Illusion National Championships 2014 at Bembridge Sailing Club

by Rudy Jurg 17 Mar 2014 18:07 GMT 15-16 March 2014

Illusion Nationals 2014 at Bembridge © Rudy Jurg

Two lovely sunny days for the Illusion Nationals held at Bembridge over last weekend (15th & 16th March). Although the predominantly westerly F2 breeze on Saturday behaved itself, it did increase a bit towards the end of the morning's racing and provided some testing challenges for the twenty helms racing. With conditions allowing racing to take place outside the harbour, all three races started under the P Flag with a good spread of boats along the line and the fleet split on the beats. In the first race, Graham Bailey managed to stay ahead of Mark Downer ands Graham Sunderland to win the first of his three races in the Championships. In the second race, Graham Sunderland was able to break free of the chasing pack and finished well ahead of Raymond Simonds & Graham Bailey. In the final race of the day, Graham Bailey achieved his second win by keeping ahead of his wife Julia and last year's winner James Meaning.

On Sunday, the forecasted slightly stronger breezes failed to materialise so the course was again set up outside the harbour for the twenty two starters. After a short postponement to allow the north easterly F1 breeze to settle, the start of first race had to be run twice following a large proportion of the fleet being OCS at the pin end of the line and a General Recall initiated. The second start, under a Black Flag, was more successful and there were no disqualifications. Although conditions were frustrating in the fickle breeze and the second round was a bit of a lottery, it was the same for all so well done to Rudy Jurg who came through to win ahead of Graham Bailey and Mark Downer.

Illusion Nationals 2014 at Bembridge - photo © Rudy Jurg

With the breeze going round in circles the Chief Race Officer, Jonathan Peel made an excellent call and the course was re-set in the harbour where a south westerly F1-2 had just kicked in. The second race, still under the Black Flag, started off well but rather fell apart as the breeze disappeared and then came back briefly from the east on the final leg to the finish! Much to his surprise the main beneficiary of the major wind shift was Colin Simonds who came home first ahead of Graham Bailey and Mark Downer. Fortunately the breeze settled back to the south west for the final race and provided Graham Bailey with his third win - this time well ahead of Graham Sunderland & Raymond Simonds.

All in all a very successful Championships.

Prize Winners:

1st - Graham Bailey
2nd (and 1st over 65) - Raymond Simonds
3rd - Graham Sunderland
4th - James Meaning
1st Lady - Julia Bailey
1st over 75 & Most Improved from the 2013 Nationals - Philip Bown
Highest placed Visitor - James Moreland

Illusion Nationals 2014 winners at Bembridge - photo © Rudy Jurg

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	Graham Bailey	132	1	3	1	2	10	1	8
2	Raymond Simonds	23	5	2	5	13	5	3	20
3	Graham Sunderland	80	3	1	9	8	7	2	21
4	James Meaning	31	4	4	3	4	6	9	21
5	Mark Downer	124	2	5	12	3	15	4	26
6	Julia Bailey	157	6	12	2	7	8	5	28
7	Rupert Holmes	47	8	7	6	15	2	7	30
8	Colin Simonds	138	7	10	10	5	1	10	33
9	Rudy Jurg	158	10	9	7	1	12	21	39
10	Robbie Southwell	161	R	8	4	16	14	6	48
11	Andy Blundell	888	11	11	11	6	9	17	48
12	Tom Wilson	4	12	R	8	12	3	14	49
13	Jo Downer	123	13	6	14	10	17	12	55
14	Philip Bown	130	15	14	15	14	4	11	58
15	Barnaby Edwards	121	16	15	13	9	11	13	61
16	James Moreland	26	14	13	18	20	16	16	77
17	Bill Daniels	68	S	S	S	11	13	8	78
18	Nick Foden‑Pattinson	136	18	18	17	17	21	15	85
19	Robin Ebsworth	12	17	16	16	19	19	19	87
20	Olivia Dowling	162	9	R	R	22	18	18	90
21	Kass Schmitt	14	19	17	19	21	20	20	95
22	Steve Warren‑Smith	146	S	S	S	18	S	S	110