Bassenthwaite Sailing Club hosted an excellent weekend sailing for the Flying Fifteen Northern Championships on the 9th/10th June. Weather conditions varied from light winds in hot sunshine to strong winds with sudden squalls and even heavy rain for a short period. It was an event that proved to be a complete test of a well-sorted boat and efficient crew.
Officer of the day Andy Smith did an exceptional job, giving a variety of courses in the changeable winds that often characterise sailing at Bass.
A visiting fleet included former world champions Steve Goacher and Alan Bax (Northampton) along with Terry Crumpton (Derwent Reservoir), Neil Platt (Bolton), Chris Ducker (Windermere) and Tony Lee (Derwent Reservoir) so the competition was going to be fierce.
Neil Platt/A. Gerard (3729) stormed round the first race in strong conditions to notch up their first win with Goacher (3721) and Crumpton (3702) battling it out for 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Race 2 was held in even stronger conditions with some wild squalls screaming down the lake and during these squalls both Neil Platt (3729) and R Coates (3484) both lost their masts when standing rigging gave way with expensive results. Goacher won race 2 and Howard Green had just opened his birthday present from his wife and found inside a brand new fifteen (3734). He took his pal Ian Preston for a sail and ended up with second place. Lucky man Howard! Terry Crumpton was again 3rd – very consistent.
Sudden heavy rain lashed by stiff winds made race 3 rather unpleasant at times and after a good race Alan Bax posted a 3rd position to keep him in contention but with Goacher getting another win the championship was getting very difficult to win. D Douglas/A Weatherspoon (3590) separating the pair with Bass members Scott Beattie/ John Somerville (3673) in 4th. After the days racing the B&B’s, hotels and pubs locally did some welcome business in what has been a very bad year for tourism and the visiting sailors were very pleased with the hospitality shown.
Sunday was a wonderful day, warm sunshine and good winds all day. Past Bassenthwaite member Martin Stott (3219) certainly enjoyed it, leading the fleet in race 4 for much of the time and the all female boat of Wendy Somerville/Elaine Fairlamb (3332) were right up finishing in an excellent 5th position just behind Alan Bax, Chris Ducker, Howard Green and once again, Steve Goacher. The classic boat of J Arnold/M Pearce (2663) was being sailed brilliantly and leading the classic /silver fleet easily.
The final race of the series was superb with good long beats followed by some varied spinnaker legs and places were swapping constantly. Neil Currie having sold his flying fifteen last years borrowed the ex-Goacher boat (3521) and was right up among the leaders with Paul Burnell crewing. They eventually finished 5th. Another longstanding FF stalwart Graham Kirkpatrick, having recently sold his boat to Ireland, is considering a classic fifteen and so borrowed 2504 and managed to keep it in the top 10 until just pipped on the line. Andrew Dunning/Dave Lawson (3641) got into the groove and after battling with Terry Crumpton/John Mathie finished 3rd and 2nd respectively. Howard Green/Ian Preston were 4th, Alan Bax 6th and William Carruthers/Alan Smith 7th. Scott Beattie was 8th after doing turns for hitting a mark and a further two turns for hitting Ian Campbell whilst doing turns! Goacher and Evans showed just how brilliant they are and this cheerful pair took line honours once again and thus retained another Northern championship in convincing style.
After the event it turned out that Terry Crumpton’s boat had not been measured and so he was disqualified from the championship.
An enjoyable event for all. The club has several other big events scheduled to take place and are hoping to increase dramatically the classic/silver classes in future events together with a much bigger prize list. Interested? Watch this space
Final results
FF NORTHERN CHAMPIONSHIP
PN Boat Helm Crew Club 1 2 3 4 5 Pts
1 3721 S GOACHER P EVANS WINDERMERE 2 1 1 1 1 4
2 3638 H GREEN I PRESTON LEIGH & LOWTON 4 2 5 2 3 11
3 3611 A BAX J WYLING NORTHAMPTON 3 5 3 4 5 15
4 3673 S BEATTIE J SOMERVILLE BASS 7 3 4 6 7 20
5 3521 N CURRIE P BURNELL BASS 5 4 8 9 4 21
6 3703 C DUCKER R RIGG WINDERMERE 6 6 7 3 8 22
7 3641 A DUNNING D LAWSON BASS 10 10 6 10 2 28
8 3590 D DOUGLASS A WEATHERSPOO DERWENT RESERV 11 14 2 11 9 33
9 3268 W CARRUTHERS A SMITH BASS 8 13 11 13 6 38
10 3690 T KIRCHIN D KIRCHIN LOCH LOMOND 15 7 9 DNS 16 47
11 3695 T LEE G DAWSON DERWENT RESERV RTD 8 10 20 11 49
12 3560 I CAMPBELL T FISHER BASS 16 9 20 14 12 51
13 2663 J ARNOLD M PEARCE OGSTON 12 11 13 15 24 51
14 3595 P KITCHEN D KITCHEN TEES & HARTLEP 14 19 12 12 14 52
15 3473 M MOORE I SMITH BASS 13 12 16 18 13 54
16 3281 M WATSON D FIRTH BASS 17 16 19 8 21 60
18 3219 M STOTT D BRITTON NOTTS COUNTY 18 21 15 7 26 61
17 3332 W SOMERVILLE E FAIRLAMB BASS 26 25 18 5 20 68
19 3640 P WRIGHT C CARRUTHERS DERWENT RESERV 19 18 23 17 17 71
20 2504 G KIRKPATRICK K THOMAS BASS RTD 24 14 24 10 72
22 3587 R DONALDSON N HEDLEY DERWENT RESERV 9 17 24 23 23 72
21 3083 B GLOVER N GLOVER DRAYCOTE DNS 23 17 16 18 74
23 3470 S MACLEAN I MACLEAN ROYAL FORTH 22 20 21 22 15 78
24 3385 M MIDDLETON P HODGKINS BASS 25 15 26 21 22 83
25 3232 S ROBINSON D VASEY DERWENT RESERV 20 26 22 19 25 86
26 3237 S THOMSON C NEWMAN WINDERMERE 21 27 25 25 19 90
27 3729 N PLATT A GERRARD BOLTON / WEST 1 RTD DNS DNS DNS 97
28 2741 D DANDO P METCALFE TEES & HARTLEP 24 22 27 26 28 99
29 3484 R COATES R WALKER TEES & HARTLEP 23 RTD 28 27 27 105
30 193 J ASPIN M FULLARD S WINDERMERE DNS 28 DNS DNS DNS 124
31 3724 P BROWN C BOOTH NOTTS COUNTY RTD DNS DNS DNS DNS 126
Points for RTD 30 32 29 28 29
Points for DSQ 30 32 29 28 29
Points for DNS 32
4 races to count
