Lark eNational Championships

Lark eNationals © Dan Watson

Following the success of the Lark e-Inlands earlier in May, the Larks descended onto their sofas, home offices and dining tables to take part in the 2020 Lark eNationals over the Bank Holiday weekend, when their actual National Championships was due to take place in Rock, Cornwall.

The ongoing COVID-19 restrictions had not dampened the spirits or competitiveness of the fleet as they fought to select their representative for the RYA Class Champs. With 38 entrants, the event took place over two evenings with two simultaneous heats of 19 racers being held on Mon 25th May, with the top 9 places from each heat, fighting it out in the final showdown on the following evening.

The results for Heat 1 were a close affair with Ned Winter managing to sneak ahead of a tightly congested pack, with only 3 points dividing the top 5 places. The remaining competitors were helped as the fleet somewhat reduced when the entire Jenkins family decided against virtual racing in favour of the real thing, by trying out their newly purchased Lark for the first time. We'll definitely let them have that excuse for non-participation!

Lark eNationals - photo © Dan Watson

The Junior competition, within the heat, was won by Robbie Stewart, who gained an early advantage by claiming two 2nd places in the initial races, which left Ben Meek chasing him, but both qualified for the finals.

Where Heat 1 was close, Heat 2 was not. Counting two 2nds & a 3rd at any other 19-boat regatta, would allow you to be top of the standings, but not when Jon Fish (the current Lark e-Inlands Champion) is on form. He managed to discard a 1st place and overcome all on his way to tying up the heat with a race (or maybe two) to spare. He was chased valiantly by the first of the Master competitors, in the shape of Ian Videlo and Neil Firth, split by Ed Harris who was putting his skills learnt in the Waldringfield spring series to good use. One Master, who was not so lucky- after requesting a mobile hotspot from his son's device for better network connectivity, found his offspring's bowel emptying and mobile phone usage were not mutually exclusive activities. So when nature called, and with facilities being further afield than the location of the family's wifi router, the shall-remain-nameless Master promptly had to "drop out" of race 3!

Lark eNationals - photo © Dan Watson

Anyway - As they say 'the cream always rises to the top' and so it seems as the final showdown approached on Tuesday evening as the creme de la creme of the Lark Virtual Racers descended onto their fruity-named devices and PCs to fight it out to see who would be Lark eNational Champion and representative at the RYA's virtual Endeavour trophy, in June.

The racing was close throughout with Ned Winter, winner of 1st Heat taking the first race win and looking good for the title, however Stephen Videlo was just limbering up, as he then took the following two races and counted a 2nd in the final race to tie up the event with 4 points to spare from a determined Chris Holiman who displayed envyable consistency (a 2nd & 2x 3rds). 3rd place went to Jon Fish, the e-Inlands Champion, who did have some frustrating network issues calling for a zoom administrator's muting action!

The fiercest competition, however, was taking place in the middle of the fleet where the Junior title was at stake, as both Ben Meek and Robbie Stewart tussled to see who would take the title. They both finished on 27 points each, with Robbie taking the honours when counting back to his 4th place in race 2.

Heat 1, Race 1

Heat 1, Race 2

Heat 1, Race 3

Heat 1, Race 4

Well done to all who took part; commiserations to Nigel Hufton for unexpectedly retiring from Race 3 of Heat 2. Thank you to Dan Watson for coordinating the event; Thanks also to Neil and Sue Firth who ran heat 2 and completed all the scoring.

Finally Good Luck to Stephen Videlo who will represent the Lark Class at the RYA Class Championship in June.

Overall Results: