British IOM National Championships 2008

The Tri-Services Association had 3 representatives competing in the recent British Championships held at Poole. 3 days of hard, high class racing with competitors from South Africa and Croatia also involved. 57 competitors competing for perhaps the most difficult crown to win in this country. The wind conditions were difficult at times; the strength was a gusty top suit breeze borderline to second suit on the first day. However, with all the top skippers staying with the bigger rigs, one felt the need to follow as boat performance may suffer in some parts of the course. As the championship continued though, the wind strength decreased and at times we were all left drifting around the course.

First up was Chas Jordan (RAF), sailing his Lintel. Right from the start Chaz found the racing hard going and at times frustrating to. Over the weekend there were occasions where Chas would find himself in a decent position in the fleet, just to miss out on the last leg through either a bad tacking decision or a collision with another yacht. In the end Chas did make C-Fleet, but to his disappointment the last round of racing was cancelled due to a time out decision, therefore he was unable to count his best score of the championship.

Then came Roy Stevens (R.N), sailing his Italiko. Second in last years Tri-Services Championship and a wealth of experience on the UK racing circuit. Throughout the regatta Roy was up and down in the fleets, eventually he made the pinnacle of A – Fleet, but this was short lived as relegation was instant. His continuing enthusiasm was never questionable though, sailing his Italiko hard he did maintain some consistency in B- Fleet, but overall Roy had too many big scores to count which kept him down the table.

Finally myself, the first day was a complete nightmare. Sailing my new Squiggle (IOM), I was confronted with boat and rig issues, you could question my preparation before this championship, as I found myself in the bottom fleet on more than one occasion. Patching the boat up for the second part of the day, I started on a role up the fleets, sailing from the bottom fleet to B-Fleet in consecutive races. Sacrificing a night of socialising, I frantically sorted out my boat’s issues ready for the second day. Once the second day started I reached A-fleet and achieved some consistent scores until relegation happened on the last race of the day. I sailed to the wrong finishing line. (That’s was unforgivable). By now I was climbing up the table, but the final day gave us hardly any wind at all. This left me worried as my performance is never good in these conditions. All day I was fighting relegation from A – fleet until the inevitable happened in the last round of racing. A top 20 position must be considered a fair result. Yet more enthusiasm into preparing my boat for this regatta was needed, so you could say I deserved no better than what I finished.

Overall, Mr Graham Bantock was the deserving winner. Yet in my opinion and this is only my opinion, the man of the championship has to be Mr Graham Elliot of the Birkenhead Club. He sailed threw his skin and probably deserved abit more luck. To conclude, it must be said that our Association must try to have more of our representatives competing for next years championship.

John Taylor (RN)

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