Seafly National Championship at Blakeney Sailing Club

by John Claridge 21 Jul 2016 16:42 BST 9-10 July 2016

Blakeney Sailing Club in Norfolk hosted the 2016 Seafly National Championships and, although the gusty 20 to 30 knot winds were challenging, three of the latest all GRP self-draining boats joined seven of the original wooden ones to compete for the title.

With crew ages between 13 and well over 60 and sailing credentials ranging from national championship winners to relative beginners, there was good competition throughout the fleet. The racing over the two days was often bordering survival conditions, with breathtaking, very wet reaches, sometimes dodgy gybes, and tricky spinnaker runs.

The front of the fleet in each race followed a pattern with John and Robert Claridge working their way through to take the lead and Alan Robinson and Hugh Ambery in their beautifully maintained and fitted out wooden Seafly 'Merlin' close behind, ready to pounce on any error.

Whilst the first and second positions never appeared to be in doubt, the battle for third was undecided until the final race, with Simon Hibberd and Alan Collett in 'Zippidee', Tim and Ben Uren in 'Grace', Alan Jackson and Frenesi Ewing in 'C fly', and Matt Boreham and Steve Soanes in 'Jupiter', all in contention.

Unfortunately, 'Jupiter' suffered gear failure and was forced to retire thus finishing in sixth place and Alan and Frenesi, capsizing whilst in a strong third place, moved down to 5th, allowing Tim and Ben to secure fourth overall. The third spot went to Simon and Alan in 'Zippidee' who, apart from the first two boats, were the most consistent.

It was interesting that there was little to choose between the speed of the wooden and GRP boats although John and Rob were certainly faster on the long reaches, probably due to their well matched sails and mast. Alan and Hugh meanwhile were using their newly fitted twin pole spinnaker system to good effect, always making up ground on the runs.

The weekend was also notable for the sailors reforming the class association and appointing a new committee who were tasked with organising open events around the country and the National Championships again at Blakeney Sailing Club next year.

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Overall Results:
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Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1st	703		John Claridge	Rob Claridge	Lymington Y. C.	‑1	1	1	1	3
2nd	477	Merlin	Alan Robinson	Hugh Ambery	Blakeney S.C.	‑2	2	2	2	6
3rd	620c	Zippidee	Simon Hibberd	Alan Collett	Blakeney S.C.	‑4	3	4	4	11
4th	702	Grace	Tim Uren	Ben Uren	Chichester Y.C.	5	(RET)	5	3	13
5th	701		Alan Jackson	Frenesi Ewing	Blakeney S.C.	7	5	3	(RET)	15
6th	623	Jupiter	Matt Boreham	Steven Soanes	Blakeney S.C.	3	4	RET	(DNC)	17
7th	652	Summer Breeze	Steve Leigh	George Harcourt Sean Moore	Blakeney S.C.	‑8	6	6	5	17
8th	653	Kittiwake	Sean Moore	Angela Harcourt	Blakeney S.C.	6	7	(DNC)	DNC	24
9th	379	Fizzango	Desmond Holmes	Lucy Holmes	Blakeney S.C.	9	(DNC)	RET	DNC	30
10th	466	Wind Waggon	Roger Beavis	Vic Birtles	Blakeney S.C.	DNF	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	32