Streaker National Championships at WPNSA - Preview
by Veronica Falat 1 Jul 2015 22:17 BST
3-5 July 2015
1978 Streaker National Championship racing at Stewartby © Degge Archive
In the next couple of days the Streaker class will be heading south to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for their National Championships, ready for racing to begin on Friday.
So far there are 45 confirmed entries, including the top 5 helms from last year's event. Current National Champion Tom Gillard, fresh from sailing a 505 in Keil last week, will be campaigning a new Butler boat while past champion, Ian Jones, will be racing his new Rooster boat before heading off to the Laser Masters Worlds in Canada.
The class is happy to report that it's continuing to grow and attract new members. The highest sail number entered so far is 1929, compared to 1892 this time last year.
This is the Streaker class's 40th Anniversary year and it's great to see that one of the very earliest boats (sail number 129) has entered the Championship. She must date from the first 12 months when over 300 boats were registered. She still has her original 2-piece Jack Holt mast and spindly boom!
The Championship Dinner on Saturday evening will be part of the 40th Anniversary celebrations. Guest speaker will be David Henshall.
WPNSA is an exciting venue for the class; for many competitors this will be their first visit to the Olympic sailing base.
The class is also receiving excellent support from its sponsors, notably Noble Marine Insurance. Because this is a 3-day rather than the usual 2-day event, there will be 7 races instead of 5 and Rooster Sailing and Pinnell & Bax have kindly supplied trophies for the extra races. Other sponsors include Butler Boats, Gul, the Boatyard at Beer, Zhik, Ronstan, WEST System, ClamCleat and Morgan Sails.
It's great that so many firms are happy to show encouragement for a class that has 40 years of sailing behind it; it makes the future seem full of potential.