Sanders Sails Folkboat Nats at Royal Lymington Yacht Club

Folkboat nationals at Lymington © Eddie Mays

Folkboat nationals at Lymington © Eddie Mays

Folkboat nationals at Lymington © Eddie Mays

This year’s Folkboat Nordic Nationals, sponsored by Sanders Sails and hosted by the Royal Lymington Y.C., attracted the biggest fleet for several years. With 19 boats entered the expectations for the weekend were high and so it was a shame that on Friday afternoon there was never enough breeze to lay a sensible course. The upside was that with racing abandoned everyone was back at the club in good time for the championship dinner.

The disappointments of the first day were soon forgotten when the boats arrived at the start area to the East of the river entrance to find a good F3 – 4 Southwesterly breeze that slowly increased to over 20 knots in the gusts during the last race. P.R.O. Jane Pitt-Pitts and her team sent the fleet away promptly on a windward / leeward course. Last year’s champion crew, Stuart & Caroline Watson and Matthew Jones on ‘Crackerjack’, made the best possible start to their defence of their title by taking the first gun ahead of ‘Madelaine’ (Edward Donald / Rob Reed / Simon Osgood). Chris Hills’ ‘Padfoot’ squeezed home 3rd less than a boat’s length ahead of ‘Boomerang’ (Rory Heron / Nick Rogers / Chester Maudslay) with Mark Crader’s ‘Moonraker’ 2 secs behind in 5th.

The same course was used for the next race and this time it was ‘Boomerang’, with Olympic medallist Nick Rogers on board, who took the win with ‘Crackerjack’ 2nd and Jeremy Austin’s ‘Tak’, with Ado Jardine helming, finishing 3rd. Further down the fleet the action was just as fierce. Rick Otten, ‘Yukon’, battled ‘Moonraker’ for 6th place and won by two secs whilst James Harrison’s ‘Tagomago’ finished 10th, half a foredeck ahead of Keith Whitelaw on ‘Good Shepherd’.

With the tide now going west through the Hurst Narrows the course was changed to one that took the fleet around the cans. The strength of tide certainly fooled the fleet and with ‘Boomerang’ leading the way most of them arrived at the start line about 10 secs too soon. The preparatory signal was changed to the ‘I’ flag, order was restored and the fleet got away cleanly at the 2nd attempt. Staying out in the tide was crucial to the first beat and it was ‘Madelaine’ who arrived at the top mark with a small lead over ‘Boomerang’. The run back across the tide saw the first seven boats slowly draw away from the rest. ‘Crackerjack’ closed up slightly on this leg and when the leaders dropped their kites for the reach across to the shore only ‘Padfoot’ continued to fly hers. It was difficult to see that she gained any advantage but it looked good and tempted ‘Boomerang’ into setting hers for the last part of the leg. The main advantage these two gained was at the gybe mark when the others were getting their kites up and flying. ‘Boomerang’ narrowed the gap on ‘Madelaine’ but after a brief luffing match and strong words to his crew ‘Madelaine’ held her lead. It was at the bottom mark, with just a windward / leeward sausage left to complete, that the real tussle started. ‘Madelaine’ still held a small lead, ‘Boomerang’ was now fending off the advances of ‘Crackerjack’ with ‘Tak’, ‘Padfoot’, ‘Yukon’, ‘Moonraker’ & Roger Granger’s ‘Tattarat’ all snapping at their heels. It was nip & tuck all the way but on the short beat back to the finish line ‘Crackerjack’ nosed ahead of ‘Madelaine’ to win by 3 secs and lead the tired but happy fleet overnight.

With the first day’s racing completed the teams for Team Trophy were selected. First presented in 2009 the Team Trophy pairs the top & the bottom of the rankings at the end of the first day’s racing together for the rest of the championship with all the races to count and the winning team the one with the lowest aggregate score at the end of racing.

Sunday morning saw very similar conditions to the day before and PRO Pitt-Pitts was able to get the fleet away on time, first time on the last of the east going flood tide. Race 4 of the weekend saw a ’trapezoidal’ style course set. ‘Tak’ had been having a relatively quiet regatta came to life in this race and had established a good lead by the line with ‘Padfoot’ 2nd and ‘Boomerang’ 3rd. ‘Tagomago’, who seemed to be specialising in close finishes, just held off ‘Tattarat’ by the proverbial 2 secs to finish 8th.

With a quick turnaround the fleet were despatched on Race 5 with a similar course set. Sailing very consistently ‘Padfoot’ had another 2nd place but couldn’t quite keep up with ‘Crackerjack’, whose 3rd win consolidated her overall lead. ‘Boomerang’, ‘Tak’ & ‘Madelaine’ were overlapped at the finish making the outcome of the final race crucial in deciding the championship.

For this vital race the fleet were sent on a four lap windward / leeward dash. John Whyte helming ‘Scaramouche’ misjudged the start and was only the 2nd boat of the weekend to be called OCS, joining Keith Whitelaw’s ‘Good Shepherd’ from Race 1 in that select club. ‘Crackerjack’ finished a convincing winner with ‘Boomerang’ in 2nd and Rick Otten bringing ‘Yukon’ home in 3rd, his best finish of the weekend.

After ‘Crackerjack’ had discarded their 6th place in Race 4 they retained their National title with a very healthy scoreline of 4 wins & one 2nd place. They also combined with ‘Good Shepherd’ to win the Team Trophy. The full results can be found at the Folkboat website.

The next major event for the Folkboat Association is Folkboat Week, which will be hosted by the Royal Solent Y.C. at Yarmouth from 16th to 21st August, and looking further ahead 2011 will be the 50th anniversary year of the British Folkboat Association.

Overall Results:
If you finished in the top ten at the Folkboat nationals then enter your Gear Guide information here

Team Trophy:

1st Crackerjack & Good Shepherd
2nd Madelaine & Tagomago
3rd Yukon & Tattarat