707 Northern Championship at Tees and Hartlepool Yacht Club
by David Smith 12 Sep 2017 13:55 BST
19-20 August 2017
The More-T-Vicar team win the 707 Northern Championship © Carl Allen
This year the 707 Northern Championship was again kindly hosted by Tees & Hartlepool Yacht Club.
Friday afternoon saw a great deal of activity with our sponsor Hartlepool Marina making their hoist available for boats to lift in, in preparation for the two days hard racing ahead. The club hosted a welcome Buffet on the evening and much merriment was had by all, especially as the Swedish Blonde made another guest appearance.
The 8 crews, mainly from Scotland, were greeted on Saturday with strong winds. The boats made their way from the lock, towards the race area a little over 1 mile into Tees Bay, with the wind strengthening all the time. Despite several attempts to get racing underway, the wind was simply too strong, the committee boat was unable to hold its anchor and Eddie from More T Vicar had become detached from the boat apart from a rope round his leg, so racing was cancelled for the day. Some quick thinking by event organisers and race officers led to a plan. As the boats all came together in the lock, an idea to relocate the boats to THYCs club moorings, which are accessible at all states of the tide and a proposition to bring the start time forward on Sunday,meant there was still chance enough races could be held.
Festivities on Saturday night were held in the yacht club and crews where entertained by live music. Yet again crews seemed to have a good time and much refreshment was consumed.
Sunday morning saw the crews taxied over to the club moorings and racing got underway promptly in a light breeze which was somewhat different to the previous day. As the course was short and the wind light it was all about clear air at the start. The first two races went without a hitch, however the wind was dying and race three saw a massive amount of wind shear and a shift on the downwind leg, switching the boats at the back with the boats at the front. Race four turned out to be the last due to the dying breeze and More T Vicar came out winners with very consistent highly placed results.
The boats de-camped to the marina for lift out. The class is getting must slicker at lifting in and out and several boats were ready to de-mast quickly, Seaword even dropped their mast whilst still in the lock.
Despite the lack of racing, all the crews had a great time and Tees & Hartlepool Yacht Club and Hartlepool Marina really enjoyed hosting the fleet again.
Many thanks to our sponsors Hartlepool Marina, Rope4Boats, Yachtcameras.com and Chipchase Manners.
Overall Results: (top three)
1st More T Vicar
2nd Tallulah
3rd Seaword