Allen Contender Northern Championship at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club
by BCA 4 May 2023 17:54 BST
22-23 April 2023
With a flurry of dull as dishwater low speed events so far this year, the Contender fleet pinned great expectation onto Yorkshire Dales to become the saving white knight, it must be windy that high up!
The club is a draw in itself, being very welcoming and with superb facilities for staying onsite, as it turned out the attendees hailed from as far as Scotland and Kent to get 14 boats onto the start line.
After all that build up and hyperbole, the wind was light-ish on the first day and then decent trapeze weather on day two that slowly degraded into barely a zephyr. This compendium of conditions made for some spikey results and some serious lack of consistency.
In the light-ish first day that started off with a first beat of full power, Neil Ferguson got ahead using local knowledge and was never seen again, As things started to soften Mick Pullen and Chris Howe used light weight and guile to take a win each, leaving Mick ahead over night. Racing through out the day was tight with only Neil's bullet not suffering from the curse of haemorrhaging all gains without notice.
Surprisingly to everyone, Sunday had more breeze than expected and suddenly Tom Hooton appeared and won after a day one shocker. Once again the breeze departed and left us with regret, this suited mega pointer James Daniel who stitched together enough breeze patches upwind to take a first Contender open win, with his customary beaming smile, only slight tainted by a neon yellow hat. As the wind now left completely Mick Pullin re-appeared to take a win, apparently enjoying flat wiring in conditions suitable for ballooning.
And so it was that at the end, 5 different race winners across the 6 races and none of them took the event. It was serial lurker Ed Presley who managed to avoid posting a bad score and "Jones'd" his way to the overall title of Northern champ.
We will return to Yorkshire dale due to the outstanding hospitality shown by the club and slick race management.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 2708 | Ed Presley | | 2 | 2 | ‑4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| 2nd | 2602 | Michael Pullin | | 4 | 1 | 2 | ‑8 | 5 | 1 | 13 |
| 3rd | GBR2729 | Chris Howe | Oxford Sailing Club | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | (DNF) | 16 |
| 4th | 678 | Thomas Hooton | Burton SC | 6 | 4 | ‑8 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 17 |
| 5th | 2710 | James Daniels | Netley | 5 | ‑8 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 21 |
| 6th | Gbr2733 | Neil Ferguson | Yorkshire dales sc | 1 | 9 | ‑10 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 26 |
| 7th | 2725 | Peter Snowdon | Scaling Dam SC | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | ‑9 | 5 | 26 |
| 8th | 2423 | Simon Dodds | Hythe & Saltwood Sailing Club | 9 | 5 | ‑12 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 31 |
| 9th | 666 | Bill Hooton | Burton | 10 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 8 | (DNC) | 44 |
| 10th | k504 | joseph spencer | Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club | ‑13 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 54 |
| 11th | 712 | Rodger White | King George | 8 | 10 | 7 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 55 |
| 12th | 2572 | Paul Ross | Shotley Sailing Club | 11 | 7 | 11 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 59 |
| 13th | 2422 | Richard Buttner | RNSA / RYA | 12 | 12 | 9 | (DNF) | DNC | DNC | 63 |
| 14th | GBR 634 | Dave Burrell | Covenham Sailing Club | (DNF) | 14 | 14 | DNC | DNC | DNC | 73 |