Magic Marine Topper Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

275 sailors for the Topper Inlands at Grafham © Tim Yeates

275 sailors for the Topper Inlands at Grafham © Tim Yeates

Saturday 2nd May 2009 – 275 sailors from all around the UK had entered for the Magic Marine Topper Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club and the morning was taken up with preparing their boats for action on this fine sailing water. At the 10:30 competitor briefing the Commodore, Hilary Talbot, was pleased to welcome the Topper fraternity for the 22nd time at Grafham & the Principal race Officer, John Smalley was introduced to warm applause. John spoke of the need the know the numeral pennants which were used to indicate the number of laps/beats to be sailed, he also said that he would be whistling at sailors who were on the line between 2 & 3 minutes before the start, he hoped to avoid the blackflag. The class judge was introduced, he would be on the water to ensure fair play, to watch for rule infringements and to help the fleet to improve their knowledge of the rules.

Once the briefing was over it was evident that the light 5/6mph forecast was missing & an indefinite postponement was called before the planned 12noon start, this gave the sailors some time to socialise, play football, tune their boats & rest in readiness for the sailing. At 1:25 the tannoy announced for crews to man the Committee & rescue boats, the PRO had spotted some wisps of breeze & wanted to be ready to use them if they developed into anything decent. The regatta fleet launched first and managed to get a race started with barely enough wind to move.

The main fleet launched in similar light conditions & when the wind fixed its direction & strength to an acceptable level the first set of flights managed to get a start to Race 1 at 3:25pm with the second set of flights shortly afterwards. The wind remained fickle in strength & wandered in direction through this race but Finn Lynch took the win from Felicity Foulds and Lucy Jackson in the first flight with Alexander Alcock taking the second flight from Henry Wetherell and James Wilson. The wind decided not to play ball & this was the only race that got started on day 1, the forecast for Sunday was much improved so the fleet headed for shore to a series of Barbecues, plenty more socialising and the legendary Topper Auction that was taking place to raise funds for training. Topper International had donated a brand new boat, many other supporters of the Topper class also supplied valued items – the Sunday Briefing was to be at 9:15am.

Sunday – “a different day” was the description of Charles Glover, Topper Class Chairman in the morning briefing. He was referring to the wind that had arrived overnight in abundance, the local forecast was for 20 – 25mph & the white horses indicated that the breeze certainly was up – he continued to say that there is no shame in reefing for the smaller helms and 3 back to back races would be held. The previous evenings class auction raised £2332 for training funds and the sailors were told that one member of the class had contacted Jonathan Ross on his Saturday morning radio show and chatted about the event for 8 minutes on air!

The fleet launched on time with the aid of the parental support crew, many of whom were in drysuits under the supervision of the beachmaster Martin Pavey. The committee boat recorded a steady wind of 14 – 22mph with occasional stronger gusts throughout the race period and the PRO reported excellent Fleet starting. Only 3 boats were logged OCS in all three races and no Black flag was required, John mentioned that the fleet was making good use of the whistle between the 3 & 2 minutes, they would come up to the line when there was an evident sag & use the whistle as an audible aid to get a transit – this is a fleet that learns fast. The wind held steady until after the 1st flight had started race 3, a short postponement was needed whilst the line angle was adjusted prior to the last start of the day. The wind remained strong enough to sort out the pack with the rescue boats being used to mop up the occasional boat that needed assistance. There were race wins for Youth Squad sailor Peter Newbery (2), Alexander Alcock, Christopher Eames, Michael Beckett and Alex Benbow. With an additional 2nd place the event was won by Peter Newbery 1 point clear of Alexander Alcock with Christopher Eames 3rd in some fascinating, close races. This is the 1st win of a major event by a Youth Squad sailor under head coach Ian Patience who was a very proud man that evening.

At the Prizegiving Charles Glover thanked the many helpers that make these events happen, he particularly thanked John Smalley for making the best of the wind that appeared, John in turn thanked the sailors for coming to the committee boat to have a chat about the way the racing was going, he remarked that this enforces the claim that the Topper Class is the friendly class. Dave Cockerill remarked after the event that the quality of the sailors in the Topper fleet has always been high but he is noticing that there is now a difference, the quality of the Racing is becoming very high further down the fleet, not just at the top end – these guys are now good racers.

The 15 strong Regatta fleet, which is where many of the main fleet sailors cut their racing teeth, was won by Elliot Kusyk from Luke Berry 2nd and Cathryn Brady 3rd. It has to be noted that one member of this fleet has been in a supporting role at Topper events for quite some time, she finally took to the water and had her best race when she forgot about her mobile phone that was left onshore – she worked out that texting would best done on the downwind leg – nice one Carol!

Overall Results:

Main Fleet

Regatta Fleet