Streaker Northern Championship at Delph Sailing Club

Streaker Northern Championship at Delph © Ian Priest

The Streaker class travelled to Delph Sailing club for the Northern Championship. As well as the Northern Championship title up for grabs, this also formed part of the Rooster sponsored national "Super Series" and the North Sails sponsored "Northern Paddle Series".

14 visitors joined five home boats on a typical July summers day. There was horizontal rain, and a wind where the gusts had a mind of their own. Luckily the rain stopped and the wind shifted to the west, and the strong 19 boat fleet headed out for race one.

Race one, and a number of sailors a little eager forced a general recall. On the second attempt, there was a clean start except Steve Blackburn with an OCS. James Dawes tried a port end flyer, but was caught out by shifts. Neil Firth rounded the windward mark first, closely followed by Martin Penty and Rob Cocking. Eventually Neil was caught by Martin Penty, Phil Manning and Alan Gillard to finish in that order.

Race two, and the wind had blown up. There was a clean start to which James Dawes decided to attempt the port end flyer again. This time it paid off and he lead the race. Martin Penty was at his heels, and shortly behind Alan Gillard. At the finish, James just managed to hold off Martin right on the line. Alan Gillard decided to take a swim just before the finish due to a freak wind shift, awarding Phil Maning the third and Steve Blackburn fourth.

Race three started in a fresh force 5, with some strong gusts which caught out many people. It was down to the last race to find the winner. There was a clean start again, and Phil Manning found a nice shift. He rounded the windward mark in first, followed by fellow Delph sailor John Cronshaw. As a battle broke out for second place, Phil took the opportunity to break away from the fleet. Martin Penty wasn't going to make it easy though catching up later in the race.

Unfortunately Martin ran aground and Matt Whitfield from Tamworth put more pressure on. At the final windward mark, Martin was caught out by the wind and decided to test the temperature of the water. This was to Manning's delight and also put Whitfield in second. Manning then swam too, but just managed to hold onto first, Penty getting back into second and Whitfield finishing third. This gave Phil Manning the title over Martin on countback.

Results:

1st Phil Manning (Delph SC)
2nd Martin Penty (Beaver SC)
3rd James Dawes (Redditch SC)
4th Alan Gillard (Sheffield Viking SC)
5th Steve Blackburn (West Lancs YC)
6th Matt Whitfield (Tamworth SC)