What an Adventure! The sandhopper nationals held at RCYC was the largest fleet recorded for several decades; the sight of 26 sandhoppers sailing in the crouch was a fantastic site.
To get there and back added to the occasion, 3 boats went in 40mph winds the Monday before and the rest sailed on the Thursday in pouring rain, on both days despite the weather everybody had a huge smile.
Saturdays race was held in very light fluky conditions and we only managed one race out of 3, local knowledge was the key to the race and sand star took line honors followed by sandstorm in 2nd Zeus 3rd windrush 4th and squiffy 5th .( the rest of the results are on the RCYC web page)
The rest of the day was spent anchored by the windward mark of the second race where the real fun began, the banter was relentless and such a good laugh, upon abandonment late afternoon we headed for the great hospitality at the club bar and waited for the evening meal, over 80 people enjoyed a tremendous 3 course dinner at RCYC where the banter continued, Tony Padbury won the sponsors lonton and gray raffle prize which was a brand new spinnaker,Tony then kindly donated it immediately to be auctioned which raised £450 which once added to the donated mooring fees from rice and coles plus the raffle money raised over £1300 on the night for the RCYC local hospice charity, which for me was the icing on the cake to a brilliant weekend.
Sunday started with a huge good value buffet breakfast for nearly all the entrants at the RCYC followed by the next race, once again light conditions saw 6 finish in 45 minutes who were , satisfaction, sandstar, Apollo, sandstorm, squiffy, windrush and true blue the rest eventually crawled across the line 2 hours later. It looked like the championship would be abandoned but fortunately patience paid off and we managed one more race, the points were so close every place counted .
With the race over and two of the top finishers being ocs ( o dear, o dear, o dear)the final results saw sand star (Thompson and hopper) become the new national champions, worthy champions in everybody’s eyes , I have never met two people who put so much effort into helping others, if they weren’t coaching they were tuning boats, lending sails, blocks , shackles local knowledge etc, they were ensuring everyone’s safe passage to Burnham, both steve and peter did all the journeys with the boats to Burnham.
I would like to thank Steve Hopper and Martin Eyre for using their ribs as support boats, Tony Clarke for seasafe 5 and all his assistance, tony padbury for his fabulous donation, Dave Johnson for the Burnham Idea, RCYC for their hospitality, all fellow sandhopper sailors for their support and fantastic company, Len, Pat, Sally and john for their kind words of encouragement from the support boats, ken Clarke for liaising between all for the event, finally Peter Thompson for getting us all back safely in the dark on Sunday night, flying spinnakers in the pitch black onto the moorings at tbyc was beautiful and a first for some.
I thoroughly enjoyed the nationals and have sailed in many classes over the years, the sandhopper fleet has the nicest most helpful group of sailors I have ever had the pleasure to sail with.
results click here
Have you got your entry form in yet, if not you still have time.
If you are visiting the TBYC website for details on the Laser Pico Nationals please click on the “Nationals” tab on the left had side of the screen for further details, including Sailing Instructions and Entry Forms. Also see the how you could win a new Pico.
14 Sandhoppers joined in with the Hobday Trophy race on Sunday, the weather was great including the force 6 which always makes for some interesting sailing, Sandstar took top spot in our group followed by Sandstorm and Satisfaction, the surprise of the day was watching Apollo limp slowly around the course with a hungover crew that appeared to be fishing using the barnacles on their keel as bait, this helped add to the banter on the balcony whilst celebrating the clubs 60th anniversary.