Spitfire Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club

The inaugural Inland Championships for the Spitfire Catamaran, only launched at the 2001 Dinghy Show attracted 12 boats from around the UK and France with Olympic Gold medallist Yves Loday attending from France who is the co designer of the Spitfire with another legend of Catamaran sailing Reg White. With 30 boats now on the water and orders coming in every week, Grafham Water's Cat Open provided the opportunity for all the newcomers to see how they measured up to Yves Loday who has been sailing the Spitfire non stop for the last 12 months winning many regattas on the way including The Honda Fast Cat Race around the Island of Wight in July this season.

Saturday dawned grey and overcast with a gentle breeze blowing over Grafham with two races to be sailed and the Spitfires racing within the Fast handicap fleet on the same course as the Hurricane 5.9's and Formula 18's it was going to be a busy race course.

Race 1 saw Yves Loday and James Bird crewing a catamaran for the first time not getting it all his own way with Stuart Gummer crewed by 13 year old Chris Rashley tracking his every move. Hard on the heels of the Inter 20's, the light and shifty breeze made it a difficult race but the Spitfires ability to tack quickly almost dinghy like, ensured that the leaders followed the wind shifts and were able to keep up with the much faster boats catching the Formula 18's and the Hurricane 5.9's who started some 5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively ahead.

Gummer managed to take the lead at the end of the second lap but a bad tack up the final beat, let Loday through to take Race 1, with Gummer 2nd and Susana French and Graham Hardcastle from Datchet taking 3rd spot.

Race 2 started after Lunch with the wind dropping to a zephyr it was the chance for Gummer to show Loday that a brand new boat out of the factory the week before was straight onto the pace, this time former Hurricane 5.9 sailor sailing Grant Piggott sailing with his son Liam finished 3rd.

Sunday dawned wet and with nearby Cambridge flooding, Grafham provided a wet and windy challenge to the Spitfire crews, again the Spitfires speed surprised many with the Inter 20's constantly looking over their shoulders and seeing the more manoeuvrable Spitfires of Gummer and Loday right on their heels. Experience finally came through with Loday having to battle hard to pass Gummer, but a problem with the final drop let Loday through to win, with Gummer again runner up and Piggott third, just proving to the doubters that the father son combinations would struggle in the stronger breezes.

The final race saw the breeze increase and a few spectacular capsizes amongst the fleet with special mention to Gummer and Rashly for one of the most spectacular ever seen. Loday took the gun again to secure the Championship and Gummer unable to finish watched the French crew of Fabrice Berranger and Sebastian Lefost from La Baule, finish second with the consistent Piggott in third.

The event proved just why the Spitfire is the fastest growing catamaran class in the Uk at the moment with its powerful rig and light hull weight making it a joy to sail for all weights and sexes and it was refreshing to see the number of father/son/daughter combinations proving that sailing can be fun for all the family.

Overall Results:

It was clear from the results that if the Spitfires had been racing as part of the fast handicap fleet they would have dominated results filling four of the top five places.