Sport Nationals North Devon Yacht Club: Sport Nationals
Friday 10th - Sunday 12th June 2016

Thirty-two Sprint 15 sailors gathered at the home of the North Devon Yacht Club on Friday the 10th June for the Sport Nationals – the three day regatta for single-handed Sprint 15 catamarans with main, jib and trapeze.

The first race was set off promptly by race officer Gordon Smith in a force 2-3 south easterly with the course being an alternating, port-handed triangle-sausage.  The defending champion, Paul Grattage from Shanklin Sailing Club, started the regatta with real intent and led the first race from start to gun.  Fraser Manning and Liam Thom were fighting out for second until George Love, on his brand new boat, got a lift on the third beat and stormed ahead.  Thom got ahead of Love on the final downwind leg to take second with Alex Raymond finishing third.

Fraser Manning got the best of the starts in the second race ahead of Paul Chatfield with Paul Grattage leaving it to the last minute to take the honours on the line.

There was an excellent, very well attended barbecue on the Friday night, eaten in the club house as the rain came down.

There was even less wind on the Saturday and the race officer decided to spice things up with a starboard rounding course.

In race 3, Steve Sawford got away well and led from start to finish ahead of Sam Heaton, George Love and Fraser Manning. Paul Grattage had to fight his way out of the body of the fleet to finish second in front of Love.

There was a lot of traffic at the committee boat for the start of race 4 but Grattage got away cleanly and made the best of the light conditions, taking the gun ahead of Paul Chatfield, Fraser Manning and Steve Sawford.

The wind was fading, despite the forecast, for race 5. Local sailing legend, Liam Bunclark set his watch wrongly and absolutely nailed the start well ahead of the pack, many of whom were rafted together.  However it was Roger Bone who sailed the fastest towards Instow beach and made the windward mark first ahead of Simon Fleet, Paul Grattage and Liam Thom, the latter two hitting the buoy and doing their turns with the ebb tide.  The wind dropped to less than the speed of the tide and the rest of the fleet struggled to get round the first mark while the leading boats were nearly at the leeward mark. Bone took the race ahead of Grattage, Fleet and Thom with only four more boats managing to finish inside the time limit.

With three wins and two seconds, Paul had retained the championship with a day to spare.

On Saturday evening there was a quiz and a superb three course meal in the club house.

The prospects for the final day of racing looked very promising with the flags starting to wave properly for the first time in the regatta.  The sailors were relieved to see a red flag (all marks to port) on the committee boat but to keep us on our toes the pin end was on the right and you had to start on port.

Race 6 started on time and Liam Thom got away well in 10 knots of westerly wind, heading out on port tack towards the Atlantic followed by Fraser Manning and Paul Grattage. The lead changed frequently in the following four laps with Manning slipping back to let Grattage and Thom battle it out.  Thom had the lead on the final leg but Grattage managed to overtake on the line to win by a short head.  Manning came third while Paul Chatfield helped out Anthony Gray and Steve Sawford by hitting the finish buoy.

The (right hand) pin end buoy was moved upwind for the start of race 7 to allow a starboard start.  Paul Grattage headed to the left of the course while Liam Thom and Dart 18 expert David Groom tacked early and went to the right.  Grattage got a good breeze along the Appledore sea wall and rounded first ahead of Liam Thom with Steve Sawford just behind.  On the second upwind leg, the breeze picked up and the leading sailors all got out on the wire for the first time in the event.  Grattage maintained his lead to the finish but Sawford and Anthony Gray both got ahead of Thom and stayed there.

All the races were started promptly with no recalls which is a great tribute to the race officer and the politeness of Sprint 15 sailors.

The change in wind conditions on the last day had shuffled the overall scores and Steve Sawford overtook Fraser Manning with Liam Thom fourth, Paul Chatfield fifth, Roger Bone sixth and George Love seventh.

Hector Bunclark was the first junior sailor and Roger Bone was the first over sixty helmsman. George Love and Eamonn Browne won the Pro-Am trophy.

Report by Liam Thom
Pictures by NDYC




Results:

Click for: Full Results with all Sub-Competitions

OVERALL RESULTS
Competitors Races - 7 of 7 Sailed (No. of Discards: 2) Event Placings
Name Sail ClubRace 1Race 2Race 3Race 4Race 5Race 6Race 7Points Place
Paul Grattage2018Shanklin Sailing Club1 1 2 1 2 1 1 51
Steve Sawford1733Rutland Water Sailing Club7 4 1 4 33 DNF5 2 162
Fraser Manning955North Devon Yacht Club6 2 4 3 33 DNF3 7 183
Liam Thom1957Shanklin Sailing Club2 7 8 16 4 2 4 194
Paul Chatfield2015Stokes Bay Sailing Club33 DNC3 6 2 5 33 RAF6 225
Roger Bone1681North Devon Yacht Club5 5 11 5 1 15 10 266
George Love2019Carsington Sailing Club4 24 3 6 7 8 9 287
Simon Fleet1936North Devon Yacht Club8 6 10 10 3 6 24 338
Sam Heaton1972North Devon Yacht Club12 18 5 9 8 10 5 379
Erling Holmberg2007Shanklin Sailing Club10 12 7 7 33 DNF12 11 4710
Anthony Gray1893North Devon Yacht Club15 16 14 17 33 DNF4 3 5211
Alex Raymont525North Devon Yacht Club3 22 17 13 33 DNF9 13 5512
David Groom1714Netley Sailing Club11 8 18 11 33 DNF23 8 5613
Keith Heason1424North Devon Yacht Club19 10 22 14 6 16 15 6114
Jeremy Rowe1500North Devon Yacht Club23 13 20 8 33 DNF11 19 7115
Richard Chidwick1545North Devon Yacht Club14 15 21 15 33 DNF7 25 7216
Eamonn Browne1861Creeksea Sailing Club17 21 12 28 33 DNF14 12 7617
Ian Mounce1951North Devon Yacht Club13 19 9 19 33 DNF17 21 7718
John Manning1955North Devon Yacht Club16 20 13 23 33 DNF21 14 8419
Ed Tuite Dalton1940Draycote Water Sailing Club21 9 16 20 33 DNF24 20 8620
Wayne Silver1841North Devon Yacht Club22 17 28 12 33 DNF19 18 8821
Jon Finch1890Stewartby Water Sports Club9 26 15 29 33 DNF18 23 9122
Derek James1744Draycote Water Sailing Club18 23 24 18 33 DNF27 16 9923
Bill Hurr1736Draycote Water Sailing Club24 11 29 24 33 DNF26 28 11324
Hector Bunclark1906North Devon Yacht Club28 29 19 30 33 DNF20 22 11825
Tom Marsden685North Devon Yacht Club26 14 26 25 33 DNF33 DNF29 12026
Nick Day1888North Devon Yacht Club30 31 DNF25 21 33 DNF28 17 12127
David Warren1711North Devon Yacht Club27 33 DNC23 26 33 DNF22 26 12428
Robert Temple205North Devon Yacht Club33 DNC33 DNC31 22 33 DNF13 30 12929
Liam Bunclark1849North Devon Yacht Club20 25 33 DNF32 33 DNF33 RAF27 13730
Ian Wilkinson1347Shanklin Sailing Club29 27 30 27 33 DNF25 31 13831
Keith Chidwick1840Queen Mary Sailing Club25 28 27 31 33 DNF29 32 14032