Craftinsure Lark Masters Championship at Itchenor Sailing Club

by Simon Morris 9 Oct 2024 10:28 BST 5-6 October 2024

The biennial Lark Masters returned to Itchenor Sailing Club, a beautiful spot for a reunion of old friends and sparring partners. The sun was out, the wind was up and the tide was in for three races on the open reaches of Chichester Harbour.

PRO Katie Nurton set excellent cross tide courses with plenty of shifts and gusts to make for an excellent three hours on the water.

When the event was first created, the entry age to be a Master was set at the (what seemed at the time) ridiculously old age of 35. As a consequence, the event attracted a talented group of Lark experts with six National Titles spanning from 1988 to 2023!

In the first race of the day, the youngest of the National Champions, Ed Bradburn and Holly Evans established an early lead but were pushed all the way to the line by slightly older Champions Harry Pynn and Gemma Cook, with the lead changing a number of times before Ed and Holly took the gun. Meanwhile, the oldest of the Champions, Grand Masters Tim Fells and Jerry Eplett were having a senior moment heading towards the wrong windward mark and finishing DFL.

Race 2 started in a building breeze, with some teams starting to rake back their rigs. Chastened by their first race stupidity, Tim and Jerry took the early lead and extended away from Harry and Gemma to take a comfortable first place. Further back, Ed and Holly were entertaining the fleet by hitting the windward mark and then dismounting during the penalty turn. The dark mud on the top of their sail told the story of their embarrassment.

Going into the final race it was all to play for between the top three teams. Harry and Gemma nailed the first beat coming in on a very nice righty to take the early lead. However, by the first triangle, Ed and Holly had their noses in front with Tim and Jerry up into third and closing in on Ed and Holly by the top of the third beat. Arriving at the penultimate leeward mark overlapped Tim and Jerry were bounced out to the less favoured left-hand side of the beat where they got a nice lefty to take a narrow lead. The top three remained incredibly close for the final two laps but Tim and Jerry held on to take the final gun by half a boat length from Ed and Holly with Harry and Gemma just behind.

These finishing positions were also the overall results with Tim and Jerry taking their first ever Masters title with a combined age of 127 years in the boat.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Name	Sail No	Helm	Crew Name	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	Floozie	2527	Tim Fells	Jerry Eplett	Salcombe YC	‑9	1	1	2
2nd	Lark	2526	Ed Bradburn	Holly Evans	South Staffs	1	‑4	2	3
3rd	Rollergirl	2520	Harry Pynn	Gemma Cook	Waldringfield SC	2	2	‑3	4
4th	Florence	2492	James Stewart	Hannah Carruthers	Netley SC	4	3	(DNF)	7
5th	Tiger Too	2538	Nigel Hufton	Megan Pascoe	Frensham Pond SC	‑6	5	4	9
6th	Weeble	2502	Steve Chatten	Kirsty Phipps	Netley SC	5	‑7	5	10
7th	Cleopatra	2541	Simon Cox	George Cox‑Oliff	Brightlingsea	3	9	(DNF)	12
8th	Musto	2475	Dougal Scott	Helen Scott	Starcross YC	‑7	6	6	12
9th	Lark	2539	Nigel Scott	Tegwyn Tricker	RYA	‑8	8	7	15