Zhik 29er National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Overall

Zhik 29er Nationals at Hayling day 3 © David Healey

Bowerman and Peach victorious

At the completion of the scheduled 18 races in the Zhik UK national championships the title was not decided until the last seconds of the last race. No championship could be as close as this one which literally went right down to the wire.

Going into the last race of the championships Scottish pairing of Gillies Munro and Daniel Harris had eliminated the days starting ten points deficit from Owen Bowerman (Hayling Island YC) and Morgan Peach (Royal Torbay) and were now on equal points.

It all came down to the last race where at the mid way point Munro and Harris were somewhere in mid fleet having gone the wrong way down the run whilst Bowerman and Peach were well positioned in 4th place. Munro and Harris sailed the second beat perfectly and closed the gap significantly and on the downwind leg to the finish they showed superior boatspeed and were hunting Bowerman and Peach down. Safety officer and father Roddy Bowerman was on hand to see the boats finally cross the line overlapped and congratulate his son and crew. The finish was a fitting end to the week where competition had been really close and many crews were capable of winning.

Third place overall went to Mimi El Khazindar and Ben Batten who had sailed the week with consistent speed and found their last days Doctors and nurses fancy dress had not hindered their sailing. The performance of the day went to Tom Methven and Rob Lloyd who having scored a sixth in the first race of the day finished the week with two bullets which moved them up to finish fourth overall.

First Overseas boat and sixth overall went to the Indian crew of Kelapanda Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar.

First adults and eleventh overall went to the experienced pairing of Ollie Cooper and James Poyner from Hayling Island Sailing club.

First Females and twelfth overall were Ruth Allen (Emsworth SC) and Alice Masterman (HISC) and top junior (helm and crew both under 16 are the start of the event) went to Joshua Belben (Stokes Bay SC) and Robert Masterman (HISC) who also finished 23rd and are clearly a pair to watch out for next year.

In the silver fleet the places did not change at the top of the fleet on the final day with Lindsay Johnstone and Fraser Kitson Jones (Largs SC) scoring a 3, 1, 3 to extend their lead from the last minute partnership of Tilly James (New Quay YC) and Harry Bowerman (HISC), the pair had never sailed together until they sailed out to the start of the first race yet managed to finish the week with a win. Third place were local junior sailors of James Eales and Henry Collings.

With the depth of talent and spread of ages shown in the fleet this week there is no doubt that the class is developing top sailors who will be well served to gain GBR medals in the future.

As is now customary in the class the last day was fancy dress day and the sailors put in some great efforts to see penguins, doctors, nurses, commandos and many other characters sailing off the beech.

It was a change of clothes again for the prize giving where the sailors again really made an effort and dressed up in suits and black ties and many partying the night away.

Special thanks must go to Hayling Island Sailing Club and race officer Tim Hancocks. The experience of the race team showed as races were sailed to schedule and results always available promptly.

Final thanks to Zhik who sponsored the event and donated some superb prizes, next year the fleet moves to Scotland to experience the hospitality of North Berwick, the gauntlet has been laid down.

Overall Results:

Gold Fleet

Silver Fleet