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International
Flying Dutchman |
1999 FD UK National Championship1999 National Championship (Part 1) Brixham Everyone was looking forward to Brixham as a good venue for the '99 Nationals. Sadly, in the wake of the Worlds enthusiasm, the turnout was a bit down, despite the good "holiday" venue and the friendliness of the Brixham Yacht Club. Arrivals on Friday for the first, evening race saw very little wind. However, as it was also a charity pursuit race and part of their Regatta, the show had to go on! Surrounded by manoeuvring yachts, some starting before us and some after, Julian and Cathy Bridges got far the best start. However, those guys well known for their lightness, Hugh Myers and Gordon Kingston, had the best speed and sailed off into a huge lead. The race only lasted one lap and, despite having no local yachts left to guide them, Hugh and Gordon stayed ahead to the finish. Julian and Cathy were having a very close battle with John Best and James Cole, Peter and Andrew Weeks and Tony Lyall and Colin Burns. Saturday came up with completely different conditions, blowing pretty hard with huge waves rolling into Torbay! They had awful trouble anchoring the big Brixham trawler that was to be the committee boat, and there was a certain amount of sea sickness in evidence by the time of the start! A windward leeward course, along with the big boats again, turned out to be quite one sided, which was not too bad because starboard tack was so horrid in those waves! John and James led from Peter and Andrew, with Hugh and Gordon some way back as they had overstood the windward mark. So it stayed until the final run, when Hugh's rudder broke causing a very rapid capsize and allowing a very cautious Peter Doran through to third. The Coastguard threatened even rougher conditions for Saturday afternoon, so there was no racing for anyone. This meant that there was plenty of time to be spent in the bar, where there was a good regatta atmosphere, and quite some amusement at Hugh and Gordon's' expense! The severe conditions still prevailed on Sunday so we all got boats loaded up for the trip home. A "competitors' hearing" democratically decided that hostilities should resume at Rutland, the racing there to be added to the two held at Brixham.
1999 National Championship Round 2! Following the great lack of racing at Brixham the Nationals continued, alongside the Midland Areas at Rutland SC in October. We shared the water with the Ospreys and the Contenders. This was our first share with the Ospreys and that all seemed to go pretty well. After Brixham John Best/James Cole had a 1st & 3rd, Hugh Myers (now teamed up with Christian Houchin) a 1st and a "fell to bits", the Bridges a 2nd and a "help it's too windy, and Peter and Andrew Weeks a 2nd & 4th! David Wilkins and Simon Stonehouse were favourites for the Midland Areas as usual, depite losing to Hugh and Gordon last year. They won the lightish first race from the Bros. Weeks and Mr & Mrs Bridges. JB and James broke their genoa halyard and were late for Race 2 having replaced it. Hugh & Christian started a pretty horrid weekend by being OCS (over the line at the start!). The locals won Race 2 as well, from Julian and Cathy, who were starting to look good for the Nationals, and Hugh and Christian were happy to be 3rd. There was quite a bit more wind on Sunday, which rather spoiled Julian and Cathy Bridges chances, but racing was really tight at the front of the fleet. Towards the end of the race Hugh & Christian took advantage of some problems on David Wilkins' boat to build up a bit of a lead. They looked comfortable on the last leg from John and James, but that was when the boom broke! With the mainsail looking awful (but he didn't care) Hugh decided to plug on to the line and, despite some difficulty tacking, they just got there 1st! This did mean a third discard in the last race of the weekend, though! The last race was the decider for the Nationals and saw some aggressive dicing between the early leaders, Peter and Andrew Weeks, and John best/James Cole. John eventually pulled away and David Wilkins/Simon Stonehouse moved through to 2nd. Peter was happy in the knowledge that third was good enough for his second National Title in two years. David and Simon took the Midland Areas back once again with two 1sts, a 2nd and a 3rd, and did well enough to end up 3rd in the Nationals counting a discard in their score! Overall Results
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This page was last updated on 28 February 2000 - Please send contributions and comments to Richard Phillips mailto:100446.2371@compuserve.com . For more sailing links see www.sail-cd.demon.co.uk/index.htm |