The Viking Trophy was up for grabs this weekend with the annual Flying 15 team racing event. This year a strong fleet of 21 boats took to the water in good, but testing, easterly winds.

The racing takes the form of a straightforward series, in which teams of three boats aggregate all their scores to give a team total. An adjustment for older boats (not older helms) has been introduced in recent years to help give teams sailing older boats a chance. This year it worked to the benefit of the idea’s author, FF president Ian Preston, whereby his team benefited from a weighting of eight points to win overall by a single point.

One of the reasons why the event is popular is the opportunity to make a fool of yourself in some way, hoping that no-one else has noticed, and be rewarded with the grotty potty! One of the regular winners, John Hardisty was in the driving seat this year (having won the potty last year) and was able to nominate this year’s recipient. Although John had a select list of nominees perhaps he had missed one key candidate who struggled to put on his drysuit due to not having removed the coat hanger – Mike Moore! However, obviously John was feeling in a benevolent mood when making his choice because it was at Loch Lomond last weekend that Steve Goacher had one half too many and let slip that he wondered what he had to do to win the coveted trophy – on this occasion, all he needed to do was get tipsy!

While the Fifteens were fighting it out at the Club, John Telford and Andy Smith concluded a successful season on the open circuit by coming third at the Midland Championships in some extremely windy conditions – too windy for a kite?!� Dave and Lyn Lawson hung on in to gain a deserved sixth place overall.

A selection of pics from the weekend courtesy of Stephen Kirkpatrick

The National Mirror Inland Championships were held at Bassenthwaite Lake over the three-day bank holiday weekend. Fifty-three boats entered from as far afield as Plymouth and Shetland.

Saturday saw two races held in perfect weather � sunshine and a force 2-3 wind. Local boys Tim and Rob Smith took an early lead and stayed in front for half the race. Some tricky shifts on the final beat saw them slip to fourth behind Dave and Joric Gebhard (Derwent Reservoir) who won, with Anna MacKenzie and Holly Scott (Royal Windermere and Shustoke) second and Eloise and Kayleigh Hansen who were third. Gareth Hughes from Hollingworth won the single handed fleet.

Dave and Joric kept their form and won the second race, followed by Dan and James Ellis from Plymouth in second and Craig and Mitchell Bond form Brightlingsea in third.

Sunday morning started very wet, but did dry up now and then. The OD stayed in his tent until the rain eased off and the sun made an appearance, but got the fleet away on time. However, the wind was stronger than on Saturday and caused a few capsizes. In the first race, Eloise and Kayleigh had a superb first beat and streaked away from the rest of the fleet. By the finish line, however, Dave and Joric had pulled back and were within a few feet but could not quite take the winning gun. Tom Robinson and Shaun Mason (Hillhead and Warsash) were third.

After lunch the boats went out for the windiest of the weekend�s races. A force 4 wind, gusting force 5 caused a few capsizes and kept the excellent rescue crews busy. Racing at the front of the fleet was much closer than on earlier races, with positions changing on each leg. Dan and James eventually finished first, with Eloise and Kayleigh in second.

Thankfully for the tired crews, the wind eased a bit for the third race on Sunday. Dan and James kept up their winning form and were followed home by Anna and Holly. After two days, Dave and Joric were leading the fleet by three points, but with another four boats within striking distance.

By Monday morning, the rain had eased off and the westerly wind was a force 3. However, the OD had a difficult job setting the course as the wind was shifting. This allowed significant leads to be opened up. William and Rebecca Kalderton (Itchenor) were out in front with Elouise and Kayleigh also way ahead of the rest of the fleet. These two boats held their positions for the rest of the race and were followed home by Juliet and Richard Long (Plymouth).

The sailors were all keen to start the final race � so much so that two general recalls were required plus the first showing of the black flag (and several sailors headed for the shore earlier than anticipated as a result). Eloise and Kayleigh were first to the windward mark, followed closely be Dave and Joric Gebhard and then Craig and Mitchell Bond. Dave managed to hitch a ride on a gust down the reach and was first to the next mark. The boats then all played �follow-my-leader� on the next leg and took in a couple of gybes, except for Tom Robinson with Shaun Mason (Warsash/Hillhead) who headed straight for the mark and picked up a good few places in the process. Dave and Joric continued to stretch their lead and take the final race with Anna and Holly second and Eloise and Kayleigh third.

Prizes were awarded by Commodore Jose Hodgkins, and she thanked all the hard work of everyone involved in arranging the weekend such a success. Dave Gebhard echoed those thanks and noted the continued involvement of the Smith family with the Mirror Association over the weekend, from mum Pat in the kitchen (where else!), to dad Alan in a rescue boat, Andy in the lead boat (or was it a late night jaunt in the Bates?), twins Tim and Rob sailing and former Mirror national champion Phil as OD for the weekend

Overall results (double handed)

Overall results (Single Handed)

A strong fleet of 40 boats took to the water on the first day of the GP14 NW Area Championships. The winds picked up over the afternoon, and many places were won and lost on various beats. It seemed like the GP fleet were either too keen, or had poor stopwatches, but the OD made sure they practised their starts until they got them right. The slow learners were sent back to shore after being black flagged.

Home club sailors John Telford and Andy Smith are overnight leaders after winning the first race, and coming 4th in the second, but they had mixed fortunes, having fought their way to the front of the fleet a couple of times, only to be dumped by the uncaring windshifts.

A barbeque was the prelude to a long night at the bar for many sailors who did their best to drink the bar dry!

Sunday’s racing was very much a case of more of the same – good strength winds, good racing, and cruel windshifts which failed to do the locals any favours. Dave Young from South Staffs sailed consistently well on Sunday with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd to take the championship. Graham Flynn, having won on Saturday, took the winning horn in the final race to give him second place ahead of Ian Platt (Bolton) who had equal points.

Richard Instone came 4th overall ahead of Saturday’s overnight leader John Telford. The next Bass boat was David Lawson at 6th.

The Hodgkins boys, having had an unfortunate collision with fellow club helm Phil Smith, came a creditable 11th overall and won the trophy for the silver fleet.

A tiring, but enjoyable, weekend for all sailors and helpers alike.

Results after race 5

Sailed:�5 �Discards:�1 �Ratings:�None

Stormy conditions on Saturday afternoon proved to be too much for champions Steve Goacher and Phil Evans to contemplate, so they sat back and watched the rest of the fleet battle around the course. With the wind coming down the lake, the waves had plenty of chance to build up and wash down several spinnaker chutes! Those that did opt to fly kites gained no real advantage. Howard Green, and FF Association Vice President Ian Preston, made best use of their skills and ‘weight advantage’ to win the first race. With no sign of the winds abating, the second race was postponed until Sunday morning.

By the time the racing started on Sunday morning, the blue skies had been blown away! Yes, there was still a good breeze, however, not too much to frighten off those not so spring chickens Goacher and Evans. They did spend some time at the start of the race running around like headless chickens after hitting a mark – that was not going to be enough prevent them winning the race with Scott Beattie and John Somerville second. Despite all the toing and froing, there was a lot of consistent results throughout the day, and in the last race, fed up of playing second fiddle Scott retired and left the fleet to it. Confusion over the shorten course signal was taken in good spirit, perhaps because the race did not have a significant effect on the overall result.

Becoming a bit of a habit for Keith Jamieson, but he and Toggle Cowan secured yet another prize for their classic boat.

FLYING FIFTEEN OPEN

PN    Boat  Helm          Crew           Club             1   2   3   4 Pts
 1    3721  S GOACHER     P EVANS        WINDERMERE     DNS   1   1   1   3
 2    3673  S BEATTIE     J SOMERVILLE   BASS             2   2   2 RTD   6
 3    3734  H GREEN       I PRESTON      LEIGH & LOWTON   1   4   4   3   8
 4    3801  J HARDISTY    R ERRINGTON    DRSC             3   5   5   2  10
 5    3787  D BROCKBANK   R RIGG         WINDERMERE       4   3   3   4  10
 6    3473  M MOORE       L BRADDOCK     BASS             5   6   7   6  17
 7    3521  P BURNELL     D WOODHEAD     BASS           RTD   7   6   5  18
 8    3784  J HULL        S HULL         TEES & HARTLEP   6   8   8   7  21
 9    1117  K JAMIESON    M COWAN        BASS           DNS   9   9   8  26
10    1901  J CROSBIE     I CROSBIE      BASS           RTD  10  10 DNS  29

                                        Points for RTD =  9  11  11  10
                                        Points for DSQ =  9  11  11  10
                                        Points for DNS = 11

 3 races to count

Sun and wind – what a combination to as a back drop to this weekend’s racing. Bean and Toggle took best advantage of a slight wind drop at the end of the first race to win it on handicap, but the tables were turned in the second race when they slipped to second on adjusted times. The changeable winds made it all the more important to be in the right place at the right time! What did Scumper’s Pool and Pizza night do for Sunday’s results?

Here’s a selection of snap’s from Saturday (use the buttons to check them all out)

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Sunday night proved to be an eventful night – no Stella left (again!), fruitless night walks to Embleton, and an early (morning) finish – 5.30am!

While Joanie was away, Toggle hit the frying pan and made a mean bacon buttie for the OD (among others). The sailing was delayed waiting for wind, but it did fill in and apart from the odd hole, there was some good racing.

Robin Dawson held off Mark Somerville and won his second race of the series which meant it was all on the last race. Similarly, in the fast handicap fleet, Andrew Elliot in a Phantom secured his second win from Bean and Toggle in their GP which also meant the final race would be the decider. What a race the last race proved to be. The lasers course was shortened first, and the big tacking battle going on between Robin and Mark was brought to a conclusion with Robin holding defending champion Mark at bay all the way to the finish.

However, in the fast handicap the battle was not for first place, more a match racing scenario with Andrew Elliot doing everything he could to slow down Bean and Toggle. There was luffing, tacking with a kite up, collisions and turns. Although it was Andrew that had to do turns, Bean struggled to break free as he was in the boat with a slower handicap. The tactics were maintained all the way to the finish, which after 90 minutes racing resulted in a five second margin (on corrected time) between first and second. On this occasion, the 5 secs advantage was secured by Neil and Judith Currie who won their first race of the weekend, Bean took second place to finish second overall, while Andrew, who had worked his guts out to slow Bean down by those all important five seconds, took the series. Well Bean did say it had been boring sailing in the handicap fleet in the earlier races!

A special trophy was presented to Diamud Morrow for having travelled the furthest, all the way from Northern Ireland.

Final results

FAST HANDICAP OPEN

PN    Boat  Helm          Crew           Club             1   2   3   4 Pts
 1    1135  A ELLIOT      PHANTOM        ROTHERHAM        2   1   1   5   4
 2   13791  P SMITH       GP             BASS             1   2   2   2   5
 3     501  N CURRIE      RS400          BASS             5   3   3   1   7
 4     976  C BARRIE      PHANTOM        REDESMERE        3   4   5   3  10
 5   13142  P HODGKINS    GP             BASS           DNS DNS   4   4  17
 6    1069  D MORROW      PHANTOM        LOUGH FOYLE      6   5   6   6  17
 7    1140  J CHRISTIE    VORTEX         BASS             4 RTD DNS DNS  20
 8   13326  S WATSON      GP             BASS           DNS DNS   7   7  21

                                        Points for RTD =  7   7   8   8
                                        Points for DSQ =  7   7   8   8
                                        Points for DNS =  9

 3 races to count

LASER OPEN

PN    Boat  Helm                     Club             1   2   3   4 Pts
 1  174889  R DAWSON                 BASS             2   1   1   1   3
 2  161866  M SOMMERVILL             BASS             1   4   2   2   5
 3  166585  P WORTH                  DELPH            4   2   3   3   8
 4  125514  R BRYCE                  BASS             5   5   4   4  13
 5  166400  S COBB                   BASS             3   3 DNS DNS  15
 6  179546  M WYNGARD                SUNDERLAND YC    6   6   5 DNS  17
 7  141092  T BURROWS                LEIGH            7   7   6   5  18
 8  166329  T WESTROP                DRSC           DNS DNS   7   6  22

                                    Points for RTD =  8   8   8   7
                                    Points for DSQ =  8   8   8   7
                                    Points for DNS =  9

 3 races to count

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