2015 International Moth UK Championship – Final overall + Video

by Mark Jardine on 29 Jun 2015 2015 International Moth UK National Championship – The final day didn't provide the glamorous conditions of the previous two days, but the Stokes Bay Race Team, led by Principal Race Officer Mike Rayden, managed to complete the full series in marginal foiling conditions.

With Chris Rashley clearly out in front, the battle for second place overall was hot - just six points separated five boats going into the final day.

In the end Ben Paton just pipped Jason Belben thanks to a third place in the final race. The pair ended equal on points but Paton's greater number of second place results gave him the runners-up spot on the podium.

Ben was focused today and blitzed off the line to lead half of the first race, only for Rashley to overhaul him on the second lap. Ben said after the racing, 'I had a tricky start to the event, two discards in my first two races, so I felt a bit under pressure but it made me work really hard and I was really pleased to go out today and do what I did. I wasn't always in a strong position around the windward mark but I managed to fight, even though my legs and arms were in absolute agony. I managed a third in the final race which I'm really pleased about.'

Jason Belben was pragmatic about losing out to Ben on count-back, 'I thought it was going to be difficult today and I went out there with a positive attitude, but I was very pleased with what I came back with to be honest. The first two races today I was really chuffed with and I only messed up the last one unfortunately. I think the event has gone very well, we've managed to get 12 races in and they've been good, solid races. The weather's been ideal, we couldn't have wished for more.'

Jason said on Ronstan's sponsorship of the event, 'The Ronstan product suits the Moth ideally so we're always going to be involved with these sorts of events.'

The fleet has gone through a lot since the Moth Nationals were last held at Stokes Bay and Jason reflected on the quality of the racing throughout the fleet, 'I think if you compare it to last time we were here, which was about four years ago, there was a big spread then, but you can see how the whole boat has developed and the people sailing it have got used to waves and everyone's come closer together and we're all using similar equipment now. There's not a lot of difference in boat speed now.'

Chris Rashley continued his blistering form to make it 11 wins from 12 races, with just the slight blemish of his second place in race one, but with two discards in the event he was still discarding a first place.

Chris said after racing, 'It feels great, when I came into the regatta I felt I was going to be really pushed to win the event, but I went out there to try and keep it simple and ended up coming through to the front by the end of most of the races.'

The next regatta for Chris and a number of the British sailors is the European Championship in Holland. Chris, who has won the Europeans title four times, said, 'It's a big event for me to try and win it five times, I'm pretty sure it hasn't been done before from looking at the trophy at home. It'll be a big challenge for me to try and win that but at the same time I think you've got to be realistic, everyone's working really hard and people will be getting better and certainly catching me at this event. There are a few things going on in development at the moment which will hopefully give me a little bit of a gain in the next month to six weeks but that's really all the time I've got before the event. It's a little bit last-minute but I'm just going to rely on my sailing ability to pull me through.'

Worldwide, the antipodeans still hold the upper hand, with a Pete Burling master-class at the 2015 Worlds in Sorrento. Chris said on closing the gap to Pete, 'If there's one thing I've learnt about Moth sailing it's about how good people are at keeping the boat going at 95 to 100% of its capability whilst racing and Pete is incredible at that, he shows that in the 49er and he shows that in anything else he's touched really. He's extremely good at keeping the boat in the groove and when I sailed against him in the worlds he was in a different league to me. I had some issues during the worlds and I think I would have been a little bit closer had we been racing each other this week, and I would have liked to have thought I could have taken a few races off him, but he's a long way ahead of everyone else.'

Ricky Tagg and Graham Simmonds, who have done a lot organising events for the UK Moth class, reflected on a successful championship. Ricky said, 'I think overall it's been a very good event, it's great that we got all the scheduled races in. We've had winds from marginal foiling to good solid breeze with waves, so I think anybody who wins here or does well is truly worthy of the title, bearing in mind the different conditions we've had to contend with.'

On the quality of the UK fleet Ricky said, 'There have been a number of innovations over the last two to three years which have percolated all the way down the fleet, so people now have the relevant controls, which means that everyone can race the boat harder. People are practicing more and you're seeing much tighter racing throughout the fleet - everybody's racing rather than just trying to stay on the boat.'

Graham added to this by saying, 'I think the main difference in the two and a half years is we've had a shift away from Australian-based development to UK-based development, obviously with the introduction of the Maguire Exocet, which is now competitive in all conditions.'

Ricky concluded on this with advice for anyone wanting to join the Moth fleet, 'Go to the UK website and drop us an email through the contact page and we'll be happy to help anyone to get into the class.'

At the prize-giving, the competitors and organisers thanked the race committee, club staff, catering staff, bar staff and the sponsors who have kindly supported this event; Noble Marine, Ronstan and Blueteq.

Full results

Rank	Sail No	Bow	Helm	Club	Net Pts
1	4	41	Chris Rashley	Stokes Bay SC & Royal London YC	10
2	3982	37	Ben Paton	Lymington Town SC	33
3	3942	4	Jason Belben	Stokes Bay SC	33
4	4208	15	Dylan Fletcher	WPNSA	36
5	4147	34	Mike Lennon	Hayling Island SC	38
6	4097	14	Rory Fitzpatrick	NYC / RIYC	61
7	4309	36	James McMillan	Gurnard SC / Stokes Bay SC	76
8	4040	24	Dan Henderson	Stokes Bay SC	82
9	4251	56	Dan Ward	Frensham Pond / Stokes Bay SC	90
10	4062	23	Jonathan Heathcote	Stokes Bay SC	91
11	4099	54	Ricky Tagg	Hayling Island SC	100
12	4115	25	David Hivey	Datchet Water SC	122
13	3979	12	Dan Ellis	Yealm YC	145
14	4301	10	John Clifton	Homeless	149
15	3940	8	Penny Clark	Stokes Bay SC	153
16	4144	17	Fabien Froesch	SNG	161
17	4074	6	Eelco Boers	WV Roerkoning	167
18	4149	26	Ollie Holden	Hayling Island SC	170
19	4189	30	Phillip Kasermann	SNG	177
20	4037	45	Jason Russell	Hayling Island SC	201
21	4075	40	Doug Pybus	Queen Mary SC	204
22	4060	3	Neil Baker	Hayling Island SC	218
23	4096	38	Tim Penfold	Hayling Island SC	223
24	3776	47	Philippe Schiller	SNG	233
25	4067	51	Cameron Stewart	Hayling Island SC	244
26	4277	21	Jeremy Hartley	Stokes Bay SC	249
27	4100	31	Alex Koukourakis	Eastbourne Sov SC	260
28	3959	1	Alex Adams	Castle Cove SC	261
29	4121	60	James Phare	Queen Mary SC	268
30	3943	11	Richard Edwards	Parkstone YC	273
31	3922	52	Kyle Stoneham	Thorpe Bay YC	276
32	4299	9	Chris Clarke	Thorpe Bay YC	287
33	4065	44	Anthony Rezzoug	ASNQ	304
34	4043	33	Matthew Lea	Grafham Water SC	308
35	4072	32	Tom Lambert	Wilsonian SC	322
36	4344	22	Ross Harvey	Hayling Island SC	329
37	4049	18	Giovanni Galeotti	RYCB	335
38	4280	57	Constantijn Weber	WSV Muiderberg	341
39	4233	27	Dominic Hutton	Queen Mary SC	343
40	3715	29	Chris Jeeves	Homeless	390
41	412	2	Leigh Albrecht	Queen Mary SC	393
42	3674	20	Simon Grundy	Homeless	402
43	4307	42	Hans Rasmussen	Troense Badelaug	405
44	3914	16	Ole Frey	Sonderborg YC	410
45	4162	35	Steve McLean	Hayling Island SC / LSC	417
46	3794	5	Menno Berens	Marina Muiderzand	434
47	3924	39	Robert Pike	Eastbourne Sov SC	440
48	4281	53	Nic Streatfeild	Rutland SC	454
49	3190	55	Chris Tilbrook	Starcross YC	464
50	3945	7	Eddie Bridle	Brightlingsea SC	479
51	3756	28	Andrew Jarvis	Oxford SC	483
52	4254	49	David Smithwhite	Hayling Island SC	485
53	3980	48	Graham Simmonds	Hayling Island SC	488
54	4343	46	James Sainsbury	Grafham Water SC	501
55	4126	58	Luka Dogan	Marina Kastela	501
56	3870	59	Eddie Gatehouse	Hayling Island SC	502
57	3720	50	Bruce Spratt	Thorpe Bay YC	504
58=	398	61	Cameron Harris	Parkstone YC	600
58=	3131	43	Guy Raynes	Weston SC	600

Watch final day video