Curradinghy 420 Nationals at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Overall

Curradinghy 420 Nationals in Torbay © Graham Wallis

Curradinghy 420 Nationals in Torbay © Graham Wallis

The morning after the Black Tie Dinner dawned and we were greeted with drizzle and 12-13 knots of breeze but with more forecast later. The older departing youth squad sailors were feeling a bit the worse for wear and tried to give themselves more recovery time by hiding the tally board but their attempts failed and the fleet launched for a nearly on time start!

The wind didn't play ball to start with. It shifted and dropped away to nothing so the first race of the day was abandoned. On the restart the wind picked up to 10-12 knots. The wind continued to build throughout the race and having blown away the cobwebs Craig Dibb and Charlie Cox, who had also celebrated his 18th birthday the night before, crossed the line first, closely followed by Annabel Vose and Ed Riley with Callum "The Torch" Airlie and Joe Butterworth in 3rd. Neil "The Old Man" Marsden and Kirsty Urwin finished 5th, did their maths and sailed ashore for a well earned rest.

Before the start of the 14th and final race of the series the wind continued to build and the mist started to roll in as the rain continued to fall. The fleet got away with a clean start to play hunt the windward mark in the murk but, with gusts building, a number of boats decided that they would start to take swimming lessons and the safety fleet were kept busy for the first time in the week. As some boats chose to retire and sail in those potentially in the prizes and those determined to finish carried on. Charlie and Craig again flew across the line first to take the gun, with Annabel and Ed in 2nd and Tim Gratton and Chris Taylor in 3rd.

After a fantastic week's sailing, and for the first time in a number of years, a full series of races being sailed, The 2012 CurraDinghy GBR Open and National Championships was won by Neil Marsden and Kirsty Urwin. Isabel FitzGerald and Kat Colvin became Ladies Champions, Annabel Vose and Ed Riley are Youth Champions and Scott Wallis and Josh Voller are Junior Champions. Our congratulations go to Neil, who at the age of 50, proved that age is no barrier to sailing a 420. He did however explain that he needed the assistance of Kirsty, to drag him around the course and hold off the challenge from the rest of the fleet who were hot on his heels. Kirsty is a recent bronze medallist at the ISAF's and became Ladies Junior European Champion with Annabel Vose at the helm in Lake Garda last week.

The Class would like to thank the Royal Torbay Yacht Club for hosting the event and providing such a fantastic welcome to everyone both on and off the water. We would also like to thank our sponsors, CurraDinghy, Barclays and North Sails for all the prizes.

It was great to see so many new boats joining the fleet and in particular our congratulations go to Daniel Whiteley and James Clemetson who won the free loan of a 420 from CurraDinghy for a year to get their 420 careers well under way. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Inlands to be held at Burton Sailing Club on 29th and 30th September 2012.

Overall Results:
If you finished in the top ten at the 420 nationals then enter your Gear Guide information here