Harken Solution National Championship at Felpham Sailing Club

The Harken Solution National Championship were hosted by Felpham Sailing Club on 27 and 28 June. 13 sailors were greeted with near-perfect sailing conditions of glorious sunshine and steady breeze.

Race one started with a steady 14knots of wind. Mitchell Campbell, Peter Fisk and Ross Prytherch made the best of the start all rounding the first mark in front of the chasing pack. On the second beat Kev Clark and Sam Davy headed right out to the right making the best use of the tide. Kev rounded in the lead and Sam was third behind Mitchell and they followed that way until the last downwind mark where a mistake by Mitchell allowed Sam through to take secound.

Race two saw Sam Davy take the lead from Kev Clark with Martin Tubb following close behind. Kev manage to get past Sam on the second beat and held on to the end with Martin chasing Sam hard but was unable to get past.

By the time race three came the wind had built up to 22 knots and was going against the tide making for some rough conditions and had whittled down the numbers to those who really wanted to be out there. Once again Kev Clark took the lead from the start and lead everyone around till the end. Jack Turnbull came second from Martin Tubb in third.

While Kev Clark had a clear lead in the championships overnight, the rest of the places were all to play for with Sam Davy on 12 pts and the next 6 boats on 15 or 16pts.

Sunday dawned and the wind was considerably calmer than it had been on Saturday, enticing more of the fleet back on the water. Races 4 and 5 were held back to back with Sam Davy taking a clear lead in race 4, finishing ahead of Mike Gower in 2nd and Jack Turnbull in 3rd. Race 5 was Mike's while Jack, finding his form on the sea, finished 2nd ahead of Mitchell Campbell in 3rd. Kev Clark put in 2 miserable results, which he blamed on his impatience for sailing in light winds.

Over the lunch break, there was a lot of head-scratching over possible result combinations; with 2 discards and extremely close points, the whole championship was now wide open. Luckily for Kevin, the wind built while the fleet was ashore making the final race more nail-biting.

With everything to play for, everyone wanted to be first over the line, resulting in the first ever general recall at a Solution class nationals. The race officer was under time pressure to get the race away which was managed at the second attempt. Kev Clark and Sam Davy duelled hard, leaving Jack Turnbull to take the lead, which he held to the finish. Kev managed to break away into 2nd leaving Sam to come in 3rd, marginally pipping Mitchell Campbell into 4th.

Overall, this was enough to secure the Championship for Kev and meant Jack sneaked past Sam into second on countback, giving him the Youth prize ahead of Mitchell too. Mike Gower won the Masters trophy while Peter Fisk took home the Ted Funnell Memorial trophy for finishing mid-fleet.

Thanks go to Harken for their generous sponsorship which gave prizes to everyone in the fleet. Felpham Sailing Club hosted a cracking event and the whole fleet is looking forward to returning in future.

Overall Results:
If you finished in the top ten at the Solution nationals then enter your Gear Guide information here