2019 UK Hansa Nationals at Rutland Sailing Club

This year's event was very well supported with 41 boats and 54 people taking part across the 5 Hansa Classes competing: The 2.3; 303 one-person; 303 two-person; Liberty; and SKUD 18s. It is a common misconception that Hansa's are just for disabled sailors, but it is an open class and it was good to see several able-bodied entrants across the fleets.

Pauline Harrison and her Rutland Sailability/SC team of volunteers staged a very well run event on and off the water over the scheduled 3 days. The Race Officer, David Wilkins, had a very difficult job to set an appropriate course in shifty, and at times a very light wind. Despite his best efforts, and everybody willing the wind to fill in, the 4 races scheduled for Saturday had to be abandoned. Over the three days, the event was decided over 4 races, with one result discarded.

Busy jetty during the 2019 Hansa UK Nationals at Rutland - photo © John Deane

In the 2.3 fleet day 1 proved to be difficult for Lindsay Burns, the eventual winner, with Alice Lucy and Nick Neve both from Rutland SC sharing the honours with a 1st and 2nd place each. A team due to be sailing in the SKUD fleet were unable to race over the weekend, so Alice and Nick were tempted to take their places in this high performance boat. The two races run on the Sunday were won by Lindsay from Frensham Pond SC, with John Combes from Rutland SC taking second place. This proved to be the final result for the 2.3 class at this event, with Alice Lucy having done enough on day 1 on to the last podium position.

2.3 start during the 2019 Hansa UK Nationals at Rutland - photo © John Deane

The 303 one-person fleet was dominated by two Frensham Pond sailors, Mike Everitt and James Woosnam, who took 1st and 2nd places respectively. George Paxford from Whitefriars Sailing Club was a newcomer to Hansa sailing, and caused a stir by putting in a great performance to finish in 3rd place on 12 points. This was closely contested by Monique Foster from Great Moor SC who also finished on 12 points, but just missed out in the final race finishing in 5th place, one place behind George.

303 start during the 2019 Hansa UK Nationals at Rutland - photo © John Deane

Father and daughter team, Natalia and Allan Hillman, have been dominant in the 303 two-person class all season, and this event was no exception. They put in a perfect score of 4 nett down to 3. Closely behind on a nett 6 were a team from New Forest, Jane Knight and Angela Cosford. There was a close battle for the third podium place between the Chesil SC team of Phil Hall/Steve Kitson and Andy Sheath/Kate Lintott from Frensham Ponds. In the end there was one point separating them, with the Chesil team finishing on top with 9 points.

Close Liberty racing during the 2019 Hansa UK Nationals at Rutland - photo © Ivor Barrett

After day one David Durston from Whitefriars SC was in a strong position with two 2nd places. Val Millward and Chris Atkins had finished 1st in race 1 and 2 respectively, but Val had a 6th and Chris a DNC in their other races. It came down to the Sunday races to decide the places. Val from Rutland SC showed her class and experience to add two more 1st places to finish on nett 3 to take the Championship. David could not repeat the form he had on Friday, getting a 4th and 7th place. Paul Phillips from Frensham Pond had a stronger performance on day 3, getting a 2nd and 3rd to put him in 3rd place overall, just 1 point behind David.

SKUD close hauled during the 2019 Hansa UK Nationals at Rutland - photo © John Deane

All sailors in the SKUD 18 fleet were from Rutland SC. The boats are kept there and regularly used and raced in varying formats. The John Williams/Mark Haughey dominated this fleet with 3 bullets. Alice Lucy and Nick Neve only completed 2 races in this class, and showed their skills here too, finishing 1st and 2nd, just missing out for 2nd place by 1 point overall to the Roy Emmerson/Ben Measures team who finished on nett 8.

Despite the frustrations of day 2, the sailing and social side was very enjoyable. There is great camaraderie across the sailors, volunteers, and supporters. Many of the sailors will soon to travelling to Portimao, Portugal for the Hansa European Championships, supported by RYA Sailability and Brett Cokayne as Coach. Good luck team.

Overall Results: