MOCRA National Championship at Bembridge Sailing Club

There were with a record number of entries at this year's MOCRA National Championships at Bembridge Sailing Club.

It was a fine sight on Saturday morning as 17 boats lined up for the start of the first race in the northerly F2-3 breeze. Phil Cotton in his Skandia Cowes Week winning Seacart 30 Buzz made swift work of the triangle, sausage, triangle course and finished well ahead of the eventual winner the F33 Carbon Tiger II with owner Brian Haynes at the helm. Peter Newman in his F9R Twister was third and George Burn’s Dragonfly 920 Extreme Force X was fourth. The barest of the fleet were caught by the dying breeze so were well spread out by the finish.

It was a frustrating afternoon for the Race Officers and the competitors as the fickle conditions raised and then dashed the hopes of a worthwhile race. A windward leeward course using inflatable marks was eventually started at 15:38 and reasonable progress was made to the windward mark - certainly by the front runners. Not long after they turned, the wind died and it was a drift back on the tide aided by the occasional cats paw. Until that is, the last finisher was within 50 metres of the line and up sprung a respectable NE breeze - alas too late for another race as the rest of the fleet had been directed back to the harbour to fight for space on the beach! In the difficult conditions first over the line and the winner on corrected time was Carbon Tiger II followed not far behind by Ian Loffhagen’s F25c Sheik Yerbouti. Third place on corrected time went to Joel Malardel in Tancrede who had sailed over from Caen to join in the weekend's racing.

Typically the brisk overnight northerly winds had dropped by early morning; however boats were on the move when a start was made at 10:20 on another windward leeward course. With the light breeze coming and going, it was particularly frustrating for the slower and smaller boats who had to just sit and watch the lighter and faster front runners edge down to the finish after one round. Of the 17 starters only 7 finished. Line honours went to Buzz but on corrected time the first three were Twister, Carbon Tiger II & Ben Goodland in Team Eberspacher.

With no sign of a breeze and time running out, the final race was cancelled. The meant that based on just 3 races with no discard, the 2007 National Champion was Brian Haynes in Carbon Tiger II; in second place was Peter Newman in Twister, third was Phil Cotton in Buzz and fourth was Ian Loffhagen in Sheik Yerbouti.

Many thanks to Bembridge Sailing Club for good racing and great après-sail.

Overall Results: