Sandhopper National Championships – Winners for three years in a row!

by Barry Duce on 17 Sep 2010 Sandhopper National Championships 2010 opened with an unforgiving 25 mph South Westerly but 29 boats signed the declaration sheet and battle commenced. Amongst the contestants were two new craft, 'Hairloss' or Aeolus, is this a passing reference to the man at the sharp end and the innovative and controversial Tripod.

Race 1 saw previous champion Chris Clarke with Dan Henderson taking the lead with current champions Sand Star and Bluejacket keeping her company, this order prevailed throughout the two rounds giving Chris and Dan a well deserved first. This race went without incident but plenty was to follow in the next.

The wind increased slightly in Race 2 testing the crews and with Race Officer Geoff Appleton achieving a speedy turn-around Race 2 quickly got underway, this time Sand Star took an early lead with Martyn Eyre/Paul Spratt in Aeolus chasing her and Paul Clarke/Toby Speller in third place, yet again, with two-lap races giving boats little time to impose themselves on the leaders, this turned out to be the finishing order.

This race saw the three retirements, one of which was Phil Crawford whose spinnaker disappeared beneath the keel necessitating the cutting of his halyard and an early bath. The rigours of the economic downturn played a part in the following incident; Dave Johnson looking to fill his order book collided with April Fool, a nice touch David, passing your card to Ian Stobart as you parted company!

The third race saw the emergence of a pattern with Sand Star and the two new boats together with Bluejacket, a proven fast boat, establishing a dominating presence at the front of the fleet. Peter Thompson and Steve Hopper (159) led throughout followed by Bluejacket, Tripod and Aeolus with this being the finishing order.

Sunday brought lighter winds and some sun with the newer boats continuing to lead the fleet, which had increased to 32 Sandhoppers, the highest ever turnout for the Championships. Robin Foster-Taylor’s Tripod jumped into an enormous lead which they held to the finishing line.

Chris Clarke in Sand Storm threatened to upset the dominance of the newer boats but dropped back to fourth, with Bluejacket second and Sand Star third.

Race 5 started with one eye on the clock as the previous race had endured two general recalls and the schedule had fallen somewhat adrift. Sand Star fought back from fourth at the end of the first round to take the gun and the Championship, Aeolus was second and Martyn Binnendijk and Gordon Sanders in Squiffy posted a third, their best performance and Chris Clarke another fourth.

The weekend’s sailing was thoroughly enjoyed by all contestants and further enhanced by a well attended dinner on Saturday night with Maylandsea members joining us.

Top four results
1st Sand Star 159 Peter Thompson and Steve Hopper
2nd Bluejacket 154 Mark Dell and Nic Barnes
3rd Aeolus 161 Martyn Eyre and Paul Spratt
4th Tripod 162 Robin Foster-Taylor and Charles Devenport

For more information, please go to: www.tbyc.org