Flying Fifteen Championship Series 2022 and Worlds 2023 Qualification
by Bill Chard 29 Jul 2022 22:30 BST
Flying Fifteen National Championship at Hayling Island © Peter Hickson
The Flying Fifteen National Championships at Hayling Island in July also marked the completion of the 2022 UKFFA Championship Series.
The series kicked off back in April with the Northern Area Championship at Royal Windermere Yacht Club. A fleet of 30 boats competed in challenging shifty conditions, with some strong winds at times. The event was won by multiple World Champion Steve Goacher sailing with Tim Harper.
A smaller but competitive fleet turned out a few weeks later in mid-May for the Scottish Championship at Holy Loch won by Nigel Biggs.
At the end of May, the action moved South again for the Inland Championship at Grafham Water - the second visit to Grafham for the Fifteens this season, after the Ovington Inlands at the start of the season. 33 boats competed for the title, eventually won by Ian Pinnell and Ian Cadwallader.
And then the fleet moved to coastal venues for the rest of the series. First in June, at Parkstone Yacht Club for the Southern Area Championships, sailed in classic Poole Bay conditions with fresh breeze and waves, to which the Fifteen is ideally suited. Sailing in Poole Bay is always worth the sail out of the harbour although for some the sail back in on the Saturday afternoon in 30 knots was something of an endurance test.
The Southern Champions at the end of the weekend were Jeremy Davy and Martin Huett.
The Nationals at Hayling were sailed over four days and despite lighter winds and difficult conditions at times, the race team managed to complete the full series of 10 races out in Hayling Bay. The longer event, with warm weather and long evenings, enabled the 41 entrants to enjoy a full social programme too.
In their only event of the season so far, current World Champions Graham Vials and Chris Turner sailed a very consistent series and took a convincing win.
For the 2022 season, UKFFA introduced a system of divisions in the fleet for the Championship Series based on performance in past years, to recognise the efforts of sailors throughout the fleet, whose support makes these events worthwhile.
So, at the end of the series, the winners were:
Red Division: Ian Pinnell and Ian Cadwallader
Blue Division: Ian Linder and Kevin Sweetman
Green Division: Simon Cooper and Alastair Cooper
The Championship Series also serves as the Qualification Series for the next Flying Fifteen World Championships, to be held in Fremantle Australia in March 2023. This will be the first Worlds since Dun Laoghaire in 2019 and the build-up is already under way. The UK Flying Fifteen Association expects to send a strong team and there is already plenty of interest from the fleet.
Any UK Fifteen sailors interested in going to the 2023 Worlds should contact as soon as possible, to register interest and for information on shipping boats to the event.
The 2022 season still has some way to run though, and the next major event will be the European Championships in Cowes, 20-26 August - also marking the 75th anniversary of the class, and the 50th anniversary of the passing of the boat's designer Uffa Fox.
With 64 entries at the time of writing, this will be the largest Flying Fifteen event for some time, with entrants from across Europe and beyond. See you there!