat was in use placing new marks to provide yet another course with the start line a full 90 deg. from the day before. The Race Officer set the course as an Olympic triangle and sausage or ‘banana’ if you are from France apparently. Due to the wind settling in this direction the course remained virtually unchanged throughout the day.

Due to the stronger winds not all of the collisions ended well for all. Unfortunately two boats had to be withdrawn due to damage, two further boats were repaired sufficiently to finish the day on the water. Having said this, there was only one incident that produced a protest meeting, which was quickly resolved resulting in only a few minutes being lost.

Unlike Saturday, Sunday was dominated by one sailor. Graham Bantock won all but 2 races which enabled him to become the National Champion with 44 points followed by Peter Stollery second on 71 points. Lower down the ranks the positions were in a state of flux right down to the last race which finally decided the third and fourth places, Dennis Astbury taking third with 122 points and Gilles Di Crescenzo fourth on 128 points.

The TOT’s Championship although close to start with resulted in a clear win for Team 1 which consisted of Mark Dennis, Roy Stevens and Vernon Appleton with a total of 649 followed by Team 5 which consisted of Dennis Astbury, Roger Stollery and Alf Reynolds.

Overall Results: (after 34 races)