The Endeavour Trophy is this weekend at Royal Corinthian.

We usually have a guess as to who will win, so as I'm first I'll go for Nick Craig to make it 4 on the trot!

Any others likely to do well?

Well I know who I want to win

I havn't seen a list of entries ...

Nick is definetly favourite as long as it is not light.

Weather forecasts are mixed so my money would be on Roger rather than Nick but we will see if we can upset the pair of them and have some fun. It could be quite open this year.

You never know Rick you may do well but who is crewing, probably the alf.

See you all there.

Bye for now

Barnsie

Best of luck to all competing.  It's a great event, superbly hosted and managed by the Royal Corinthian.

I would have gone for Nick Craig in any conditions in RS400s but the Xenons are a lot less powered up, and I think he'll suffer if it's light.

I'd go for Roger Gilbert if it's light, with Nick a close second.  But there are any number of people who can pull off a surprise, not least the race officer.  I did it one year, when the RO counted the three boats that WEREN'T over the line in one race and just OCS'd everybody else.   That meant that most of the fleet were sailing without discard (effectively), which changed the landscape a bit. 

Enjoy.

No idea who's favourite, but will be loyal to the Weir Wood brigade in the L2K and I14.  I'd love to actually watch the event.

Surely he was just applying the rules, wasn't he?

Hi Hector

Thanks for that. Looks good.

Quite open except for the top 2 who do it year in year out have the experience. Recon their are 6 teams that stand out, then a further 4 followed by the others. Should be a good weekend. Only possible issue is the wind which could change the whole concept of the event.

See you there.

Bye for now

Roger Gilbert beat Nick Caig in the recent 400 Inlands.  My money is on Steve Tylecote and Toby Lewis, but why no 200 team?

Show off! We're still going to hand it to you at the Steam Racing

You can't flaunt your freshers...it's just not cool!

So Laser 4000 groupie, declare who you are and tell the full story. If I remember correctly it was Cappacino and we were pinned by as taking evasive action for another incident involving other boats.

Anyway Looking to having some fun with TC as missed the Nationals in Cappacino this year with Hillary as we were both at the Merlin Rocket Nationals chasing Roger and James.

Forecast looks as been the main problem as looking to be very light and easterly

Bye for now.

Barnsie

Given he is a 4 tonner sailor, and ex freddy as well, and not Pete, leaves just a few. Did he not buy pocket battleship off you?

Shame I cant be there too, trust me to be busy the first time I qualify.

Andy Mck

Yorkshire Dales SC has representatives in 3 boats (RS 500, Vortex, and Scorpion).  So I'd like all of them to do well.

Not bad for a club once described by someone at the RYA (who was supposed to be helping us with a funding bid)  as 'just a small northern club'.

Ah Greg see you at Weymouth then in the B14 when no doubt you will be sailing around in your L4000. Andy Mckee, what are you sailing these days or is a doctor's life not now suited to sailing.

Hopefully see you both for a beer in a few weeks. Bye for now

I can see a couple of pro sailors on the list plus a couple of sailmakers ...

Mostly Corinthians; I don't really see it makes any difference...

Interesting point that Rick...

Should all entries be ISAF Cat 1 in line with the history of the event trophy (see http://www.royalcorinthian.co.uk/endeavourhistory.php - http://www.royalcorinthian.co.uk/endeavourhistory.php  for a potted history).

Or is that exactly the point, it's the spirit of the Corinthian to show the pro's that they can compete just as well, and without being paid.  Reading the history, the amatuers came closer than any other UK crew to winning the Cup!

I've certainly enjoyed sailing against some of the country's best pro's and amateurs in the past at the Endeavour.  I remember one year, smoking downwind in an RS400, crew shouts "watch out, there's something in the water!", and as we zipped past, the "something" turned out to be Ben Ainslie who'd fallen out...

Agreed; I will never get to play football with Robin Van Persie (although I did once play against Jamie Redknap) but I do get the chance to sail against pro's ...

Hector,

Agreed, and I'm not aware of any splits in the dinghy market.

However, it's pretty common in big boats.  I was asked to clarify my ISAF ranking before I could sail a J80 event earlier in the year. 

And a friend of mine was potentially going to be dinged out of Cork Week just for baby sitting his own boat (as a passenger) whilst the boat was being chartered out for a corporate regatta.

Sign of the times I'm afraid.

Paul

Hi Barnsie

Sailing a new singlehander, the red eye solution, which is a cracking little boat. Have been doing that since birth of first child curtailed my wifes sailing. Having winter off for hopefully last set of exams, in meantime may try to persuade a guy I know, who has one of the olympic freddies in his back garden to let me have that for a mark 4.

Cheers

Andy

Well done Mr Tylecote. Just goes to show, after 61 years, the Firefly is still the boat to get the highest quality racing in! Hmm, must finish rebuilding mine, rather than playing around on the computer...

Interesting results.  Not many Assymetric sailors at the top of the results. 

Not so ... Steve Tylecote also sails a Musto Skiff. Roger also won the RS200 Nationals and Keith (aka Hector) was 4th so if you want to go down that road it was assy white wash as Nick Craig has also just brought a Musto Skiff.

The event was very tough and Steve and Toby sailed fantastically well to lift the trophy; congratulations to them.

I don't think I have ever enjoyed such tight racing as this event; sailing in the Xenons was a real leveller. It was possible to go from 10th to almost last in a single run if you got it wrong.

Did the Greenhalghs' toys exit their pram? I think it's a pretty poor show to go home from this event whatever your results on the first day.

on the first day they got 2 DNF/DNC/OCS or somethings

Maybe next year it should not be the same weekend as a RYA National Ranker which stops any of the Olympic guys from coming

Damn !!!!

Is there a decent report anywhere Rick?  I'd love to hear a bit more about it.

There was a lot of media at the event including TV. It is a well sponsored event so no doubt will be well covered in due course ...

have a look at the daily sail.

Marvellous.

The 5000 being the boat must have been a day that passed me by...

Mike

What are the rules to get an invite ?

No cat sailors at all...

But having said that, if it was me I'd probably capsize as soon as I got on it

I think it's is and always has been a dinghy event ... probably best to ask the club.

Why not organsie a cat version; you could do it in Dart 16's ...

Yonks ago Robin Smith got invited to represent the Hurricanes.

Dart 16....Shudders....Wonder if we could get the Laser center to sponser it....

I'd like to echo Ricks comments  - the event was very demanding  - by the end of the 5th race on Saturday I was ready to drop. Any mistakes were punished by a loss of 10 or more places. For instance, we once trawled a kite at the leeward mark and went from 4th to virtually last in the short time it took to sort and by having to eat dirty wind for a half a beat! The OCS was a bit of a downer - making starting a 'don't be seen' exercise resulting in some quite average results in amongst the good ones. But in the races we did do well, and after the 'safe' start, things went quite close to perfectly - and I'd have to admit to the odd (calculated) gamble paying off.

The Endeavour Dinner on Saturday evening was very pleasant - it was good to chat to many of the other teams and hear their own tales of "if only.."  The event generates respect for sailors in other fleets - it's good to realise that the standard is pretty high at the front of most of the fleets represented and that even the favourites could struggle if they were dragged into the pack.

Considering the forecast, it was suprisingly breezy and in my view proved a good test so Steve and Tobys performance made them very deserving winners - Congratulations guys.

Some photos -

Below Barnsie - wandering if he can get away with fitting his trampolines!

Below that,  me and my super crew! (And first female) Elaine.

More like he's just lining up his next victim ...

A full report is now online with 30 photos

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=138715 - Clicky

Great stuff.  Thanks for the feedback chaps.

As you can see from my original post, the line in bold was not something I realistically thought I'd hear / read - of course, he did do it! 

Nonetheless, a good weekend was made excellent because

• All three boats from my club - Yorkshire Dales SC - were in the top 10 (Vortex. Scorpion, RS500)
• I got a message from the YDSC treasurer saying that the club had just been awarded a Sport Council lottery grant for £245000 - Yahoo - a clubhouse with showers next year (currently portacabins / portaloos).
• Meeting my crew for first time on Friday - I knew straight away that we were going to have a fun weekend - regardless of results - and we certainly did.

Hi Folks

Well a weekend of very close racing and very close finishes on the water. Steve and Toby sailed a sublime event, recovering more than once from potentially disasterous starts to races. As some fell by the wayside, they held their series together.

As Rick and Hector have said, the racing was a case of rock and roll with boats gaining or losing many places on one decision. In Race 7 as http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/photos/?s=64&PID=24620 - http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/photos/?s=64&PID=24620  shows, the first 4 boats went down the right bank of the river on the run and were dumped to the back third by the leeward mark with only RS Feva getting back to a respectable position of 13th. Unfortunately for us this happened on three occasions but we were not the only ones to see this happen.

If going to the event in the future, try and get a go in either a Xenon or similar craft prior to attending as they are very different in their handling to anything I personally have sailed. They are hard to judge for acceleration and deceleration (rumour hull weight 130 kg) and so take some getting used to. So the training with Adam on Friday is a must. Few of the teams that normally sail the performance classes only, showed well. We particularly struggled to get to grips with the Xenon's handling characteristics as did many others, The slowest boat we now sail is a Merlin Rocket and this is by many classes performance a fast boat which handles incredibly well. The margins between success and mediocre at this level is very small and adapting to boat and very good tactics in the conditions is everything. In windier conditions the results may have been very different.

Int 14 sailors Rob and Pete got 2 OCSs starting at the pin end and it seems decided they had had enough and so headed home on Saturday evening.

The service offered by Topper could not be faulted and thanks Russ for the new lowers on Sunday (others to short (suppliers fault)). KIm and his team did a really good job on the water and Edwin's shore team managed us well ashore.

Definetly worth attending but make sure you take some Duck Tape, 5mm elastic and hiking shorts (we did not) as you will need them.

Bye for now.

We've done this discussion before. http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1111&KW=Xenon&PN=0&TPN=1 - http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1 111&KW=Xenon&PN=0&TPN=1

In short, a good boat for the event as it provides as near a level playing field as any boat could. Probably not a bad family racer especially for anyone with no time for maintenance. Reasonably good package at the price.

Contrary to the post above Steve Tylecote did in fact sail with a "Firefly" crew at the Endeavour.  "Tobytastic" Lewis sailed with Firefly Class Chairman, Damian Boreham, at this years Firefly Nationals, finishing 10th overall.  Toby has also done lots of team racing in Fireflys.

Like most of us Toby is also seen in a wide variety of other boats!  Single class fanatics are rare in dinghy sailing these days.

And at this point I'd like to add my congratulations to Steve and Toby on an awesome achievement.  Having spent most of the last 13 years trying to beat Steve round the course in a Firefly I already knew he was a great sailor - now the rest of you have realised!

Good on you steve.

The freddy is the most competative class I have sailed in, all the boats go about the same speed, its all about work and tactics and boat handling,  and has a wide range of weight carrying abilities, maybe the ideal endeavor boat.

Same reasons it has become the team racing boat of choice once again. Opps opened a can of worms there

Andy Mck

Did not realise.  I guess what I actually meant was "did not sail with his normal Firefly crew". 

Interesting to note that what must be a very heavy boat - it is rotomoulded and long - still does not carry much more weight than say something like a Merlin.  Are the sails big enough?

I think the style of racing at the Endeavour means it's not really a boatspeed event so crew weight will not be as big a factor as it would be on the sea.

For my pennies worth, having done this years event, would say that the Merlin and Xenon crew weights are comparable and if racing at that level, you can be to heavy. Would think the ideal weight would be between 20.5 - 23.0 stone. More weight and you seemed to struggle but this could also be down to other factors.

Bye for now

Not sure what Steve weighs? He's not skinny so maybe 12 - 13st?

If so that would put him + tobytastic in the 21 - 22st range. Worth remembering though that these guys (and gals) are hiking very hard. I think we can assume that most folk who are likely to be attracted to the Xenon will be less fit and/or have a reduced willingness to hike / withstand pain! Taking that into account, another stone or two and a little less athleticism would probably be more manageable and realistic.

Of course if it had blown harder, we may all be saying 24st+.

Beleieve Zoe and Graham weigh in between 18 - 19 stone. Having watched them, they were hunting for height rather than footing off like Steve and Toby (we lost height on both and still not sure why as the slot etc and lechs were looking good both in the boat and photos!). Steve weighs in at about 78 kg and Toby 58 kg equalling 21.4 stone (we weighed in at 151 kg (23.7 stone)). Believe the Musto boys were in the same weight range.  If a force 5 believe the results may ahve been different as Hector says.

However, we are looking at very small margins and in a less competitive fleet, 25 stne would probably be fine.

Bye for now