Mirror National Championship at Abersoch - Practice Race
by Robert Bellfield 17 Aug 2015 16:03 BST
15-21 August 2015
Dave and Imogen Wade ghosting up to the windward mark during the Mirror Nationals practice race at Abersoch © Robert Bellfield
Happy families lead the fleet
The 2015 Mirror Nationals, run alongside the long established Abersoch Mirror Week, kicked off with the Practice Race on Sunday afternoon. With 43 boats entered for the Nationals and 43 boats signed up for Mirror Week, the prospect of 86 boats on the water shows the versatility of the Mirror - family heirlooms to Winder foam sandwich - all racing together! With Craig and Gabriella Burlton, and Katie and Mike Budd in the Mirror Week entry - and Dave and Imogen Wade in the Nationals - there is plenty of next generation talent being groomed in the Mirror!
Tim Rush, the National Mirror Coach, took the National Junior Squad out for some training in the morning in what turned out to be the best breeze of the day. There are some really good juniors in the fleet at the moment, many of whom will be following the well trodden path into the 420 next season, showing the strength of the Mirror as a feeder into the Youth classes.
However, the Practice Race needed guile, cunning and experience to succeed in the light and variable conditions. The fleet split into two up the first beat, with Dave and Imogen Wade coming in from the left, and Angus and Florence Hemmings approaching from the right - Fireball rivals head to head. Angus then realized that he was running out of car park time and had to head back to the beach (good excuse), to allow Dave and Ed Coady to get into contention. Dave and Ed showed great downwind speed (in 4 kts of breeze) to just get ahead of the Wades, with Nigel Thomas and Benjamin Bradley to finish third, followed by a bunch of really good juniors who did well in the light conditions.
More sun and sand forecast for tomorrow but stronger winds later in the week.