Lark eNational Championships

by Dan Watson 27 May 2020 17:08 BST 25 May 2020

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!

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!

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:

Pos	Boat	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
Heat 1
1	NED1665	Ned Winter	1	6	1	16	4
2	SWV1447	Stephen Videlo	6	3	‑12	22	8
3	Jon White	Jonathan White	3	‑7	4	17	10
4	whitebait13	Robert Stewart	2	‑9	7	20	13
5	TEAM CHRIS	Chris Holliman	‑5	4	3	16	14
6	Larks	Daniel Watson	7	1	‑8	21	15
7	Dick Dastardly	Ben Meek	‑8	2	6	23	17
8	CV10ELO	Christopher Videlo	‑11	8	2	30	22
9	EddMc	Edd McArdle	‑12	12	5	35	22
10	Wet Rats	Eluned Stewart	10	5	10	36	26
11	Al K	Alan Krailing	4	(DNF)	DNF	46	27
12	B39	Bex Ewart	9	DNF	9	50	27
13	BeckyP	Becky Priest	13	11	11	48	31
14	Discodanger	Steve Dunn	DNF	10	DNF	58	33
15	DomMcSorcerer	Dominik McArdle	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	60	35
16	Calypso2	Ed Harris	(DNC)	11	DNF	9	39
17	ajv1155	Alyson Videlo	15	‑16	14	15	44
18	Rollergirl	Harry Pynn	(DNC)	17	15	DNF	51
Heat 2
1	Fish face	Jon Fish	‑1	1	1	1	3
2	vid‑1155	Ian Videlo	2	‑3	2	3	7
3	Calypso2	Ed Harris	(DNC)	4	5	2	11
4	Black Velvet/BSC	Neil Firth	3	‑5	4	4	11
5	Chris Whitehouse	Chris Whitehouse	6	2	6	‑7	14
6	Rollergirl	Harry Pynn	5	6	7	‑13	18
7	PeakyB	Jason Cahill	7	(DNC)	3	10	20
8	ajv1155	Alyson Videlo	4	7	‑13	11	22
9	1948ReasonsToBeCheerful	Bob Whitehouse	10	8	8	‑18	26
10	MJG	M.J. Gifford	13	‑17	9	5	27
11	Lark2470	Garry Packer	9	9	(DNF)	9	27
12	DSR	Dave Russell	‑12	12	11	6	29
13	Skylarking	Sue Firth	8	11	‑14	12	31
14	FloraW	Flora Winter	11	10	12	‑15	33
15	NigelH	Nigel Hufton	14	13	(DNF)	8	35
16	Florence2492	James Stewart	(DNF)	14	10	16	40
17	PhoebeHebe	Brenda Hewison	15	‑16	16	14	45
18	buffy	Nigel Denchfield	(DNF)	15	15	17	47
Rank
1	SWV1447	Stephen Videlo	‑5	1	1	2	4
2	TEAM CHRIS	Chris Holliman	2	3	3	‑11	8
3	Fish face	Jon Fish	3	‑9	6	1	10
4	CV10ELO	Christopher Videlo	‑11	2	4	7	13
5	EddMc	Edd McArdle	4	5	‑11	5	14
6	NED1665	Ned Winter	1	‑12	2	12	15
7	1948ReasonsToBeCheerful	Bob Whitehouse	6	‑14	5	6	17
8	Larks	Daniel Watson	10	‑15	9	3	22
9	Chris Whitehouse	Chris Whitehouse	‑16	6	12	4	22
10	PeakyB	Jason Cahill	8	8	(DNF)	10	26
11	whitebait13	Robert Stewart	13	4	10	(DNF)	27
12	Dick Dastardly	Ben Meek	7	7	(DNF)	13	27
13	vid‑1155	Ian Videlo	‑14	10	13	8	31
14	Black Velvet/BSC	Neil Firth	12	13	8	‑14	33
15	Jon White	Jonathan White	9	(DNC)	7	DNF	35
16	Calypso2	Ed Harris	(DNC)	11	DNF	9	39
17	ajv1155	Alyson Videlo	15	‑16	14	15	44
18	Rollergirl	Harry Pynn	(DNC)	17	15	DNF	51