Illusion National Championship at Bembridge Sailing Club

by Rudy Jurg 1 Mar 2010 11:45 GMT 27-28 February 2010

With a horrendous weather forecast of severe winter storms, snow and rain for the weekend of the Illusion National Championship 26 sailors still braved the elements and made it to the start-line. Luckily the ‘tropical’ Isle of Wight missed most of the weather although it did rain about 1” creating exceptionally high water in Bembridge Harbour. Between the clouds however occasionally rays of sunshine could be seen which was nice considering water temperature is around 3C and air around 5c. Saturdays racing got off at 0900, a struggle for a few. The wind was from the South West, force 3-5 backing later to the South. Race office Mike Samuelson had set a very long line and course to avoid big pile ups at the start and top mark. However it was still crowded and plenty of pushing on the line which was to be expected which such a line up of top Solent sailors.

Unfortunately in race one Rudy Jurg and Graham Bailey got of a bad start by both being over the line. Graham Sunderland, who again showed of one of his latest newly designed sails, took the gun for first place followed by Justin Biddle and Mark Downer. Race 2 quickly started and this time it was Julia Bailey who was over the line, Graham Sunderland quickly took the lead which he would not give away by winning again. It did not seem to matter which way you went up the beat, both right and left paid although big gains and losses were made if out of phase with the numerous shifts caused by clouds quickly passing overhead. Graham Bailey has mastered the skill of spotting shifts and followed the leader close on his heels. In third place was Mark Downer who with exceptional boat speed seems to race through the fleet no matter where started.

In race 3 it was again Graham Sunderland who took the gun, followed by Graham Bailey but this time it was a delighted Raymond Simmonds who took 3rd place.

As the weather forecast for Sunday was very bad with 60mph winds forecasted the race officer wisely decided to run a fourth race so that we would get a series in should conditions on Sunday not allow racing. A clean start with nobody over the line, Rudy Jurg made it first to the weather mark by holding the fleet out to the left, he was delighted but lost it on the run. Philip Bown had his own tactics and breeze and powered to a second place with Graham Bailey just in front of him. With a one-design fleet such as the Illusions it’s the middle of the fleet were you can see some interesting interruptions of the 3 boat length rule and port starboard however in general the fleet was well behaved and people taking their turns when they infringed other sailors.

In the evening there was a Illusion Class Dinner which was attended by almost all sailors and Class Captain Justin Biddle made a speech to thank the sailors, club and race officers for their efforts to make this event such a success.

On Sunday morning a few people looked worse for wear from the night before and there was a little apprehension on the dock side because of the weather forecast. However it turned out to be a lovely day with West-North-Westerly winds ranging 4-5 Beaufort. A little damp at times but when sailing you do not notice these things.

As 4 races had already been sailed on Saturday only 2 more had to be sailed on Sunday to sail a full championship. Mark Downer thrives in these strong conditions probably helped by his 6'8" stature and exceptional arm length to spread out the spinnaker on down wind legs. He won the first race of the day with a commanding lead. Graham Bailey came second and Graham Sunderland 3rd. Barnaby Edwards had a good day and finished 4th much to his own surprise but he sailed cleanly and was in phase with the wind. Down it came to the last race to determine the top 3 places although plenty of battles were fought further down the rankings.

Mark Downer and Rudy Jurg shot off again on the pin end, however the race officer had spotted them over the line probably not helped by being almost the only coloured boats in a white hulled fleet. They went off home early and this left the battle for a top place between Graham Sunderland and Graham Bailey. After a very close race lead most of the way again by Barnaby Edwards. In the end it was Graham Sunderland who took the coveted half model of an Illusion home as the overall winner of the 2010 Illusion National Championship. 2nd Graham Bailey and 3rd Mark Downer.

The 4 ladies who raced this weekend have their own cup and it was Julia Bailey who took this prize home. As the class has a wide age range of sailors a price was awarded for first over 65 to Philip Bown, 1st over 75 to Phillip Woodword. A prize for Most Improved was awarded to Rudy Jurg despite being twice OCS. David Palmer took home the 1st visitors prize.

Next event is the Spring Plate on 13/14th March.

For more information see the following web pages; www.illusionclass.org, www.bembridgesc.net and www.facebook.com/pages/Illusion-Class/248612339896

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	Graham Sunderland	80	1	1	1	4	3	1	7
2	Graham Bailey	132	S	2	2	1	2	3	10
3	Mark Downer	124	3	3	6	7	1	S	20
4	Piers Thomas	107	4	5	13	3	7	5	24
5	Barnaby Edwards	121	6	8	9	13	4	2	29
6	Raymond Simonds	23	7	9	3	12	10	7	36
7	Philip Bown	130	13	6	7	2	11	11	37
8	Justin Biddle	40	2	R	8	16	8	4	38
9	Julia Bailey	157	5	S	16	6	5	8	40
10	Rupert Holmes	47	17	10	4	15	9	9	47
11	Sue Thomas	155	10	15	11	11	12	6	50
12	Rudy Jurg	26	S	11	5	5	6	S	54
13	Jo Downer	123	9	7	23	8	13	R	60
14	Alastair Speare-Cole	135	19	14	14	9	15	10	62
15	Colin Simonds	986	N	12	12	10	17	12	63
16	Richard Ambler	156	8	16	21	17	14	15	70
17	Philip Woodford	158	12	13	15	24	20	13	73
18	Xander Shaw	15	18	4	19	21	18	R	80
19	John Raymond	151	11	20	10	14	S	S	82
20	Robin Ebsworth	12	15	21	20	18	16	16	85
21	Andrew Christie	149	21	19	25	22	19	14	95
22	Andrew Eddy	27	14	17	22	19	S	S	99
23	Nick Wakefield	152	20	18	18	20	S	S	103
24	Kass	471	22	23	24	26	21	17	107
25	David Palmer	31	16	R	17	23	S	S	110
26	Tom Wilson	9	23	22	R	25	S	S	124