Wanderer National Championships at Parkstone Yacht Club

Wanderer nationals at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

Wanderer nationals at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

15 Wanderers congregated at Parkstone Yacht Club over the weekend of 18/19th June for their annual National Championships.

The Saturday dawned grey and damp with a 20kts of wind gusting to about 25. This, combined with a nasty short chop Poole Harbour led race officer Barry Rolfe to abandon the racing for the day.

Race 1: The fleet reconvened on the Sunday – well fed after their annual dinner – to a brisk, but much more manageable wind of about 15 to 20kts. The race officer set a classic triangle/sausage course in the west of the harbour, just by Brownsea Island. A slight port line bias saw Tim Barr and Adam Wickenden get away to a clean start, after which he was able to tack onto port and cross the fleet to get to the favoured right hand side. He held this lead to the 1st mark, pursued by Gavin Barr and Mark Skipper, followed by Paul Yeadon and Liz North. The fleet remained in these positions until the end, despite Tim Barr’s crew nearly departing the boat after forgetting which way around to face when tacking a Wanderer (hint – backwards!). One or two other boats also had exciting moments, with Mike Hamilton and David Oats seen comparing the depth of Poole Harbour to the length of a Wanderer mast (not deep enough - bent burgee being the result).

Special mention here must be given to Tim and Max Robertson finishing 5th in such a brisk wind, despite Max being only a four stone and nine years of age.

Race 2 was started promptly after the finish of race 1, with the twp Barr boats again leading the way. The increasing wind did cause a few problems, with Gavin Barr being lucky to recover to a 2nd place after broaching at a gybe mark. The placing remained the same – with David Davies and Keith Proctor again finishing fourth.

Race 3 saw a slightly decreased breeze, with some close racing and place changing between the lead boats. Paul Yeadon was able to get ahead of Tim Barr for a short while, but Tim was able to regain the lead, even though he managed to hit the windward mark. The breeze filled in rather abruptly with a rain shower just in time for the last gybe mark. This promptly caused Paul Yeadon, in the second place boat to capsize, and lose his place to Gavin Barr, but due to the speed at which the crew made it to the centreboard they managed to hang on to third place.

Overall Results: