Volvo GJW Direct Topper National Series 3 at Datchet Water Sailing Club

Volvo GJW Direct Topper National Series at Datchet © R Sturt

165 sailors from all corners of the land descended on the outskirts of the M25. Datchet gave the Topper class a warm welcome, well organised and lots of space to swing a Topper. Mums and Dads with their campers tactically positioned at the edge of the reservoir had views of the racing,shore activity and Datchet wouldn't be Datchet without the odd Airbus A380 for further observations, The other bonus of these campers is they never had to set an early morning alarm the 5.45 am Virgin Atlantic to Miami does that for them.

Racing was postponed for an hour on the Saturday wind was patchy and light Ian Bullock PRO for the 5.3 fleet and Andy Moore for the 4.2s kept a close eye on developments. Ap lowered and the 5.3 fleet ghosted over to the SW area of the reservoir. The 4.2s had a shorter course reasonably close to the club house.

Both ROs looked liked they were born with a wind indicators and handhelds as the wind did a wandering! With courses laid Saturday turned into a 5 race extravaganza, for boys whose Christian name began with J. The overnight wash up showed Jake Bowhay in the 5.3s from HHSC and James Deaton in the 4.2s from Royal Harwich with a string of 1st both sailors showing remarkable ability in very patchy conditions. The 5.3s were not without incident with black flags and course changes and races canned, one of the youngest competitors in the 5.3s Sam Jones leading to the weather mark was understandably a bit niffed when the weather wandered off in another direction. Other sailors of note were Bill Hudson and Leo Wilkinson in the 4.2s and Harris Cartwright and Andrew Homer in the 5.3s.

Some stayed and watched and listened to planes, some retired to nearby lodgings and listened to planes, Juliettes and Jemmas wondered whether their day would be tomorrow interspersed with listening to planes and some like me had a peaceful nights sleep lulled by listening to the lapping sea upon a Solent shore, while others knitted, yes the Topper class has gone knitting crazy and as it stands Kirsten Percival the Where's Wally hat knitter who with 23 hats under her belt has reached the top mark first closely followed by many other knitters. Crazy maybe but this is the brain wave of the classe's super secretary Jeanette Saunderspm who has put together another fund raising event which will culminate at the National Series held at Carsington. Last year the theme was pink and thousands of pounds were raised for Cancer research and also getting more females involved with sailing and sail race management. This year the Where's Wally hat themes will raise money for Prostrate Cancer.

With Sundays forecast looking patchy and even more flicky than Saturday you know what Andy and Ian where holding up and staring at, with various postponements racing got underway the 5.3 on the further from club course area seems to have breeze and the odd squirt of speed but a lot of ghosting took place. The 4.2s had even less wind and these races turned into a snakes and ladders kind of day, Andy slipped in 3 races cutting short the last race as the turbulence of the A380s was sucking what breeze there was and bending it off 100 degrees.

In the 5.3 Ian was only able to get 2 races in Jake, Harris and Samuel Cooper where all in for a shout at the top spot whether on the water calculations had been done or not Jake with his 3 firsts the day before edged out Harris by a few points and Samuel by a few more, all the guys having a good string of consistency. Harriet Lee Yorkshire Dales whos second name may well be Jemma secured a top ten overall with Millie Aldridge Parkstone YC and Charlotte Gordon finishing off the first three girls. Sam Jones didn't let that canned race bother him and at sailing age 13 was the youngest sailor in the top 20 finishing a very commendable 12th overall. Joseph Dormer was awarded the Optimum Time Endeavour prize.

In the 4.2s James eased every whisper of breeze and held Leo Wilkinson off,Monique Jezebel VO stole a race win off James and gained a J in her name to finish up 3 rd overall. It was very nice to see some new faces in the fleet,Hamilton Roaf, Cormac Obrien, Adam Grimwood all sailed very well Becky Cropley from RLYC was awarded the Optimum time endeavour prize and 9 year Dan Perkins from Portchester sailing club receives the Andre Ozanne Perseverance prize. This being Dan's first appearance at any sailing competition ever he completed every race apart from the last which was rudely curtailed by another competitors boom splitting his upper lip. Perseverance goes to him as he pumped back to shore was fixed up and then jumped back in and pumped like mad to get back for the start alas he missed the start time, perhaps a quick tow in would have given him a chance, he is all the better for his own determination to give it a go. He has caught the 4.2 bug and is now entered for the 4.2 Inland nationals at Grafham Water this weekend. It's a bank holiday weekend the forecast is looking breezy and wet just as we would expect and Grafham doesn't have a local flight path so I am going to get a good nights rest, not sure what the majority are going to do without the A380 alarm clock. So with 180 sailors registered and big breeze its time to look out for the girls and guys that can sail in breeze.

As always the class thanks its helpers and at this event thanks were given to Sue Markham and Jeanette Sanderson thanks also to Datchet to Volvo Cars UK, GJW Direct, Optimum Time and Sailing Solutions by Rooster our very generous sponsors.

Prizewinners at the Volvo GJW Direct Topper National Series at Datchet - photo © R Sturt

Overall Results:

5.3 Fleet

4.2 Fleet