Hadron H2 Inland Championship and Coaching Session at Queen Mary Sailing Club

Close racing at Queen Mary during the Hadron H2 Inland Championship © Keith Callaghan

22 Hadron H2's, representing 18 different clubs from the length and breadth of England, arrived at a glassy smooth Queen Mary reservoir for Round 2 of the H2 Travellers Trophy.

By briefing time, cat's paws were in evidence and PRO Neil O'Leary headed his committee boat for the far end of the water, where some solid puffs of 5kts were to be found and laid a short trapezoid course.

Despite the H2's amazing weight carrying ability, this was not going to be a day for the heavyweights!

In Race 1, normal service was resumed as Josh Hamer was chased home by current National Champion Robin Parsons with rapid class newcomer, Steve Hendon in third.

Race 2 was a repeat performance at the sharp end, but "class legend" (and 100kg) Richard Leftley made the podium.

In Race 3 Michael Alexander, sailing his shiny new 2024 RYA Dinghy Show exhibit, hooked into his own private patch of breeze and shot off up the first beat like a robber's dog. Robin and Josh were soon in hot pursuit and Robin managed to pip him at the post.

Race 4 saw Richard Leftley and Andrew McGaw get away in their own random pressure at the start, leaving the rest of the fleet to a driftathon with many place changes right up to the line. Robin just managed to pop out of the log jam into third leaving him tied with Josh on 5 points after discard with Josh taking the title on countback.

Hadron H2 Inland Championship Podium (l-r) Robin Parsons / Josh Hamer / Richard Leftley - photo © QMSC

Following a splendid group curry supper at Shahin in Sunbury, the H2 throng re-convened on Sunday morning when Richard Leftley, assisted by Selden's Richard Le Mare gave a masterclass on setting up the H2 rig for various helm weights and wind strengths. The class is going from strength to strength and attracting new owners from many other classes, so this proved to be an enlightening hour well spent.

Richard Leftley talks datum rig measurements during the Hadron H2 Inland Championship - photo © Keith Callaghan

The fleet then launched (there was more wind!) and spent a very pleasant couple of hours doing boat handling drills and practice starts under the watchful instruction (and video camera) of Richard Leftley and H2 designer, Keith Callaghan. Participants will await the edited show-reel and debrief with some nervousness...

Huge thanks to the team at Queen Mary SC for their friendly and efficient event organisation on and off the water.

Overall Results: