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Miracle Nationals held at Beaumaris 7-14 August 2010 (by Sam Mettam) 15 knots and chop The final day of racing brought 15 knots of breeze with a short chop. Richard & Harrison Pye made the most of a good start to lead to the windward mark followed by Paul & Caitlin Huett and Sam Mettam & Geoff Phillips. By the end of the first lap, Mettam & Phillips had sailed through to first only to then be overtaken by Martyn & Rebecca Lewis up the next beat. They then held this to the end with Mettam & Phillips 2nd and the Pyes third. In the important battle for 3rd overall the Huetts beat Phil & Helen Bailey by a matter of yards and therefore overall. Overall the week has given some great racing throughout the fleet. The top 10 has weights from 16 to 25 stone, new boats, boats over 35 years old, husband & wife teams, parent and child teams, masters and crews as young as 6. A view from the Bronze Fleet (by Gillan Gibson) Some sailors think the only racing is at the front of the fleet, but they’d be wrong! The Bronze fleet has had its own tussles all week. True some of the decision making is different, but in the windy weather policies like “let’s stay upright and finish” have given some boats their bests results, each DNS, DNF, etc, giving them places. Over the week the crews have come to know each other well and with boats to chase and boats to keep behind there was no room for loss of concentration. As always the beats were very important with many losses and gains occurring on those legs. Off the water it is a different story with only gains as the experienced sailors in the fleet are generous with their help and expertise in boat set up and sailing techniques. The resulting improvement in some boats was quite marked so the racing was even closer. The sense of achievement in the fleet was marked. For some it was the first time they had sailed on the sea or on as big a water, for others it was the wind speeds, but all felt their experience was well worth the effort and confirmed you do not have to be at the front of the fleet to enjoy and have great racing. A view from the Silver Fleet (by Andrew Addington) Challenging but ‘absolutely awesome!’ Is how most sailors in the fleet would describe the week with having to fight winds of up to force 5. The odd couple of boats were most useful as submarines with having water gushing in up to the decks, crews frantically bailing the water out the best they could. Towards the end of the week some of the skippers found it difficult to hold themselves in the boat as the wind speed was roughly 25knots. It didn’t matter whether you finished the race sailing or sinking it was class spirit that made it an enjoyable week overall. |
