Graduate National Championships at Chichester Yacht Club - Overall

Graduate Nationals winners Tony and Sam Cooper © Tim Harper

Sailors after racing in the Graduate Nationals © Tim Harper

Day three, the final day of this year's Graduate Nationals at Chichester Yacht Club, consisted of two races in variable light winds as the sea breeze again fought with the morning's northerly wind. At one point the two winds had a truce and neither blew before the sea breeze eventually decided to dominate.

Race one started with a northerly force two and the tide flooding on the left hand side of the first beat. With the light wind, it paid to use the tide which the leading pack of four did and successfully created a big gap between themselves and the chasing pack. However, on the final lap, the wind gods intervened and like Colleridge's Ancient Mariner the boats placed three and four were marooned in a breathless hole and could only watch the rest of the fleet sail around them in the slowly forming sea breeze which resulted in the newly appointed Class Chairman dropping from fourth position to last on the final 'run'.

Tony and Sam Cooper kept their cool and scored another bullet followed by James and Anne Gardner. The interesting battle was for third and fourth where John Clementson and Melanine Titmus were match racing Bob and Maggie Murrell: both teams needed to beat each other in the day's races to be sure of scoring second overall in the event.

After lunch, the final race was commenced. Getting the start right was important for this race. Those boats closest to the committee boat encountered the least adverse tide and were to benefit from the inshore counter current later in the same beat. This spread the fleet out considerably. Again, it was Clementson and Murrell battling for second position which was key part of this race as the wind filled in and the crews moved to sit on the side decks. In the end it was John and Melanie first, Bob and Maggie second, and having their best race of the series, Rob and Sally Riddelsdell third.

This meant that Tony and Sam Cooper of King George were overall winners of this year's Graduate National Championships. Second was John and Melanie and third were Bob and Maggie. The best team went to Chipstead Sailing Club, female helm was Ann Bottoms and under 18 helm was Ben Hill.

Overall Results:
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