2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series Round 1 at Weir Wood Sailing Club

by Chris Jordan 5 May 2016 12:40 BST 30 April - 1 May 2016

The forecast for the weekend of the first of the 2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series meetings at Weir Wood Sailing Club varied from "typical UK Bank Holiday" (wild, wet and windy) to "Weir Wood specials" (warm, sunny and shifty winds). As the 22 boats gathered on the Sunday, the weather was warm and sunny, but with the odd chilly gust blowing down the shore. The fleet launched and reached the start area, just in time for the wind to shift through 40 degrees and for the line to be re-set. And that was how the weekend and the eight races developed: "just before" anything was about to happen, the wind dramatically shifted! All the fleet found it hard to struggle up the ladders, while sliding down the snakes was easy! By the end of the first day, when the sun had shone continuously, everyone was exhausted but at the same time excited and eager to resume racing the next day.

The evening celebrations included a great meal cooked by Weir Wood sailor Rachael Pereira, a quiz, and a "drop an egg off the balcony without breaking it" challenge (after wrapping it up in padding, the amount of which depended on the results of the quiz), and a cake "bake off" rounded off the event on Monday.

For the second day the forecast was expected to provide gusts of up to 28 knots, although the local expert Tim Hulley said (quite correctly, as it happened!) that things were always 10 knots less at Weir Wood. The weather delivered, though, on the bank holiday promise of cloudy skies and persistent drizzle, but we were still having to cope with 30 degree wind shifts hitting you every 15 seconds, in a wind strength of having helm and crew at the end of their toe straps.

With eight races, it is hard to remember who claimed the start lines, or who messed up the beat by going too far right, or those who didn't get the speed required downwind in the gusts... but the overall results eventually showed:

That you needed to be a National Champion to do well in the 2000 Class! The 2014 National Champion (Rob Burridge, with new supercrew Sarah Burridge), just beat the 2015 National Champion (Fergus Barnham with Katie Burridge, 2014 National Champion crew), who just beat Steve and Sarah Cockerill as the newcomers to the class, having picked up their new 2000 the day before the regatta. Chris and Gill Jordan, sailing Just 1 More, finished top of the "also-rans" in fourth place.

Many thanks to all the team at Weir Wood who made a memorable event. Thanks also to our sponsors Noble Marine.

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts
1	Rob Burridge	Sarah Burridge	22502	1	2	3	2	1	2	2	2	10
2	Fergus Barnham	Katie Burridge	2321	2	3	1	3	4	1	4	1	11
3	Steve Cockerill	Sarah Cockerill	22611	3	1	4	6	2	3	1	3	13
4	Chris Jordan	Gillian Jordan	22607	5	4	2	5	7	5	8	5	26
5	Tim Hulley	Linda Hulley	2411	4	7	6	1	6	4	6	6	27
6	Amy Hulley	John Dasey	2064	8	5	10	4	8	6	3	4	30
7	Miles Wade	Anderley Wade	22362	7	8	8	8	3	9	22	22	43
8	Kev O'Brien	Jake O'Brien	22558	6	14	11	13	5	7	5	11	45
9	Paul Luttman	Gemma Burridge	2458	12	6	5	10	13	10	11	7	49
10	Iain Yardley	Sarah Yardley	2204	9	12	9	7	10	11	7	8	50
11	John Cliffton	Caroline/Peter Cliffton	21084	14	9	7	12	14	12	9	9	58
12	Dom Hume	David Hume	2660	10	16	13	9	9	14	10	10	61
13	Robin Courtney	Rachel Pereira	2063	11	10	14	16	12	15	12	14	73
14	James Macgregor	Jenny Macgregor	2272	15	19	16	14	11	8	22	12	76
15	Guy Russell	Claire Collett	21446	13	13	12	17	15	16	15	16	84
16	George Colcombe	Dan Gibson	22516	19	20	18	11	16	13	14	13	85
17	Chris Brown	G Brown	21102	20	11	15	15	17	17	13	15	86
18	Andy Hockey	Anna Crane	21914	18	18	17	18	18	22	16	17	104
19	Rachel Sheridan	Claire White	2229	21	21	20	19	19	19	17	18	112
20	Greg Cox	Terre Cox	2597	16	15	22	22	22	22	22	22	119
21	David Russell	Debbie Russell	2854	17	17	19	22	22	22	22	22	119