420 Spring Championship at GP2 at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy
by John Meadowcroft 16 May 2022 10:17 BST
7-8 May 2022
The 420 Spring Championships was held at WPNSA on 7/8 May. The sun was shining and it was blowing 10 knots.
With school exams on the horizon, it was time for some sailors to go into hibernation and to welcome back some old faces too, and it was two old faces Haydn Sewell & Bee Harris who have most recently been coaching younger 420 sailors who sneaked the win in race 1. Matthias Potter and Ellie Thomas crossed the line first but were OCS and so Haydn & Bee took the win ahead of Ollie Meadowcroft & Oscar Cawthorne who had led down the final reach but had maybe sensibly, but as it turns out incorrectly, opted not to get involved in fighting for height but lost out when the big puff came in...
Races 2, 3 and 4 look from the results like one way traffic for Alice Davis and Oliver Rayner who secured three bullets in a row, with great boat speed and simply sailing quite beautifully. Everyone else behind traded positions and really could not show much consistency which meant that overnight Alice & Oliver had a clear lead ahead of a gaggle of boats separated by just a few points. Ollie & Oscar were best of the rest with 2 seconds on day one, Millie Irish & Clara Jones picked up a second place as did Megan Farrer & Ellie Rush, whilst Lizzie & Charlotte Beardsall picked up two third places. Haydn & Bee took a lesson from the juniors, then tore a spinnaker and retired and finished in third in the final race to complete a topsy turvy day.
Day two dawned a little windier but ultimately it failed to build as many were hoping for. Henry & Vita Heathcote won the first two races of the day executing great starts and building good leads. 420 sailing can often be simplified when you have a World Champion crewing for you! Joe Warwicker and Hugo Valentine took the bullet in race 3 before Megan & Ellie won the final race of the day.
Once again in the final results half the boats in the top 10 had female sailors and 3 of the top 5 boats were driven by female helms. Alice & Oliver got a top 5 result in every race and continued to show the consistency in a tight fleet which was the hallmark of their series when they won the Youth Nationals last month. Megan & Ellie were first female sailors and Harry George & Ralph Cawthorne were the first U17 sailors.
Next up for the 420s is Training at Shoreham on 28/29 May followed by GP3 at Shoreham on 18/19 June. Oh, and GCSEs and A-levels. Good luck sailors and thanks to the returning heroes for coming racing. It was great to see you.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Fleet | Bow No | Sail No | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Open | 42 | 57259 | Alice Davis | Oliver Rayner | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑5 | 2 | 5 | 17 |
| 2nd | Open | 38 | 55244 | Henry Heathcote | Vita Heathcote | 8 | 4 | ‑13 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 33 |
| 3rd | Female | 9 | 54852 | Megan Farrer | Ellie Rush | 5 | 9 | ‑18 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 34 |
| 4th | Open | 19 | 57004 | Ollie Meadowcroft | Oscar Cawthorne | 2 | 8 | 2 | 5 | ‑15 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 38 |
| 5th | Female | 6 | 55517 | Lizzie Beardsall | Charlotte Beardsall | 6 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 3 | ‑10 | 39 |
| 6th | Open | 17 | 55854 | Joe Warwicker | Hugo Valentine | 3 | 5 | 8 | ‑13 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 42 |
| 7th | Female | 10 | 54483 | Millie Irish | Clara Jones | ‑13 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 13 | 2 | 53 |
| 8th | U17 Open | 45 | 544 | Harry George | Ralph Cawthorne | 11 | ‑17 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 58 |
| 9th | Open | 39 | 56342 | Mathias Potter | Ellie Thomas | (OCS) | 12 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 63 |
| 10th | Open | 88 | 55242 | Haydn Sewell | Bettine Harris | 1 | 18 | (RET) | 3 | 6 | 20 | 14 | 3 | 65 |
| 11th | Female | 32 | 54487 | Kt. Byne | Lia Horne | ‑20 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 68 |
| 12th | U17 Female | 57 | 54724 | Noa Moskovitch | Gabs Burlton | 7 | 7 | 21 | 16 | 10 | ‑22 | 4 | 12 | 77 |
| 13th | Open | 41 | 57273 | Arwen Fflur | Teddy Dunn | 18 | 11 | 4 | 7 | ‑21 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 80 |
| 14th | Open | 20 | 56007 | Freya Sewell | Arlo Braund | 9 | 15 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 17 | ‑25 | 16 | 85 |
| 15th | U17 Open | 64 | 56108 | William Bailey | Matthew Rayner | 16 | 6 | 12 | 17 | 18 | 12 | 5 | ‑20 | 86 |
| 16th | Open | 40 | 54853 | Oli Hale | Sophie Hankins | 10 | 13 | ‑25 | 11 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 24 | 104 |
| 17th | Open | 21 | 54481 | Holly Wright | Iain Blake | ‑23 | 16 | 16 | 23 | 20 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 114 |
| 18th | U17 Female | 56 | 57286 | Ellie Creighton | Bea Greenfield | 14 | 14 | 20 | 14 | ‑23 | 15 | 19 | 21 | 117 |
| 19th | Open | 8 | 54536 | Charlie Gran | Kuba Staite | 22 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 14 | 13 | 16 | ‑25 | 123 |
| 20th | U17 Female | 63 | 485 | Sabine Potter | Merle Nieuwland | 15 | 21 | 22 | 15 | 19 | 18 | ‑24 | 15 | 125 |
| 21st | Open | 27 | 54983 | Louise Davis | Sam Jones | 21 | 22 | 9 | 21 | ‑25 | 23 | 17 | 13 | 126 |
| 22nd | Open | 50 | 57272 | Emma Breese | Arthur Bailey | ‑24 | 19 | 14 | 20 | 12 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 127 |
| 23rd | U17 Open | 22 | 52230 | Joe Jones | Ethan Sparkes | 12 | 24 | 15 | ‑25 | 24 | 19 | 23 | 22 | 139 |
| 24th | U17 Open | 86 | 53959 | William Fletcher | Madeleine Greaves | 25 | 23 | 11 | 24 | 22 | ‑27 | 21 | 23 | 149 |
| 25th | Open | 18 | 55371 | Tanya Weighill | Patrick Hill | 19 | 26 | 23 | 26 | 16 | 26 | ‑27 | 17 | 153 |
| 26th | U17 Open | 61 | 55634 | Fin southon | Rhys Griffiths | 17 | 25 | 24 | 22 | ‑26 | 25 | 20 | 26 | 159 |
| 27th | U17 Open | 49 | 54059 | Amber Hale | River Green | 26 | ‑27 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 183 |
