Solo Pre-Champs at Weymouth

by Steve Ede on 1 Jul 2008 The Solo class headed to WPNSA on the weekend of June 28 / 29 for its inaugural ‘pre-championship’ event. This gave the fleet the chance to practise on salt water three weeks before the Nationals - being held at Royal Torbay Yacht Club from 19 – 25 July.

Those that made the journey were greeted by perfect sailing conditions on both days, with winds of force 4 – 5 and uninterrupted sunshine. On top of that the academy made everyone feel very welcome and laid on superb race management to match the excellent facilities ashore.

The racing was dominated by Jim Hunt, who headed home after race 5 having already secured the title with 4 wins and a second. He was given a good run for his money in most of the races though, and had to fight through to the lead in all but one race.

Behind there was plenty of very close racing with frequent place changes amongst the high quality fleet. Overall the strong winds meant that heavier helms took the honours:

Solo - Leading positions

1 Jim Hunt South Staffs SC
2 Cliff Crawshaw Corus SC
3 Chris Cleaves Salcombe YC
4 Alister Morley Salcombe YC
5 Andy Davis Chase SC
6 Chris Brown RYA