B14 National Championships at Beer Sailing Club
by Mark Barnes 23 May 2012 10:00 BST
25-27 May 2012
Racing in the B14 nationals at Beer starts on Friday © Tania Samus /
www.photoskiff.com
The B14 flying Circus heads to Beer, Devon for the Nationals this week, with the racing starting on Friday.
The forecast is looking good with 14 mph on Friday building to 20 mph on Saturday and dropping back to 14 mph on Sunday. To add to the breeze, it looks like it will be sun and not bad weather to add to the event.
Beer is laying on its usual hospitality with the bar being raised by the fleet. Leakster has been working on the socials, so we will no doubt be in for a memorable event.
The fleet's top guns are looking to thrash it out over the three days, and if Whitstable's TT last weekend is anything to go by, where it went to the last race finish, it should be a tight series.
Favourites going into the event have to be last year's Champions, Blue Badge (Mike Bees/Martyn Worth (Ferrett) who will be hounded by Team North (Dave Hayes/Tom Pygall), The Anthill Mob (Tim Harrison/Johnny Ratcliffe), Team Ullman (Mark Watts/Toby Barsley-Dale), Seavolution 1 (Mark Barnes/Dan Hare) and Team Marlow (Dan Cowin/Dan Hollands).
If the breeze goes light then the team to beat will be Team Harken (Simon Hadley/Nikki Hadley) and Seavolution 2 (Steve Hollingworth/Chris Murphy).
Race reports will be heading in daily with some feedback on the previous evenings entertainment. It will be interesting to see who excels at both!
With well over £1,000 worth of prizes up for grabs, there should be some rich pickings for some teams. The list of sponsors will be issued with the first report.