405 Inland Championships at Notts County Sailing Club

24-25th June brought the 2006 405 Inland Championships with an impressive fleet of eleven boats arriving at Notts County Sailing Club for a weekend of racing. There was a good turnout of boats from NCSC but the most encouraging was the three boats from Banbury as it is a relatively new fleet just getting established.

Wind conditions for the weekend were light with no wind Saturday morning and a force two breeze all day Sunday. Racing was close all weekend between Rebecca Kilburn and Simon Foskett in sail no. 352, and Kathryn and William Twemlow in sail no. 360, but with Rebecca just gaining the upper hand, although a lot of mental arithmetic was done on the water to work out the points difference.

Saturday began hot and sunny but with no wind with the lake largely resembling a mirror. Officer of the Day, Ken Twemlow, was forced to postpone the beginning of racing until after lunch due to the lack of wind but racing got underway at 1:30pm following the arrival of a small, easterly breeze. As the club was holding their annual Junior Open on the Saturday the first windward leg for the 405s was spent dodging the slow moving Optimists. Ken managed to fit in an impressive four races in the afternoon with the sailors coming off the water to a barbeque in the evening. Rebecca won the first two races convincingly, Kathryn then won the third and Gemelle Robertson and Sally Weston in sail no. 156 claimed victory in the fourth race.

Sunday racing started early with the first race starting at 9:15am and a little mist still lying on the water but a light breeze soon cleared it and the bleary eyed sailors were all on the start line on time. Rebecca and Simon began Sunday with a three points lead over Kathryn and William in joint second place with Gemelle and Sally. The wind had done a 180° shift overnight and was coming from the opposite end of the lake and was heavily shifting all day, proving a challenge for Ken and his race team to set the course for each race. The start line for race five had a large port end bias resulting in a bunch up of boats and a collision between Rebecca and another boat, which allowed Kathryn a clear start and she went on to win the race with Rebecca finishing fourth but the last two races were both won by Rebecca, which sealed her impressive victory, with a two points lead over Kathryn and William.

Overall Results: