Sandhopper Nationals at Maylandsea Bay Sailing Club
by Nigel Whiting 27 Sep 2006 10:59 BST
23-24 September 2006
The 2006 Sandhopper Nationals was held in the beautiful location of the river Blackwater, just south of historic Maldon in Essex. We were very lucky to be blessed with fine, dry weather with a very nice breeze for both days.
Coincidentally, we were also the venue for the Kestrel open so it was a very busy schedule for the organisers at Maylandsea (MBSC) who did a fantastic job. Thorpe Bay Yacht Club (TBYC) brought their own fleet of Sandhoppers for the event, one of which sailed single-handedly the long way round from Thorpe Bay to Maylandsea! They fielded four Sandhoppers while Maylandsea fielded ten.
There were four races over the weekend – two on Saturday and two Sunday, with a combination of club line and committee boat starts and finishes. With the Kestrel starts only minutes before the Sandhoppers in each race, it was a rather crowded start line with at least one Sandhopper helm adopting the ‘chariot race from Ben Hur’ approach. It was good close racing (except for those of us at the back obviously) and Thorpe Bay came out on top overall with a strong showing from Maylandsea to keep them ‘honest’.
On Saturday evening we had a very good dinner followed by some silly games, the last stalwarts staggering home at around 2.30 a.m.
Sunday brought another two great races followed by a few drinks at the bar after prize giving (I don’t want anyone getting the impression that we have a drink problem at Maylandsea – we’re just a very sociable club).
So, two days of sunshine and good racing with like-minded people and a great party on the Saturday evening – what else do you want to do with your weekend?
Overall Results:
1st S41, Squiffy, Peter Thompson & Lewis Woodland (TBYC)
2nd S154, Bluejacket, Peter Smith & Brian Wells (TBYC)
3rd S158, Satisfaction, Philip Crawford & Matt Rainbow (TBYC)
4th S29, Wild Gull, Doug Galpin & John Primett (MBSC)
5th S150, Little Wing, David Johnson & Darryl Williams (TBYC)
6th S15, Emma, Tom Dayes & Dave Gibson (MBSC)
7th S40, Whisper, Frank Levy & Doreen Levy (MBSC)
8th S10, True Blue, Bill Wright & Denise Robinson (MBSC)
9th S155, Freshsands, Peter Freshwater & Vanessa Freshwater (MBSC)
10th S28, Wight Sand, Peter Harris & Nigel Whiting (MBSC)
11th S34, Jubilee, Roger Lambourne & Peter Collier (MBSC)
12th S31, Sandboy, Len Wright & Don Mattacks (MBSC)
13th S153, Speedy, Derek Webb & Steve Evans (MBSC)
14th S157, Scampi, Brian Casey & Sue Casey (MBSC)