Radio A Nationals at West Lancashire Yacht Club

by John Hivey 28 Jul 2004 10:01 BST 24-25 July 2004

It was fine, but breezy, weather which welcomed a fleet of 33 Radio A class skippers to Southport Marine Lake for the first Radio Control sailing National Championships to be hosted by West Lancashire Yacht Club.

Although some of the visitors were from clubs as local as Birkenhead and Fleetwood, most had travelled long distances to be at Southport for the weeekend and the temporary village of motor homes looked very impressive on the lake shore.

The shore of the marine lake used as the docking area at the 24 Hour Race made an excellent control (and launch) area for the radio boats and the path was well walked over the weekend as skippers and observers followed their boats up and down the race course just in front of the clubhouse.

As is usual for radio events a larger number of races were sailed than would be the case for the dinghies more usually seen on the Marine Lake and the weekend commenced in somewhat breezy conditions with an enthusiastic fleet of 33 boats. Colin Smith, from Birkenhead, stamped his authority on the event with a win, in his heat, for both of the first two races and good results for the rest of the day.

Early on the morning of the second day the weather was far less welcoming with rain and even higher winds which caused a number of boats to retire as the weather proved to be just a little too demanding. However the remaining competitors gave an excellent demonstration of how these most elegant of radio control boats should be sailed.

The event was won by Colin Smith from Birkenhead with an impressive nine first places. Peter Wiles from Poole in Dorset took second place with another good performance which included 3 first and 7 seconds. Third and Fourth places went to Lester Gilbert and Graham Bantock, both from Chelmsford who also had numerous first and second places between them.

The full results are shown on the >WLYC website.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	Pts
1st	164	Colin Smith	Birkenhead	32
2nd	43	Peter Wiles	Poole	43
3rd	105	Lester Gilbert	Chelmsford	52
4th	36	Graham Bantock	Chelmsford	57
5th	69	Colin Cooper	Gosport	69
6th	96	Peter Fothergill	Chichester	86
7th	162	Chris Harris	Bourneville	96
8th	67	Derek Priestly	Fleetwood	97
9th	62	Mark Holt	Chelmsford	118
10th	22	Robbie Newitt	Yeovil	127