English National Challenger Championship at Grafham Water Sailability

English National Challenger Championship © Richard Johnson

English National Challenger Championship © Richard Johnson

Nineteen boats gathered at Grafham Water Centre over the weekend 24-25 June to contest the English National Challenger Championships, organised by Grafham Water Sailability. While the majority of sailors were visitors, five of them were sailing boats kindly loaned by Grafham Water Sailability.

Saturday morning dawned bright, sunny and breezy with the wind predominantly WSWly 4 gusting 5. The race officer, Mike Haynes, used the new inverted P course, throughout the weekend.

The first race got underway on time, but Jack Alderdice (281) was soon forced to retire when the rivets gave way on his mast collar. However, a repair was made which held for the rest of the weekend. The race was eventually won by Graham Hall (270) with Val Millward (257) second and Pauline Shaw (266) coming home third (a personal best). The fleet came in for lunch, after which the race officer adjusted the course and two further races were completed.

At the end of Saturday Graham (1,1,2) had a slender lead over Val (2,2,1), with Pauline in third place (3,5,5). Chris Atkin (289) (8,4,4) led the silver fleet and Julia Winters and John Wright (211) (10,11,11) the bronze.

To become English Champion, Val had to win at least two races on Sunday but made a bad start in the first. At the windward mark she was still in touch. Graham and Val were nose to tail at the last mark, with Graham in front but he made a bad rounding, allowing Val to overtake just far enough to tack for the line and win. In the next two races, Val was faultless but Graham obligingly straddled a buoy in the last race, ensuring a win for Val plus overall victory on the tie break. In the event the main interest, and highlight for many, was a last-race third for Judi Figgures (264), celebrating a birthday and sailing with a servo-assisted mainsheet but showing she could still mix it with the top of the fleet after over 20 years of Challenger racing.

English National Challenger Championship - photo © Richard Johnson

So Val is the new English champion with Graham having to settle for second and Jack third. Outside the top three there were a number of significant achievements, most notably Pauline’s fourth place and first Grafham boat. Hanningfield Sailability (Chris Atkin and Peter Lawrence (87)) dominated the silver fleet. While Ron Bainbridge and David Newton (272) romped home first in the bronze fleet, though the result might have been quite different if Julia and John had been able to sail on Sunday.

English National Challenger Championship - photo © Richard Johnson

At the prize giving thanks were given to the race officer, Mike Haynes, the safety boat crews and Grafham Water Sailability and Grafham Water Centre. The next event with be the Welsh Open Challenger Championships at Llyn Brenig Sailing Club (22-23 July).

English National Challenger Championship - photo © Richard Johnson

Overall Results: