Harken 29er Inland Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Harken 29er Inlands at Grafham Water © UK 29er Class Association

Grafham Water Sailing Club hosted the annual Harken Inland National Championship on the weekend of the 17th and 18th November 2018. The weekend offered some challenging sailing conditions due to the shifty and gusty nature of sailing on lakes.

The event began to a fairly light start, the wind was below 10 knots with the race course being very patchy in terms of wind speed. This immediately meant the racing would be challenging as you would need to stay in the gusts around the race course. 4 races were sailed on the Saturday; race 1 began in sunny conditions and Archie Leckie and Ben Ibbotson took a bullet in the first race. Race 2 and 4 were won by Monique Vennis-Ozanne and John Mather and the third race was won by Ewan Wilson and Fin Armstrong. Throughout the entire day the racing was very close across the race course with everyone finishing within a short period of time from each other. This brought an exciting element to the racing as it meant there were plenty of places across the race course where gains could be made and vice versa for loses to be made.

At the end of the day the event was being led by Monique Vennis-Ozanne and John Mather who had a significant lead on the rest due to the consistency of their racing. In second place were Archie Leckie and Ben Ibbotsen with Ewan Wilson and Finn Armstrong in third. Although first place had a large lead on points, from second through to seventh place points were tight and with the prospect of a discard coming into play soon there was plenty of scope for change coming into the Saturday.

On Sunday the wind was blowing further from the left which meant the race course was fairly short. This then resulted in sailing 3 laps from race 6 onwards. 4 races were also sailed on the Sunday in winds ranging from 10-15 knots therefore the pumping flag was up. Similarly, to the day before the wind was highly patchy looking up wind with constant shifts on the race course. The racing was fairly tight at the top between 4 boats who were all very consistent. Pierce Harris and Tom Storey sailing a very good first race of the day which scored them a bullet.

Overall the weekend was a big success and didn't end up being too chilly due to the lovely weather which in the past at Grafham has definitely not been the case. Congratulations to Monique Vennis-Ozanne and John Mather who won and took the title of the Inland National Champions, Ewan Wilson and Finn Armstrong who took second, Charlotte Ormerod and Jess Jobson who finished third.

In the girl's prizes, the Lady Inland National Champions were Charlotte Ormerod and Jess Jobson, second were Elodie Edwards and Hannah Morris, and third were Charlotte Gordon and Dani Middleton. The first junior prize went to Rian Mcdonnell and Nathan Van Steenberg all the way from Ireland.

On behalf of the sailors, a massive thank you to Grafham Sailing Club for hosting such a good event and the race committee for putting on quality racing and managing to turn the races around at such high speed as well as all the competitors for coming and bringing excitement to the race course. In addition, it was lovely to see plenty of new sailors including a few boats that had travelled from Ireland and we hope to see them again soon. We hope to see everyone at the Rutland Grand Prix in 2 weekend times for the Christmas Party on the Saturday. Don't forget to bring your Christmas hats!

Overall Results: