10 Rater National Championships at Datchet Water Radio Sailing Club

by Nigel Barrow 17 Jun 2024 17:18 BST 8-9 June 2024

Following on from the Marblehead Nationals held the previous weekend, Datchet put on another good display. The competitors arrived to a cool West to North west wind which placed the racing on the North side of the clubhouse. Unlike last weekend, the wind behaved, so we could stay in the same place all weekend with minor tweaks to the course as the wind shifted according to the forecast.

B rigs were mostly used as the wind varied from 5 to 15 with rare gusts of 20 mph from the West to the Northwest.

13 hardy competitors battled the elements over 28 races, but the chase for the podium places was close between Matteo Longhi, with a Trance, Graham Bantock, with a Diamond and Nicolas Willefort, also with a Diamond. Matteo put a marker down winning the first race and then strung a series of 1's and 2's for the next 14 races to lead comfortably from Nicolas and Graham.

An interesting feature of the day was a Southern Schools team racing final with a course located next to ours with the occasional invader into are territory but overall they were very well behaved and looked to be having some great racing.

On Saturday night, Graham and Elaine Hetem put on another magnificent barbeque, held upstairs in the club with glorious views over the reservoir.

Sunday dawned bright but cold with the wind conveniently blowing from the Northwest. Matteo continued his dominance, but Graham fought back strongly with a string of great results and many close battles with Matteo but mostly finishing a close second.

The racing was appreciated by the race team, watching two highly skilled sailors battling for the win. If there was ever an edge, it was on the Trance's downwind performance. Nicolas had started the weekend well but struggled to mix in with the lead protagonists on the second day. So Matteo won, Graham second and Nicolas third.

A special mention must go to Darin Ballington, who sailed an elderly looking Prizm into 4th place and 15 year old Nicholas Fezer Brown who not only finished 7th but executed the only port tack start to perfection, leading at the first mark by 30 yards.

At the prize-giving, Matteo thanked all the volunteers who gave up their weekend and announced that he would be back next year.

Overall Results:

Pos	Hull	SailNo	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R8	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	R17	R18	R19	R20	R21	R22	R23	R24	R25	R26	R27	R28	Pts
1	Trance	24	Matteo Longhi	ITA	1	2	2	1	3	1	1	1	3	2	2	1	2	1	3	2	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	12	34
2	Diamond	95	Graham Bantock	Chelmsford RYC	7	30	3	3	20	13	13	6.3	1	1	1	30	1	2	1	1	1	13	1	2	2	2	3	2	9	3	1	1	53.3
3	Diamond	83	Nicolas Willefert	FRA	2	1	1	2	1	1.4	2	3	2	6	3	5	3	4	2	3	3	4	4	3	3	4	4	3	3	2	4	2	61.4
4	Prizm	98	Darin Ballington	Lincoln MYC	3	7	6	7	4	2	13	2	6	5	4	4	4	3	4	4	5	3	6	4	7	6	10	13	4	5	20	12	107
5	Defector	97	Rob Wilson	Lincoln MYC	14	40	7	14	5	4	4	4	10	7	5	7	6	5	5	5	4	2	5	9	4	3	2	4	2	4	8	3	109
6	P8	31	Phll Holliday	Datchet RS	14	8	5	4	7	7	7	5	5	4	8	2	5	6	6.2	7	6	5	6.2	10	6	8	5	6	7	6	12	12	141.4
7	Diamond	183	Nicholas Fezer Brown	London MYC	9	14	14	10	6	13	3	6	7	3	7	8	13	13	6	6	9	13	10	6	5	5	13	7	5	10	5	7	179
B	P8	70	Roger Crates	Bridlington MYC	6	9	4	6	8	13	9	9	4	9	6	6	13	8	13	13	8	13	8	11	10	10	7	5	8	8	30	4	179
9	Diamond	89	Barrie Martin	London MYC	5	6	9	8	13	3	8	8	9	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	8	3	5	8	7	6	10	6	7	6	5	190
10	Dladem	55	Richard Uttley	Datchet RS	10	11	10	11	10	5	8	11	8	8	9	9	7	7	7	8	7	6	9	8	9	9	8	13	14	14	14	14	208
11	Venga	60	Graham Hetem	Datchet RS	8	10	11	9	9	13	5	10	11	10	10	13	13	13	13	13	10	7	7	7	11	13	13	8	10	9	90	6	229
12	P8	118	Hugh McAdoo	Datchet RS	4	5	8	5	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	291
13	MKV11C	90	John Millward	Frensham Pond MYG	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	11	13	13	13	13	11	9	9	11	11	7	8	296