2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series Round 1 at Weir Wood Sailing Club

2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series at Weir Wood © WWSC

2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series at Weir Wood © WWSC

The forecast for the weekend of the first of the 2000 Noble Marine Millennium Series meetings at Weir Wood Sailing Club varied from "typical UK Bank Holiday" (wild, wet and windy) to "Weir Wood specials" (warm, sunny and shifty winds). As the 22 boats gathered on the Sunday, the weather was warm and sunny, but with the odd chilly gust blowing down the shore. The fleet launched and reached the start area, just in time for the wind to shift through 40 degrees and for the line to be re-set. And that was how the weekend and the eight races developed: "just before" anything was about to happen, the wind dramatically shifted! All the fleet found it hard to struggle up the ladders, while sliding down the snakes was easy! By the end of the first day, when the sun had shone continuously, everyone was exhausted but at the same time excited and eager to resume racing the next day.

The evening celebrations included a great meal cooked by Weir Wood sailor Rachael Pereira, a quiz, and a "drop an egg off the balcony without breaking it" challenge (after wrapping it up in padding, the amount of which depended on the results of the quiz), and a cake "bake off" rounded off the event on Monday.

For the second day the forecast was expected to provide gusts of up to 28 knots, although the local expert Tim Hulley said (quite correctly, as it happened!) that things were always 10 knots less at Weir Wood. The weather delivered, though, on the bank holiday promise of cloudy skies and persistent drizzle, but we were still having to cope with 30 degree wind shifts hitting you every 15 seconds, in a wind strength of having helm and crew at the end of their toe straps.

With eight races, it is hard to remember who claimed the start lines, or who messed up the beat by going too far right, or those who didn't get the speed required downwind in the gusts... but the overall results eventually showed:

That you needed to be a National Champion to do well in the 2000 Class! The 2014 National Champion (Rob Burridge, with new supercrew Sarah Burridge), just beat the 2015 National Champion (Fergus Barnham with Katie Burridge, 2014 National Champion crew), who just beat Steve and Sarah Cockerill as the newcomers to the class, having picked up their new 2000 the day before the regatta. Chris and Gill Jordan, sailing Just 1 More, finished top of the "also-rans" in fourth place.

Many thanks to all the team at Weir Wood who made a memorable event. Thanks also to our sponsors Noble Marine.

Overall Results: