Inaugural Sea Sure Zenith National Championship at Warsash Sailing Club
by Paddy Lewis 21 Oct 06:17 BST
17-19 October 2025
How often do we get to say "I was there". The fact is, in life, most of us rarely get to say "I was there" at a pivotal point in history. You might think of events like the Battle of Trafalgar (I'll come back to this!) or the signing of the Magna Carta or in more modern parlance, the fall of the Berlin Wall or perhaps the creation of the Internet.
This weekend was, in dinghy sailing terms, one of those rare moments. Fourteen brand new Zeniths arrived at the wonderful Warsash Sailing Club for the classes very first National Championship. To say the atmosphere in the boat park was electric would be an understatement, the excitement of being part of the first Zenith event was a huge buzz for all involved.
It was also great to see so many future Zenith owners there with boats on order, to support the class - Robin Hobson flew in from Bequia specially. There were also people who had heard about the boat who wanted to see it in anticipation of trying one or were about to make an order. There are boats dotted around the country that are available to try out - if you are near London and wanting to try one, please let me know and you can come and sail my boat at Datchet Water.
The wind this weekend in the Solent was looking challenging and with gusts of 25 knots, wind over tide, it was likely to be a steep learning curve for everyone, which to an extent was why this was such a fantastic weekend. The boat and the sailors were going to be tested in some relatively extreme conditions.
That said, as you will see from the results, the pedigree of sailors (excluding the 7th!) was off the charts, which meant the boat was going to be put through it's paces by some of the best sailors in the UK, with multiple National and World titles to their names.
The race officer, Peter Knight, who did an outstanding job in potentially tricky conditions, sent us out with the warning that if it looked a bit fruity after the first race, he might bring us home early. It was certainly fruity, but we battled through four races back to back.
At the prize-giving Peter said he was extremely impressed with how the Zenith handled in such testing conditions, which is what gave him the confidence to crack on despite the conditions. There were some spectacular swims for some of us, mainly on the jibes, but with its 40 Kilogram board, the boat just popped back up, the jockey slipped back into the boat over the low transom and away they went again.
Embarrassingly, Mark Hartley and I managed a bit of synchronised jibing and swimming, down one of the runs right in front of Mr Hartley Senior who was supporting us from the spectator boat - needless to say, Richard had some top tips later in the bar on how this could have been avoided!!!
We knew the waves were big after race one, because poor Ben Harden was overcome with seasickness between races, but he bravely battled on having found his sea legs after a visit to the side of the boat.
As you will see from the results, Nick Craig did his thing again and sailed immaculately to win the event. Nick loved the boat he said "I was really impressed with how responsive it was upwind and with the heavy board you can really work the boat hard down the waves with real confidence." Nick served up a masterclass and we are all delighted to have him in the fleet.
Both Sam Watson and Ben Harden also showed us their skills downwind, as did Eden Hyland, who between them, made up the top four boats with Nick. I certainly learnt a lot watching these guys expertly navigate the conditions but alas, with my bus pass arriving next month, I will need to age backwards like Benjamin Button if I'm ever going to get past them!
More wind was forecast for Sunday, but we headed out in the hope we could get the final two races in before the front came through. Luckily the wind stayed around 15-18 knots which allowed for some very tight racing, uninterrupted by swimming, throughout the fleet for those who went out.
What was very clear from the last two races, as was the case the day before but harder to achieve, was that sailing the boat flat like any dinghy was fast. I think we all learnt that you need to get the right balance between footing off and going fast and pushing up for height.
The boat is really powerful and exciting to sail but also very manageable in 25 knot gusts and waves, which is exactly what it was designed to do by the brilliant Phil Morrison in collaboration with Mark and Richard Hartley of Hartley Boats. Phil was with us all weekend seeing how his latest design performed - Phil thank you from all of us (current and future owners) for designing such a fabulous boat - it's the future!!
Thank you so much to Warsash Sailing Club for putting on such a great event and also for a wonderful evening on Saturday and allowing us to join in your HMS Pickle dinner. For those, like me who had no idea what HMS Pickle was, we were educated in an extremely entertaining way, which included, sea shanties, rum and more rum, and wonderful renditions of the goings on at the Battle of Trafalgar and the important part HMS Pickle played in getting the news of the winning of the battle back to the Admiralty in London - no WhatsApp back in 1805. Have a Google of HMS Pickle, it's a really great story.
Finally, I want to thank Mark and Richard Hartley of Hartley Boats as well as Graham Brown from Sea Sure for sponsoring the event.
I for one, feel hugely motivated by the level of enthusiasm from everyone involved in the Zenith class, but Richard takes enthusiasm to another level, which he demonstrated at the prize-giving. He announced some extremely exciting follow on projects to the Zenith and the prediction of 100+ boats at next year's nationals.
The 2026 nationals will include the Zen (Zen is for 50 -80Kg sailors - Zenith 70 -120Kg) and the Zenith 2, an asymmetric speed machine - both these boats will be sporting the 40kg board.
There are 30 Zeniths built and 44 ordered, so I think 100+ will happen. Come and join us and be part of the future.
It is people like Richard who build and invest in businesses like Hartley Boats that drives our economy - I wish the Chancellor had been there to hear his excitement, drive and enthusiasm because it is truly infectious. Thank you Richard for your determined leadership!
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 106 | Nick Craig | Warsash/Frensham/Burghfield SC | ‑1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2nd | 7 | Sam Watson | Chase SC | ‑4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| 3rd | 122 | Eden Hyland | Chase SC | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | ‑6 | 17 |
| 4th | 125 | Ben Harden | Stone Sailing Club | 5 | 3 | 5 | ‑7 | 2 | 3 | 18 |
| 5th | 113 | Justin Jones | South Staffs/ Chase SC | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | ‑6 | 4 | 18 |
| 6th | 121 | Mark Hartley | Blithfield SC | ‑7 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 23 |
| 7th | 101 | Paddy Lewis | Datchet Water SC | 6 | 7 | (OCS) | 6 | 7 | 7 | 33 |
| 8th | 130 | Stephen Blake | Carsington SC | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | (DNC) | DNC | 46 |
| 9th | 102 | Graham Brown | Warsash SC | (DNF) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 8 | 8 | 61 |
| 10th | 111 | Peter Frith | Poole YC | 9 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 69 |
| 11th | 124 | Tim Platt | Maidenhead SC / Broadwater SC | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 75 |
| 11th | 134 | Chris Swallow | Burton SC | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 75 |
| 11th | 126 | Andrew Borham | Seafarers Sailing Club | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 75 |
| 11th | 100 | Peter Slater | Blithfield SC | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 75 |