NSSA Inland Championships at Datchet Water Sailing Club
by Nigel Vick 26 May 2014 21:14 BST
24-25 May 2014
NSSA Inland Championships Prizewinners © Nigel Vick
The National School Sailing Association Inland Championships 2014 was hosted by Datchet Water Sailing Club over the weekend of 24-25 May. Almost 50 boats took part, with six races completed by the main fleets of Topper, Laser Radial and Handicap, whilst the Rookie fleet managed to complete seven races on a smaller course closer to the clubhouse.
Racing in the Handicap Fleet was extremely close between the Cameron Tweedle from Oxford sailing a Laser Standard and Ben Gray of Wilsonian sailing an Optimist. At the end of the event they were separated by a single point. It was, however, the Optimist of Ben Gray that took the Oxford Gong Trophy whilst Cameron Tweedle was second. In third place with a very consistent performance was the National 12 of Tom Procter and Henry Hutchinson from Cambridgeshire.
The Topper fleet were lead by Rebecca Alcock from Cambridgeshire, with team-mate Harry Moffat coming in second. In third place was Zac Sanders representing Clares Court School.
Early leader in the Laser Radial Class was Jordan Giles from Datchet Water SC with three first places on the Saturday. However, stronger winds on Sunday meant that Edward Higson from Phhs/Wssca was able to do the same on the Sunday, and they both finished on the same points score, but the tie-break went to Edward since he had the better score in the last race, so Edward Higson took the Carnac Trophy. Toby Freeland from Kent SSA was third.
In the Rookie Fleet Charlie Bartlett, of Plymouth Youth Sailing, was taking part in his first regatta in style, sailing a Topper 4.2 by putting in a score of seven bullets (1st places). Second was Edward Garnier from Worcestershire in a Topper and third Edward Rose from Upton Warren also in a Topper.
Full results and photos of the event can be found via the NSSA web page, see www.nssa.org.uk