Noble Marine Radial Inland Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Noble Marine Radial Inlands prize winners © Ken Falcon

The forecast for the Radial Inlands on October 31st /November 1st was somewhat variable to say the least, first of all staying maybe too windy to sail, early on in the week, then suddenly it was looking too light, then with a few days to go everything was looking perfect. However it was a false hope and the closer we got to the weekend the worse the forecast got, with the light winds dominating the country. Indeed on Sunday, the thick fog caused the cancellations of over 50 flights from London Heathrow and there were still transport difficulties on Monday morning.

The last weekend National UKLA racing of the year welcomed the Irish team plus many new sailors to the fleet, making the transition from the Junior class. Some of the old guard were off racing in the sunnier climate of Abu Dhabi at the final of the Sailing World Cup series (and in preparation for the Women's Radial World Championships and final Olympic Qualifier of 2015 to be held in Oman shortly after). Ironically the conditions in Abu Dhabi were unusually fresh, with hiking conditions all week, whereas the conditions in the UK were unusually light (maybe unfairly everyone seems to assume the Inlands will be cold, wet and windy but none of this was true on this occasion).

This didn't deter the 77 keen sailors who came to Grafham Water and those who arrived early on Saturday in good breeze, only to sadly watch it die during the day. In order to get the races away as quickly as possible the fleet was split and race Officer Simon Dabson soon got the first race off, despite one general recall for the start of the second fleet.

Before the start sailors could be seen reaching up and down the line trying to work out the best place to start with the wind backing. The shift favoured the left but there was more pressure on the right hand side of the course. The committee boat was originally biased but was extremely crowded and become less biased, and there were some last minute changes of mind and a lot of bunching, but the first group start went first time.

It was Lijia Xu who made the best start, 3 boats down from the committee boat and she headed to the left. She wanted to tack back to the pressure but was unable to with a boat on her hip. She carried on left and then the breeze veered meaning a long starboard tack towards the windward mark which only backed near the port lay line giving those on the left a good lead. Xu was pushed hard by Hannah Bryant, although she was eventually passed by the very experienced Ben Elvin.

In the second start again there was pressure on the right but the wind continued to back for nearly the whole of the first beat, leaving those on the right hand side of the course dead and buried. It was juniors Joseph Drake and George Graham from the left who took first and second having benefited from being at the right place at the right time and extending away from the fleet.

Several attempts were made to start another race but the wind decided it was not going to play ball. After consulting the forecast, which for Sunday was looking even worse we opted to stay out but the wind made further racing impossible and the fleet rocked, paddled and was towed ashore and some even made the decision to get off early and get the boats on trailers, ready for an early get away the next day.

Sunday dawned and the wind was as forecast. Many keen sailors hopefully rigged but the postponement flag was raised (I would have said flown, but it just hung) at 9:30. At 11:30 the sensible decision was made to abandon early as the conditions became worse rather than better (although you can hardly get worse than 1 knot and thick fog) giving sailors a chance to pressure wash off their boats and trolleys to remove the killer shrimp (but also get very nice clean boats for the end of season). This meant an early prize giving and an early getaway, much appreciated by those sailors with some distance to travel.

So sadly this is the first time in its history that the Radial Inlands has been a non-event (as only 1 race sailed) and therefore no trophy awarded. However Class Chairman Ken Falcon handed out the "glass ware" rather than it simply go to waste but with 2 fleets racing, there were two 1sts, two 2nds, two 3rds etc. So ties were literary broken with the toss of the coin with the most important toss being won with Joseph Drake taking the glass from 1st overall from Lijia Xu who made her only mistake of the weekend when she opted for "tails"!

The class would like to thank Grafham Water Sailing Club sincerely for all their efforts in impossible conditions and look forward to some good racing at the first Spring Qualifier to be held on March 5th/6th next year at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy.

Overall Results: (full results can be found here)

1st= Lijia Xu / Joseph Drake
3rd= George Graham/Ben Elvin
5th= Milo Gill-Taylor/Hanna Bryant