Congratulations to Peter Thompson & Steve Hopper who for the third year in a row are the national champions.
SANDHOPPER CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010

The 2010 Sandhopper National Championships opened with an unforgiving 25 mph South Westerly but 29 boats signed the declaration sheet and battle commenced. Amongst the contestants were two new craft, “Hairloss” or Aeolus, is this a passing reference to the man at the sharp end & the innovative & controversial Tripod. Race 1 saw previous champion Chris Clarke with Dan Henderson taking the lead with current champions Sand Star & Bluejacket keeping her company, this order prevailed throughout the two rounds giving Chris & Dan a well deserved first. This race went without incident but plenty was to follow in the next. The wind increased slightly in Race 2 testing the crews and with Race Officer Geoff Appleton achieving a speedy turn-around Race 2 quickly got underway, this time Sand Star took an early lead with Martyn Eyre/Paul Spratt in Aeolus chasing her & Paul Clarke/Toby Speller in third place, yet again, with 2 lap races giving boats little time to impose themselves on the leaders, this turned out to be the finishing order. This race saw the three retirements, one of which was Phil Crawford whose spinnaker disappeared beneath the keel necessitating the cutting of his halyard & an early bath. The rigours of the economic downturn played a part in the following incident; Dave Johnson looking to fill his order book collided with April Fool, a nice touch David, passing your card to Ian Stobart as you parted company!
The third race saw the emergence of a pattern with Sand Star & the two new boats together with Bluejacket, a proven fast boat, establishing a dominating presence at the front of the fleet. Peter Thompson & Steve Hopper (159) led throughout followed by Bluejacket, Tripod & Aeolus with this being the finishing order.
Sunday brought lighter winds & some sun with the newer boats continuing to lead the fleet, which had increased to 32 Sandhoppers, the highest ever turnout for the Championships. Robin Foster-Taylor’s Tripod jumped into an enormous lead which they held to the finishing line. Chris Clarke in Sand Storm threatened to upset the dominance of the newer boats but dropped back to 4th, with Bluejacket 2nd & Sand Star 3rd. Race 5 started with one eye on the clock as the previous race had endured two general recalls & the schedule had fallen somewhat adrift. Sand Star fought back from 4th at the end of the 1st round to take the gun & the Championship, Aeolus was 2nd & Martyn Binnendijk & Gordon Sanders in Squiffy posted a 3rd their best performance & Chris Clarke another 4th.
The weekend’s sailing was thoroughly enjoyed by all contestants & further enhanced by a well attended dinner on Saturday night with Maylandsea members joining us.
1st Sand Star 159 Peter Thompson & Steve Hopper
2nd Bluejacket 154 Mark Dell & Nic Barnes
3rd Aeolus 161 Martyn Eyre & Paul Spratt
4th Tripod 162 Robin Foster-Taylor & Charles Devenport
Tony Padbury

I had forgotten about these but uploaded now and you can find them here.

Robin

We need a Race Officer for this Saturday 18th
September. Start time at 08.00

If you can do this, please leave a reply on this
site or email me [email protected]

Great event everyone!

Sam Husk took lots of pictures from the committee boat yesterday and you will find them all here. I’ve added the prizegiving pictures too.

Robin

RS400 – 1036

Hi All,

I have an urgent request for a swap of SS2 Crew this Saturday 11th September 2010.

I am away at a Fast Cat open meeting with Struan and did have the duty covered but

am now told they can not do it. So sorry for short notice. I beleive Kylie Jennkins is the helm so that will be fun!! (If she is crew then ignore this message and Struan needs to find a Helm for Ss2). LOL Only joking.

Please call or text 07799704524 or e-mail [email protected]

Many thanks

Wayne Miller.

All, please note a few changes from the previously published versions,

there are now 3 races per day, 1 discard after 5 races or more

the dinner is not included in the entrance fee

Good luck everyone, lets see if we can get at least one National Champion on the Board this year.

Sandhopper Nationals 2010SI

sandhopper NOR

Thoroughly recommended, see here:

http://www.you-tack.com

Hi All, Charles unfortunately has other commitments this Saturday and Elaine isn’t up to doing race officer and assistant all by herself, so anyone inerested in getting up early and running a race on Saturday, please get in touch with either myself or Chris Hull who’s the duty officer.

Thanking you in advance

K6 at TBYC.

I had my K6 down at the club a few weeks ago and a few people including Nick Elmore have asked if I could bring it down again so that they may have a sail.
So with that in mind I intend to have it at the club over the weekend of the 25/26 September so that people wishing to have a sail can do so.
If anyone would like a sail give me a call or mail so I can spread everyone through the weekend.

You can contact me at [email protected] or [email protected] 07725 590913 or 07802 611599

Regards

Dave Hall