Hadron H2 Inland Championships 2023 at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Anne Gates in the Hadron H2 Inland Championships at Queen Mary © Simon Winkley

After the gale force winds at the first H2 open event of the year at Chichester YC last weekend, the H2 fleet moved to Queen Mary Sailing Club for a much gentler experience. On Saturday, 1st April, 14 H2s entered for the 2023 Inland Championships.

Entries included two of the new batch of boats moulded by MTag Composites and two boats fitted with the new standard H2 spars from Selden Masts, which attracted a great deal of interest.

Another significant feature of the day was the participation of Anne Gates, a two times ladies champion in the Solo class; the first woman to compete in an H2 open event.

The PRO, Neil O'Leary, set a triangle-sausage course for the scheduled four races and it soon became apparent that the stars of last week's 'survival' event were not so dominant in the 7 to 10 knot Northerly breeze.

Veteran H2 sailor Ian Dawson stepped into the power vacuum thus created and, playing the shifts brilliantly, chalked up wins in races one and two. By contrast, Richard Le Mare, defending Inland Champion and winner of the Chichester YC event, could only manage an 8th and 11th, thus putting himself out of the running.

However, last week's runner-up and two times Inland Champion Richard Leftley was showing his versatility with second and fourth placings, with Josh Hamer in his first outing in his new H2 'Dirty Martini' scoring two thirds and Chris Brown (always the last person to get afloat at an H2 event) scoring a good second place in race 2.

Richard Leftley (second overall) in the Hadron H2 Inland Championships at Queen Mary - photo © Simon Winkley

By race 3 the wind had increased a little and Ian Dawson was starting to struggle. It was another of the lighter helms who took line honours - our versatile Class chairman Dave Barker had been the only helm not to capsize in the Chichester YC event and in weather perhaps more suited to his talents he led the fleet home, followed by Josh Hamer, who was rapidly acquainting himself with his new boat.

Local helm Tim Garvin took third place, just ahead of Ian Dawson. Richard Leftley's challenge took a setback as he had been recalled at the start and could only recover to fifth place.

After 3 races Ian was on 6 points, with Josh on 8 points and Richard Leftley on 11. With one discard allowed Ian was not quite home and dry. Richard had now got in the groove and in a decent breeze he won race 4. Tim was also finding the slightly stronger wind to his liking and notched up second place, with Dave Barker in third and Richard Le Mare fourth. Josh decided not to sail the last race.

The final results were close! So Ian Dawson is the 2023 H2 Inland Champion; a fantastic achievement for the oldest H2 helm, especially when added to his runner-up place in the H2 Nationals last year.

The H2 Class Association wishes to thank the QMSC officers, members and staff for a very well run event. A special mention to the volunteers who helped launch and recover the boats - with the steep sides of the reservoir that was not an easy task for singlehanders.

Ian Dawson receives the trophy from PRO Neil O'Leary - Hadron H2 Inland Championships at Queen Mary - photo © Keith Callaghan

Overall Results:

Dave Barker (fifth overall) in the Hadron H2 Inland Championships at Queen Mary - photo © Simon Winkley