Magic Marine Topper Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Prize winners at the Magic Marine Topper Inlands © Miles Palmer

A huge turnout of 258 sailors and their supporters arrived at Grafham Water for the 2006 Magic Marine Topper Inland Championships and were greeted by a pleasant breeze. The competitors were registered by the Topper Class’ ever efficient secretary Susan Wellerd, and split into to four flights with the intention of completing two round robin series of races over the two days.

Mike Beloe, in his last year as PRO for the event, laid an excellent trapezoid course with about a half mile beat towards the North West, which for those of you who know Grafham meant that the conditions would be shifty. As those who know Mike will know there is only one general recall after a Blue Peter start sequence after that all other starts will be under Black Flag. Suffice to say all races were started with the black flag rule in place.

The first pair of flights under take the trapezoid course with an additional beat on the outer loop, by the leeward mark, Ben Palmer was in the lead followed by Peter Irwin and Max Robinson. The priority was to hunt for pressure which was tricky as there seemed to be no rhythm. Peter and Max went left, whilst Ben covered the fleet, this worked for the two lefties and the race finished Peter, Max, Ben and Tom Weatherhead close on his heals. The second pair of flights got away cleanly and Andrew Brown went out to the right to be greeted by a pleasant shift and made the top mark with a significant lead, which he never lost, Matt Johnson was second closely followed by Bleddyn Mon, the current Magic Marine Topper National Champion.

With the conditions tricky and the racing so close it was clear that it would be unlikely for any single sailor to win all of their races, so consistency was going to be the name of the game. Race 2a was won by Max Robinson, followed by Alex Grassick and Gareth Henshall. Race 2b was won by Bleddyn Mon with Freddie Conner second and Katy Shepherd, who as an adult sailor was heard to say: “the quality of the fleet was great, the friendly atmosphere made the racing really enjoyable, although you had to make a good start or you were toast.”

The final pair of races for the Saturday were undertaken in a dying breeze, race 3a got away cleanly Sam Knight showed a good turn of speed and was able to hold off Peter Irwin and Tom Weatherhead. However, the sailors in race 3b seemed to switch off and starting became a problem. This meant that 22 competitors picked up a Black flag penalty. When eventually the race got away cleanly Emily Jackson established a nice lead which up the second beat was tensely held as the wind shifted hard right with Jack Hopkins and Phil McCoy chasing hard.

By the end of day one Bleddyn Mon was in the lead with 8 points followed by a group of 5 sailors with 3 points separating so Sunday looked set to be a great day of competition with all to play for.

As the competitors arrived on Sunday a pleasant 8-10 knot breeze was in place but from the North East, which was not forecast. Mike Beloe eager to get proceedings underway launched the fleet and almost immediately the wind shifted and died. After an hour long wait the fleet was sent ashore and later all racing on the Sunday was cancelled due to lack of any breeze.

This year a number of sailors were using the 4.2m sail which allows smaller sailors to use the Topper effectively. A new award, the 4.2 Topper Inland Champion was awarded to Robbie Robinson.

At the prize giving Miles Palmer, Chairman ITCA(GBR) thanked Grafham for their hospitality and particularly Hilary Talbot for the organisation which is second to none. Mike Beloe was thanked for his long service to the class and for his excellent judgement. The many rib drivers, results takers and all of support team were thanked for making the event run so smoothly. A lifetime award was presented to Nick Skinner who over the last decade has given so much to the class, in particular in his leadership of the Youth Squad.

Finally Bleddyn Mon was crowned the Magic Marine Topper Inland Champion for 2006, in his acceptance speech his thanked all of his supporters including Welsh Yachting and most importantly his parents.

Full overall results are available at results06.grafham.org/topper_Inlands_h.html