Gul UK Nationals - Day 3
Racing on Day 3 of the Gul Mirror Nationals took place in a south westerly force 4-5 which backed to the south and got stronger as the day progressed, rain, and a forecast of worse to come later in the afternoon. Once again there were plenty of capsizes and gear failures to keep the patrol boats busy.
After a long postponement, Race 8 got away at the third attempt under a 'U' flag on yet another Windward-Leeward course (yawn). This time it was Stan & Penny Bland from Woollahra Sailing Club who took line honours ahead of Dave & Imogen Wade from Northampton with Simon & Tyson Barwood from Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club third.
By the time Race 9 started, the wind had started to back, starting to bring some of the swell in Falmouth Bay up the Carrick Roads and onto the race course. Finally the fleet got to do a triange-sausage course and with the wind gusting and swell building, the reaches were very exciting. The conditions suited Simon & Tyson who won ahead of Dave & Imogen with Howard Leoto & Shane White from Izivungu, a Township charity near Cape Town, which promotes sailing & music, in third place. These young South Africian sailors sadly missed the first two days of the championships due to passport & visa issues.
Race 10 got away at the second attempt under a 'U' flag. By this time the swell and wind had built further making the reaches even more exciting and the gybe mark saw more than it's fair share of capsizes. Once again it was Simon & Tyson who took line honours ahead of Dave & Imogen with Richard & Tom Sender from Tonbridge Town Sailing Club in third.
So Dave & Imogen won the National Championship with 12 points, only one point behind was Simon & Tyson with Richard & George Bullock from Itchenor Sailing Club third with a very consistent set of results. Congratulations to all the young Mirror sailors who took part in some very full on conditions and kept going & a special mention to Bella Cockwell & Tamsyn Stacy from Restronguet who only started sailing Mirrors part way through this season and claim to have capsized more than anybody else during the championship. Full results here.
