We’ve taken part in a few championships
this summer, with sails on the water at the:
GP14 Worlds
Enterprise
Nationals
Devon Yawl Nationals
Contender Nationals
Merlin Rocket
Nationals
Wayfarer Europeans
The Exe Sails Team of Will McGrath and Sam Woolner have had 2 successful
Championships this year and here is a bit about them:
Wayferer
Europeans
We first decided to do the Europeans when a boat came up for loan
on the Wayferer Website and was spotted by Wills Parents, who also sail
in the class and were sporting a new suit of Exe Sails. With
a days practice and some new sails, we travelled to Weymouth
with the borrowed boat.
We had a fantastic weeks sailing with blistering
sunshine and a nice force 3 everyday which seemed to
work very well for us. We had excellent boat speed and managed to even win a race (our first
championship race win), as did Will’s Parents (also their first Wayfarer
Championship race win!). with a mixed bag of Results throughout the week, We
ended up 4th overall from 58 boats which we were very pleased with and we’ve even signed up for the worlds in
Holland in 2 years time 🙂
Hornet Europeans
We had 5 teams at the Hornets this
year including current European Champions Dick Garry & Matt McGrath,
previous National Champion Strangler, ex Laser 2 World Champion Nigel Skudder
and Class Chairman Eric Marchbanks.
Will
and Sam have been sailing the Hornet for about
9 years now and have been doing eager sail development with
the new Laminate mainsail over the past few months, this being the first year
with nearly half the fleet having laminate mainsails. Our boat ‘Ultimatum’
turns 34 this year and still managed to be under weight! Right
from the word go, we seemed to have excellent boat speed, the laminate main
proving very adaptable in all conditions! Unfortunately on the first Day Dick
Garry was forced to retire from the Championships with suspected cracked ribs
after managing two seconds in the first 2 races. Will & Sam managed a
5,5,2Â on the first day and we were delighted with the second, this
being our best result at a Hornet Championship to date. Day 2 came and we had a nice force 3-4 all day. From the
start of race 4, our boat speed came as a bit of a shock, we were first to the
windward mark every time and winning all 3 races of the day. The new
design sails felt brilliant and our usual concern of being heavy and going slowly downwind was quickly washed
away as we happily kept up with far lighter crews on the runs. 3 bullets put
us just 1 point behind the leaders Rob Larke & Nic Barnes in 2140 after 2
days.
Day 3 dawned and again a nice force 3-4 and an early 10am start. The first race was a
bit lighter than the previous day but we managed to pull out in front and gain a 2 minute lead by the finish. as the
wind died off and became shifty, we managed to pull off a 3rd
in the second race of the day to leave us 2 points clear ahead going into the
last day and headed to the bar for the class
dinner!
At the class dinner, we had the Exe Sails Charity Raffle &
Auction. we donated a number of small prizes that were raffled off in aid of
the class buying and maintaining a second hand boat to loan out to potential members. We
also donated a Genoa that was auctioned off in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support
and we raised £300 for the charity.
Day 4
dawned and 2 races to go, all we needed to do was keep
the boat in 2nd behind us in both races! race 1 came and a force 2-3 filled in with some big wind
shifts and holes, the options were to cover or go for
the win, we sailed our own race as we had done all week, 2nd to the windward
mark and into first by the wing mark, we held off
2115 to the finish winning the race and becoming European Champions with 1 race to
go. the second race, Rob Larke and Nic Barnes in 2140 gave a final big push
and went a different way up the beat,
overtaking us and holding us off to the finish.
We ended up
with a 5,5,2,1,1,1,1,3,1,2 totalling 12 points after discards, we are
absolutely delighted to have won in such a prestigious class with many ex
champions at the event. Especially as our first championship race win was only
the month before. The boat is going to ‘Uncle Tim Coombe’ for a full
refurbishment this winter as a reward for all her hard work.
Were already working on new designs for
2015 for a number of classes so get in touch to see what we can do for you!