Hadron H2 Inland Championship 2026 at Queen Mary Sailing Club

A jubilant Gavin Fleming in winning form - Hadron H2 Inland Championship at Queen Mary © QMSC

The Hadron H2 fleet held its Inland Championships on 16th and 17th May which was graciously hosted by Queen Mary Sailing Club. Coming into the event light wind specialist Ian Dawson, a serial Inland Champion, was hot favourite considering the wind forecast, but on-form Tim Garvin was also very much in the running considering his performance at the previous two opens held this year in light conditions.

Encouraged by the 20+ entries at the previous open at Chichester the organisers hoped for a decent turnout but perhaps influenced by the pessimistic wind forecast or daunted by the fabled launching ramps of QMSC a reduced fleet of ten H2s arrived on Saturday ready for close racing. It was great to welcome Tim Harvey and Paul Wright-Anderson to the fleet as newcomers to open events alongside some of the usual faces and as ever there was plenty of banter as boats were rigged.

Saturday saw three races sailed on a trapezoid course with a further three races on the Sunday using an old school sausage and triangle.

Conditions over both days could kindly be called "challenging" with significant shifts and variation in pressure that seemed at times to have no pattern.

Going from fully hiked to drifting in a few hundred meters presented a challenge to most of the fleet, especially those used to more stable conditions. This led to very close racing across the fleet with multiple changes in leader often in the same leg but it was Gavin Fleming who managed to get to the finish line before the rest of us the majority of the time. Ian Dawson and Richard Leftley also bagging a win in one race each over the course of the weekend.

Its never easy to be race officer in such conditions but hats off to Neil and Liam from QMSC who managed to get six races all with square start lines which was no mean feat.

With four wins from six races Gavin Fleming was crowned this years Inland Champion. In second place a rather surprised Richard Leftley who is one of the heavier helms and rarely goes well in lighter conditions but a consistent series finishing in the top three for all but one race proved to be enough. In third the indomitable Ian Dawson who relishes the light conditions but perhaps is used to more stable conditions beat Tim Garvin on count back to fourth.

Notably Tim should have won the penultimate race and sealed overall third but a freak gust at the windward mark earned him this year's "swimming cap of shame" along with some colourful language!

The fleet moves to Shoreham for its next open on 6th and 7th June and after three light wind events surely, we are due some decent breeze and a good turnout.

Overall Results:

Hadron H2 Inland Championship at Queen Mary - photo © QMSC