Endeavour Trophy at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham - Overall

Endeavour Trophy day 3 © Julio Graham

Twenty-four-year-old Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club member – Stuart Bithell – and his 21-year-old crew, Christian Birrel, representing the Merlin Rocket class, have won the 50th Endeavour Trophy Champion of Champions event at Burnham-on-Crouch.

The young Merlin sailors are also successful 470 sailors with Bithell now concentrating on campaigning for a place in the 2012 Olympic Games. Today, in winds that reached 28kts in the gusts, the pair showed that consistency pays by clocking up another fifth place to add to their impressive string of top six results from yesterday. In doing so they managed to knock Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne (National 12) off the overnight leading position.

As he stepped ashore this afternoon, Bithell commented on the weekend’s racing. “We did all the hard work yesterday by sailing a consistent series which put us in a good position going into today’s races. We were pleased that we were able to sail well in both the light and heavy winds. The National 12 team sailed very well and were extremely consistent in the light winds but luckily for us, they couldn’t quite hold it together today.”

Going into the last race of the series there was still a chance of Camm and Ballantyne beating the Merlin Rocket team overall if they finished in the top four. However, the big winds that prevailed throughout the day proved too strong for the super-lightweight 17.5 stone National 12 sailors, so they decided to take the conservative approach in order to secure a decent overall position. They put a reef in their mainsail, kept the kite in its chute and, in doing so, took a 23rd place to count, which still put them in a respectable fourth place overall.

Ballantyne talking about the last two races said: “It was basically too windy for us lightweights today so we reefed to de-power but were still really struggling upwind. Downwind, we took the tactical decision that we would probably be faster without the kite. Interestingly it wasn’t that much slower because we were able to sail straight downwind, so it actually paid quite well, and we survived.”

Four time Endeavour Trophy Champion Nick Craig, and crewman Toby Lewis representing the Enterprise class had a set of mixed results in yesterday’s light winds but today the pair really showed their true colours by winning both races. In the first race of the day they were initially led round the course by Chips Howarth and Simon Potts (Fireball), and Bruce Keen and Penny Clark (Musto Skiff) but in the strong, full-on conditions, team Howarth/Potts capsized shortly after the bear away on the first run, leaving a battle royal to continue at the head of the fleet. By the second run, Craig/Lewis had gained the lead and managed to cross the finish line just ahead of Keen/Clark. Howarth/Potts made a speedy recovery to secure third place.

A similar scenario happened in the final race when Craig/Lewis managed to hold off Keen/Clark for their second win of the series. Craig commented: “The boats are quite tricky to sail in the light winds which is why the likes of the National 12, Lark and Merlin sailors did so well yesterday, but today was perfect for us. It’s is a great class for the event because it’s a good all-rounder and we have the full support of Topper if anything goes wrong.”

50th Endeavour Masters

With the wind showing no sign of abating early this afternoon, the race committee decided to run the special 50th anniversary Masters Championship immediately after the final race of the Endeavour series. The 13-strong fleet made up of former Endeavour Champions from the last 50 years was, not surprisingly, extremely competitive particularly with the likes of Ian Southworth/David Hayes, Alan Gillard/Graham Machon, Bob Suggitt, Steve Tylecote, and Nick and Caroline Martin returning to Burnham specifically for this historic occasion.

Craig, like several other Masters in the fleet had been competing in this year’s Endeavour Trophy, so was obviously race-tuned for this one-off, one-race event. It wasn’t particularly surprising therefore to see the ‘master of the breeze’ take the initial lead from Tylecote/Toby Lewis, with Bithell/Birrel in third. Fireball world champion Chips Howarth and Simon Potts sailed a faultless downwind leg and once in the lead had control to the finish.

Howarth commenting on the Masters’ event explained how important it was to be racing: “It was fantastic for me because from a young age when I was sailing my Cadet at Bolton Sailing Club, I idolised the likes of Southy [Ian Southworth] and Alan Gillard. I used to really look up to these guys, so to be racing against them 25 years later, is fantastic. What’s also wonderful is there’s guys from yesteryear like the great Mike McNamara, the medium age guys like Southy, and some of the great sailors of today like Nick Craig and the young Merlin sailors. It’s a bit like racing with three generations, and it’s even better to have beaten them all.”

Prizegiving

Over a hundred visitors turned out at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club this afternoon where Stuart Munro the Commodore was joined by Robin Judah – the man behind the creation of the Endeavour Trophy 50 years ago – to present the prizes. As well as winning the magnificent Solid Silver Endeavour Trophy, Stuart Bithell and Christian Birrel – the overall winners – were awarded a £1,000 Musto voucher, and an invite for a chance to race at the Bitter End Pro Am Regatta in the British Virgin Islands.

At the prizegiving ceremony, special thanks were given to the event sponsors including Topper, Musto, Hyde Sails, English Braids, Selden, Noble Marine and Petticrows.

Musto Skiffs at the Endeavour Trophy 2010 (report by Bruce Keen & Penny Clark)

Thirty current UK National Champions, including World Champions and Olympic campaigners, gathered at Burnham on Crouch for the 50th anniversary of the Endeavour Trophy. The Endeavour trophy is a champion of champions event to find the overall UK dinghy champion. Everyone sails brand new Topper Xenons (a two person, hiking boat with asymmetric kite) kindly supplied by Topper. I was fortunate to get Penny Clark to crew for me. Penny is normally found helming a 470 on the Olympic circuit and is married to fellow Musto Skiff sailor, Russ Clark.

The event began with brand new boats being allocated early on the Friday morning. Unfortunately the wind was gusting over 30 knots, so the planned training session and race was cancelled that day, and the competitors were given an impromptu rules training session instead.

We launched on Saturday morning in light winds and tried to get to grips with sailing a Topper Xenon on the way to the start line. The race course is held in the river estuary, so is fairly limited in space and very tidal. We managed to escape the mayhem at the pin during the start of the first race and immediately gained a good lead. Unfortunately we got a bit too close to the shore whilst trying to get out of the adverse tide, and managed to run aground several times, losing out to the boats around us. We finished 8th in this race. For the rest of the day the wind continued to stay under 8 knots with some mixed results for us, scoring 8, 20, 5, 11, in the first four races. The breeze shifted around further to the East for the 5th race and dropped even further. We managed to sail into a hole up the second beat and ended up with a disappointing 16th place.

The wind increased to around 8 knots for the final race and finally allowed us both to hike out for the first time. We had a good first beat and lead around the top mark. We extended our lead until the final mark rounding, when the kite retrieval line went the wrong side of the pole and we rounded the bottom mark for the last time with our kite still halfway up the rig! Luckily Penny managed to go forward and stuff the kite into the chute, so that we could sail to the finish line, taking our first race win.

That evening, the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club hosted an excellent dinner for all the competitors and previous Endeavour trophy winners. It was hard not to be in awe of the talented sailors in the room, many of which I had only read about before.

Sunday dawned with the wind blowing 20 knots plus, with many sailors looking anxious, especially some of the light weight crews who had had some good results the day before. A few competitors (including the overnight leaders) could be seen heading to the start line with a reef in their mainsails! The first race of the day got underway with a big pileup at the pin end, with us having to duck below the pin end committee boat after the start. We had good speed in these conditions and pulled up to 2nd at the top mark, with current Fireball World Champion (and previous Musto Skiff European champion), Chips Howarth, leading. A swim for the Fireball sailors on the first gybe allowed us to take the lead for the next round. Unfortunately we were just pipped to the finish by Enterprise National Champion Nick Craig.

In the last race of the day we had a good start, but we assumed that we must have been the cause of the single recall and returned back to the start line, only to discover later that it wasn’t us. With Penny making some good tactical calls upwind, we managed to sail back through the fleet and slowly picked off boats upwind and downwind, pulling ourselves up to 2nd by the finish. Although the Merlin Rocket sailors were scored OCS in the final race they had done enough to win the event, with us finishing 6th overall. Considering that Penny and I had never raced together before the event, and were mostly competing against regular double-handed teams, we were quite pleased with our result. (The next single-handed class representative was in 19th place.)

As this was the 50th anniversary of the event, they held a “masters race” immediately after the last race for all the previous Endeavour Champions over the last 50 years. Fellow Musto skiff sailor, Ian Renilson, who had won the Endeavour in 1996, had driven down from Scotland just for this race. Unfortunately he was a bit too enthusiastic at the start and was scored OCS.

Topper Xenons may not be as light or as fast as a Musto Skiff, but thanks to some close competition and excellent organisation from RCYC, this event was great fun. Thanks to Paul Manning for providing us with accommodation and his local knowledge of the tides and wind bends on the race course. And of course, thanks to Penny for hiking harder than any other crew on the course and making my job at the back of the boat relatively easy.

Endeavour Championships Results:

Endeavour Masters results