Topper GJW Direct Inland Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water © Pheobe Crossley

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water © Andy Wyatt

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water © Nick Pighills

The Topper GJW Direct NS4 Inland Championships attracted over 200 boats to Grafham Water SC over the weekend of 27-28 April.

In the days leading up to the event the weather forecast was not looking promising, with very strong winds predicted for both days, but that did not deter the hoards of enthusiastic young sailors who arrived at the club for registration bright and early on Saturday morning. Sure enough, the wind was howling and it was an easy decision for PRO Peter Saxton to announce at the 10.15 briefing that there wouldn't be any racing today! This was entirely the right call, as the average wind speed held between 20 and 30 knots throughout the day, gusting well over 40 knots at times. On such a cold and miserable day the options for other impromptu activities were fairly limited, but many of the competitors were happy to spend the day hanging around the club with their friends, while others got on with some boat bimbling (the queue of boats lined up at Russ's Topper van was impressive!) and Huntingdon cinema may have noticed a spike in their takings that afternoon!

Sunday dawned still windy, but absolutely sailable, and with a revised target of 4 races the fleet launched into around 16-18 knots, gusting 22-24 knots, which held through most of the day, only easing off a little for race 3 before peaking during race 4.

The 178-boat 5.3 fleet was, as usual, raced in flights, with competitors allocated red, blue, yellow or white mast-head ribbons, seeded by the sailor's current national rankings to achieve an even spread in each of the flights. This usually works pretty well, as would be expected, with a roughly equal representation of each colour in the top 20 at the end of each event, but this time there were murmurings from the very beginning that red flight was looking very tough with a rather large number of the top sailors (and so it proved to be in the final results!)

With the revised programme of four races meaning that there were now eight 89-boat starts to get away, the black flag was in evidence from the outset, and initially at least the fleets co-operated and line discipline was good. After two races it was looking like the Championship was already a two-horse race, with James Deaton and Ollie Wilcox winning both races in their respective flights, and no one else showing the necessary consistency to be likely to catch them, but that was all about to change! For the start of race 3 the white and yellow flight racked up way too far forward too early, and from the one-minute gun onwards the list of numbers on the committee boat blackboard just kept growing, with 14 boats identified course-side during the final minute. Significantly this included James, and when cramp set in during the long cold wait afloat this put an end to his challenge. Ollie however sailed another great race, finishing third to put himself in an (almost!) unassailable position with a race to spare, whilst the victories in races 3 and 4 were shared between Kate Robertson, Ben Purrier, Leah Fidling and Freddie Howarth.

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Andy Wyatt

Overall victory, and the title of 2019 Inland Champion, therefore went to Ollie Wilcox, with Sam Shackle showing great consistency (discarding a fifth) to secure the runner-up spot, and Kate Robertson completing the podium and taking the honour of first female. The boy's podium was completed by Ben Purrier (fourth), with Leah Fidling and Daisy Desorgher joining Kate on the girl's podium. The Endeavour prize (always a great one to win as the prize is an Optimum Time "Big Yellow" sailing watch) is awarded for the highest score from a competitor who has completed every race, and this went to Andrew Scott.

In the 25-boat 4.2 fleet the generally younger, smaller, and less experienced sailors coped extremely well with the strong winds, and the fleet completed a 5-race schedule under the expert guidance of PRO Adam Millington. Sam Graydon was on excellent form, securing overall victory with wins in three of the five races, with the other race wins going to Alissa Marshall and Bjorn Handley, but great consistency from Immi Rees (three 2nds and two 3rds) secured the runner-up spot, with Graydon McLeod Fleming taking third place overall, and Jessica Hedgecock bagging the Endeavour.

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Pheobe Crossley

As is customary at this event there was also a Regatta fleet for the youngest and least experienced sailors, many with older siblings in the main racing fleets, and although the weather conditions were far from ideal for these sailors they nonetheless took to the water, with multiple reefs or sailing two-up where appropriate, and coped admirably despite the strong winds.

As always Grafham proved to be an excellent venue for such a large event, with slick race management on both courses, and despite the challenging weather conditions everything came together to create another great event, for which thanks must go to the vast gang of parent volunteers both afloat and ashore, and to our loyal sponsors GJW Direct, Rooster and Harken.

Topper GJW Direct Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Andy Wyatt

Next stop is NS5 at Carsington SC on 8-9 June, which will also be the first qualifier for next winter's National Squads (just seven days after we complete the final squad camp for last year's incumbents!) can we possibly exceed 200 entries for this one too?!

Overall Results:

5.3 Rig

4.2 Rig