Solo class Welsh Championship at Corus SC

by Bob Taylor on 12 May 2006 Corus Sailing Club (Margam) held the twelfth annual event for the Solo Welsh Championship.

The event attracted 27 sailors from as far a field as Leeds Kent, Essex and Devon to take on the 10 local club sailors.

The weekend racing consisted of five races, three on Saturday and two on Sunday. The dreaded forecast of a northerly 10 mph wind did not materialize but a force 2 Westerly filled in to give some interesting racing on a reverse P course.

The first and second races suited Chris Brown to a tea as he lead from start to finish with Andy Davis scoring a 2 and 4, Chris Goldhawk scoring a 3 and 2 and Simon Jones scoring a 4 and 5 respectively

The wind picked up to force 3 gusting 4 for the third race the extra wind saw Andy Davis lead from start to finish closely followed by Chris Brown second and Simon Jones third

Saturday evening had the majority of the sailors at the Abbott’s kitchen where we had the premises to ourselves with good food and drink except for Chris Brown’s special brew which they ran out of, (Will do better next year Chris). Sunday morning dawned with some sailors the worse for wear but it did not seem to slow them down.

Overnight it looked like a four way split for the major prizes with a short postponement for the first race on Sunday due to lack of wind. Eventually the wind filled in from the West with the race officer Mike Hewlins setting a double beat course across the lake this being a typical Corus course to make best use of the available water.

Andy Davis had the better start closely followed by Chris Brown and Jon Clarke. If the positions stayed the same it would be down to the last race to decide the 2006 Welsh champion. Chris was clearly sitting on Andy on the broad reach of the last lap Andy was forced to keep clear wind forcing the pair high, this allowed Jon to gain the benefit and secure him the win followed by Andy and Chris.

With Chris only needing to finish in front of Andy to gain the title he followed him from the moment the start sequence started, with these two chasing each other this allowed Simon Jones to lead to the windward mark and was never challenged to the finish. Eventually Chris split with Andy forcing Andy the wrong way up the beat. This allowed Chris to come through into second enough for the title and local sailor David J Edwards to come through into third.

Final overall positions:

1 Chris Brown 4672 RYA 1 1 2 3 2 6pts
2 Andy Davis 4702 Bala SC 2 4 1 2 6 9
3 Simon Jones 4673 Teign Cor SC 4 5 3 13 1 13
4 Chris Goldhawk 4501 Chew Valley 3 2 7 5 12 17
5 David J Edwards 4271 Corus SC 10 15 5 4 3 22
6 Phil Milanes 4665 South Cerney 6 7 6 8 4 23
7 Stephen Denison 4327 Hollingworth Laks SC 5 3 10 6 10 24
8 Bob Taylor 4355 Corus SC 9 13 8 9 5 31
9 Jon Clarke 4606 Rugby SC 15 6 12 1 38 34
10 Cliff Crawshaw 4654 Littleton SC 7 19 9 12 7 35
11 Simon Corper 4489 Reading SC 8 11 14 10 8 37
12 Ian Fox 4484 Corus SC 11 9 13 38 9 42
13 Paul Goodhead 4312 South Staffs SC 18 14 37 11 11 54
14 Bret Murch 4659 Teign Cor SC 13 10 20 19 14 56
15 Nick Eaves 4610 Bartley SC 23 18 15 20 13 66
16 Barry Green 4442 Marconi SC 12 8 11 38 38 69
17 Chris Allsop 4630 Chase SC 15 12 16 26 38 71
18 Stan Williams 4397 Corus SC 16 17 24 24 17 74
19 Paul Govier 4438 Corus SC 24 16 25 14 23 77
20 Ralph Weller 4453 Teign Cor SC 14 37 4 23 38 78
21 Paul Hiles 4550 Royal Bermuda YC 25 21 17 25 15 78
22 John Davey 3965 Teign Cor SC 19 30 21 22 16 78
23 Tim Wade 3502 Spinnaker SC 20 29 23 30 18 90
24 Richard Butterfield 4264 Northampto 31 27 28 15 21 91
25 Glen Wilbraham 4140 Corus SC 26 28 22 16 38 92
26 Alison Eaves 4031 Corus SC 30 23 27 18 25 93
27 Graham Don 4421 Corus SC 29 32 18 32 19 98
28 Glen Wells 4688 Bartley SC 28 22 19 29 38 98
29 Paul |Craft 211 Teign Cor SC 27 31 30 28 24 99
30 Jeff Hughes 4621 Corus SC 22 37 29 31 22 104
31 Martin Allen 4380 Up River YC 35 24 37 27 20 106
32 Charlie Tolcher 4350 Teign Cor SC 34 33 26 17 38 110
33 John Mellor 4366 Corus SC 21 20 37 38 38 116
34 Paul Kimmings 4482 South Cerney 32 26 37 21 38 116
35 Ian Clingan 2777 Corus SC 37 37 37 7 38 118
36 Alan Smith 550 Teign Cor SC 36 34 32 33 26 125
37 George Kieghley 4520 Avon SC 33 25 31 38 38 127

First Grand Master Phil Milanes
First Veteran Bob Taylor.