Inaugural Streaker Coastal Championship at Snettisham Beach Sailing Club

by Veronica Falat 5 Aug 2021 07:07 BST 31 July - 1 August 2021

In past years, the Streaker class has held an Inland Championship whether or not the Nationals was held at sea. This meant that sometimes there were two important inland events but no equivalent event at sea. This changed this year with the inaugural Coastal Championship, held over the weekend of July 31st - August 1st at Snettisham Beach SC in north Norfolk.

The conditions were good with an onshore westerly breeze on the Saturday and a slightly lighter northerly on Sunday. Excellent courses were set - triangle/sausage courses on Saturday and windward-leewards on Sunday. Many thanks to the race teams at SBSC for giving us some super racing.

Local sailor Jasper Barnham led both of Saturday's races from start to finish. He was fast both upwind and down. Behind him Veronica Falat and Neil Firth had close battles for 2nd place, while Pete Matthews, Phil Halldron, Chris Smith and Ian Bradley were never far behind.

On Sunday, Graham Sexton joined in and at last Jasper was made to work hard for his place at the front of the fleet. These two were neck-and-neck throughout both races on that day and at the end of the first, Graham was just ahead.

In the second race, again they were engaged in their own private battle, so much so that Veronica managed to catch them up on one of the beats and then stayed close on the following run. However, a lap later, Jasper took the win, just ahead of Graham with Veronica observing the action from behind.

Overall, Jasper took the Championship win with 3 first places, Veronica was 2nd and Neil Firth 3rd. Phil Halldron was the first Silver Fleet sailor, just ahead of Pete Matthews, and Ian Haynes and Andy Ritchie were first and second in the Bronze Fleet.

This event is part of the Streaker Super Series sponsored by Rooster. Jasper currently leads the series having won the Southern Championships in June at Weymouth.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1st	2127	Jasper Barnham	Snettisham Beach SC	1	1	‑2	1	3
2nd	1972	Veronica Falat	Waveney and Oulton Broad Y.C	2	2	‑3	3	7
3rd	1977	Neil Firth	Banbury S.C	3	3	‑5	4	10
4th	2109	Phil Halldron	Downs SC	‑6	4	4	6	14
5th	1654	Pete Matthews	Waveney and Oulton Broad Y.C	4	5	‑8	7	16
6th	2126	Graham Sexton	Fishers Green SC	(DNC)	DNC	1	2	17
7th	2121	Ian Bradley	Ouse Amateur SC	‑7	7	6	5	18
8th	1844	Chris Smith	Island Barn RSC	5	6	7	‑8	18
9th	1817	Ian Haynes	Ouse Amateur SC	8	8	9	‑10	25
10th	1890	Andy Ritchie	Waveney and Oulton Broad Y.C	9	9	‑10	9	27
11th	1549	Chris Kelly	Snettisham Beach SC	‑11	10	11	11	32
12th	1360	Tim Brown	Snettisham Beach SC	10	11	(DNC)	DNC	35
13th	1514	Jackie French	Snettisham Beach SC	(DNF)	12	12	12	36