Albacore Inland Championships 2011 at Hornsea Mere

by Dave Berger on 27 May 2011 Albacore Inland Championships 2011 was hosted by Hornsea Sailing Club over the weekend of 14th and 15th May.

Hornsea Mere has been a home club for the Swordfish, the direct predecessor of the Albacore with an identical hull shape, but for the sheerline, so it was particularly rewarding to be accepted as the Inlands venue for this year, due in part from the low water level at Scaling Dam.

Judy and Paul Armstrong showed their complete mastery of both the weather and a sailing venue of which none of the seven visiting boats had previous experience, completing the series with a score of four firsts to count, (having a fifth place in the third race as a discard). Four boats from the home club made up the full contingent of 11 entries into this series of five races. Places were won and lost throughout all races on the beats, fast reaches and runs facilitated by a brisk breeze.

Courses were set using the whole stretch of water for the first three races, proving quite a severe test for all visitors, as there are two significant areas of shallows in this natural lake of 250 acres navigable area. A wide variety of boatbuilders was evident, with four Woofs, at least two Young's, two Speed FRP's, a Kingsfield and an older Fairey, all of which demonstrated different characteristics on different legs and in different wind strengths.

Mike McNamara had a weekend he would probably prefer to forget with a number of mishaps causing him to have two retirements, one following tiller breakage, and another following a capsize. His comfortable win in the third race demonstrated the form we have come to expect from him.

Hornsea sailing club has experienced a phenomenon common to many clubs in that a number of our sailors have migrated to single-handed boats, predominantly Streakers, and it was therefore particularly rewarding to see the potential that two-handed boats offer in introducing people to sailing through crewing. Mike Banner from Winsford Flash had asked if we could find a crew for him, having taken note of the weather forecast and (understandably) decided that his nine-year-old son may not be the ideal weight for the conditions expected. Mike did a splendid job with two different young and relatively inexperienced crews, and both Tobias (who crewed for four races) and Will who crewed the fifth both very much enjoyed this introduction to sailing in brisk conditions with an experienced, patient and capable helm - thanks are due to Mike for playing an important part in these two youngsters' further introduction, (nay immersion!) to the sport.

Three husband and wife teams were in evidence, as was one father and son and a father and daughter combination.
Our principal race officer Steve Sharp took care and not a little pleasure in arranging five different courses for each of the five races, ably assisted by Brian Joyce, for whom rowing into the wind to get the committee boat out to the line provided his exercise for the weekend. Mike Hood with the patrol boat was much in evidence on Saturday in particular, assisting yours truly in one instance. Not all the courses pleased all the competitors, and one was heard to lobby before the final race that with crews tired after four testing races already, 'was it wise to set a course with five gybes in a force four to five?' Nine of the 11 entries did start the final race, although it would have been extremely unlikely for Judy not to have been overall winner with the eight points she had accrued before the final race. Nothing like cementing your victory!

A number of photographs were taken over the weekend which are on the Hornsea Sailing Club website.

We would like to take the opportunity of thanking everyone who came to Hornsea Mere for the weekend. It was a privilege to host you, we hope you enjoyed the racing, your visit has given us pause for thought about some of the facilities we offer, and we hope that you will consider returning next year for another open meeting here in East Yorkshire.

Results;

National Albacore Class website

Sailed:5, Discards:1, To count:4, Ratings:PY, Entries:28, Scoring system:Appendix A
Rank	Helm	Crew	SailNo	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Nett
1st	Judy Armstrong	Paul Armstrong	7518	Scaling Dam	1	1	-5	1	1	4
2nd	Nigel Potter	Matt Potter	7143		2	4	3	-7	2	11
3rd	Phil Smith	Matthew Metcalfe-Smith	8152	Winsford Flash	3.5	2	(DNF)	3	3	11.5
4th	David Hammond	Aaron White	7920	Ogston	-7	7	2	2	6	17
5th	Dave Berger	Sheila Mullen	6836	Hornsea	3.5	(DNF)	4	8	4	19.5
6th	Mike MacNamara	Flip Foulds	6493	Norfolk Broads Yacht Club	5	(DNF)	1	4	10.0 DNF	20
7th	Stuart Hood	Natalie Hood	6825	Hornsea	6	5	-8	5	5	21
8th	Mike Banner	Tobias Breithaupt / Bran Banner	8133	Winsford Flash	-8	3	7	6	7	23
9th	Eddie Brooks	Jane Brooks	1749	Elton SC	(DNF)	6	6	9	DNF	31
10th	Tony Ridley	Paul Ellwood	7501	Hornsea	9	9	9	10	(DNS)	37
11th	Chris Bell	Rob Froud	7407	Hornsea	DNF	8	(DNS)	OCS	DNS	60