Hurricane and Formula 18 Nationals at Yaverland Sailing Club

Fabulous sailing conditions over the past three days, an exceptionally friendly and well-organised club and help from some great sponsors made for a fantastic first weekend at Yaverland S.C.

After 8 races Richie Hanmore and Steve Pyman pulled off a narrow victory over Neil Connelly and Hugo Bull thus becoming this year’s British Hurricane Class National Champions.

Rob Wilson and Marcus Lynch cleaned up in the F18 class scoring seven bullets and discarding two second places, leaving Jon Worthington and Seb Greber in second, one point ahead of Stuart Gummer and Ryan Crawford.

Saturday nights Wildwind backed band, Ouzo 9mm, thrilled and rocked the club and to cap a great weekend £750 was raised for the Shanklin and Sandown Inshore Lifeboat.

Friday, 12th August

The F18/Hurricane nationals are now well underway. The Thursday evening was very blustery but by Friday morning the winds had died down and no sign of rain.

With perfect conditions the boats went out and started racing at 1 pm. Three races were completed on this day and apart from a few minor problems with drifting marks everything went extremely well with everyone being happy.

Race 1 in the Hurricane Fleet was taken by Neil Connelly and Hugo Bull, followed by John Tuckwell and Christopher Hanmore with Richard Swanston and Matt McNichol in 2nd and 3rd.

Race 2 found Connelly and Bull leading the fleet, Tuckmore in 2nd and showing the pace which would eventually win him the Championship was Richie Hanmore and Steve Pyman.

While only 2 race stood on Day 1 for the Hurricane fleet due to a missing mark making the result unfair, the F18 fleet managed 3 races on the first day, albeit with some competitors seeking (and gaining) redress as their positions were materially affected. Among these was outgoing F18 Chairman Jon Worthingto who was awarded average points, which made a significant difference in the final standings.

Thus in Race 1 Rob Wilson and Marcus Lynch finished first (as they did for 7 of the 9 races!), Stuart Gummer and Ryan Crawford in 2nd and Daid White and Jon Sweet in third.

Race 2 – again found Wilson/Lynch in the lead, with Worthington (crewed by Seb Greber) in 2nd and Gummer/Crawford in third.

Race 3 – Wilson/Lynch 1st, Gummer/Crawford 2nd and Worthington/Greber in 3rd.

The first day set the tone for the whole regatta especially as far as the F18′s were concerned.

Saturday, 13th August

At 4 am the rain was pouring down. Shortly after daybreak the rain stopped and the sun came out. Technical difficulties meant the race did not start until later than intended and with limited beach because of the tide coming in led to further delays though once away there were 4 absolutely fantastic races sailed in winds Force 3-5.

The rain stayed away all day but as the wind picked up speed some of the boats decided to stay on the beach. There were a fair few capsizes from those who elected to stay out but the competitors loved it.

In the evening the excellent Yaverland Sailing club cooked a fine barbeque and main sponsors Wildwind Holidays produced a truly excellent live band which by the end of the evening had even the most exhausted among the crowd dancing under the tent – everyone had a fantastic time!

Hurricane Race 3 was won by Hanmore/Pyman with Swanston/McNichol 2nd and Connelly/Bull in 3rd. The 4th race was Hanmore’s discard posting a ‘miserable’ 5th, while Connelly took this one with Swanston in 2nd. Mark Thompson and Jack Tindale finished 3rd in this race. The 5th race was taken by Hanmore/Pyman, with Gregory Reed and Tom Loosemore coming in 2nd and Thomson/Tindale again in 3rd!

In the F 18 fleet Wilson/Lynch continued to show their dominance posting a 1st in the first race of the day (Race 4) as well as Race 6 & 7 with a 2nd place (to be discarded!) in Race 5! Gummer/Crawford took 2nd in Race 4 with Worthington in 3rd – Worthington then posted a first place in Race 5, a 2nd in Race 6 and a 3rd in Race 7 while Gummer could only manage a third in Race 5, a sixth in Race 6 anda 4th in Race 7.

Sunday 14th August

At the start of the day the wind was very light with scattered cloud. The sailors were away by 10 am witheasy launching due to tide being quite far out. Although light to start with it gradually picked up giving the competitors another fantastic day of sailing, with two final dy races which ended around 12.

By this time the tide was almost in so we had a frantic hour getting all the boats in and up the slipway but with a mass of helpers we got all the boats up and quite a few of the early arriving Shearwaters down to help out and start the first of two practise races.

Even the coastguard helecopter came by to do a demonstration for the crowds.

Hurricane Race 7 – was won by Swanston/Mc Nichol with Hanmore in 2nd and Connelly in 3rd – leaving an interesting calculations to be made by Messrs Connelly and Bull who proved that their sailing skills were better than their maths – they match raced Hanmore / Pyman down the fleet into 11th while they themselves finished 10th but has miscalculated and in the final standings after discards it was Hanmore who emerged victorious with 12 points to Connelly’s 13. Swanston/Mc Nichol finished 3rd on 17 points while Geoff Tinsdale an Dave Wood who won the final race could only finish an overall 8th.

F18 Final Day - Race 8 was taken by the Gummer/Crawford team with Wilson/Lynch discarding yet another 2nd while Worthington could only manage a 12th. In 3rd was David White and Jon Sweet The final race was, surprise, surprise won by Wilson/Lynch with Will Sunnocks and Olli Egan on their new Edge in 2nd and Simon Farren and Ben Clegg in 3rd. While Gummer/Crawford placed 5th and Worthington was disqualified after a finishing line incident, the 2 discards and Worthington’s previous days’ results meant that he finished 2nd on 16 points ahead of Gummer / Crawford on 17.

While the National championships are obviously focussed on the podium places there would be no Championships at all with out all of the competitors taking part – and in both F18 and Hurricane fleets the mid fleet racing and competition was as fierce as at the front.

Yaverland SC put on an absolutely fantastic event, well supported by major sponsor Wildwind Holidays and the racing continues with the Sheawater National Championships finishing on Friday before an all-comers catamaran Open meeting over the weekend.

Click here for full results.