Tokio Marine HCC UK RS Feva National Championships at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club
by Lucy Jameson 29 May 2019 08:37 PDT
25-28 May 2019
Tokio Marine HCC UK RS Feva Nationals 2019 © Digital Sailing
The light & shifty first day, challenging conditions of day 2 with big winds and choppy seas. Day 3 was all about long races, even more wind, short bursts of rain and some sun, day 4 was more wind and a northerly breeze so it was safe to say our champions and indeed all our sailors really showed their versatility and ability to adapt to every condition.
It was safe to say that the RS Feva community spent a lush 4 days in sunny Abersoch for the annual Tokio Marine HCC RS Feva National Championships. Host Club South Caernarvonshire YC made the class feel extremely welcome with Commodores receptions for all competitors and their families. The Cove served up a delicious regatta dinner and the Dark and Stormy's flowed in the bar for the adults!
Saturday started with a buzz of activity as sailors registered, picked up their goodies and set off to rig their boats on the beautiful beach next to the sailing club. PRO Hoppo and his team did a great job getting the fleet away for race 1 on time. Freddie Fisher and Gregan Bergaman Smith from Hayling Island Sailing Club had a solid start to their Championships posting a 4, 2, 1 putting them in first place overnight, keeping the pressure on with joint points was Millie Irish and Katherine Byne from Draycote Sailing Club. Tom Ahlheid and Tom Stratton Brown of Frensham Pond Sailing club close behind on 8 points. Sailors described the conditions of the day as windy with short choppy seas and very cold!
Day 2 and it's Joey Taylor and Terry Hacker Blackwater SC who finish on top putting them in 1st place overall in qualifying, Raulf Berry and Olly Peters finish off in 2nd and Tom Ahlheid and Tom Stratton Brown retain their 3rd with on joint points.
Bank holiday Monday and it's forecast to rain! Luckily the rain held during the day but set in just in time for the social evening with regatta dinner planned and the hope of some beach volleyball games.
The final series conditions continued to offer frequent guests, short choppy seas and wind shifts with 15 - 20 knots throughout the 2 days. Sailors now split into Gold and Silver fleet and the Championship title is all to play for.
Both fleets saw some tight racing throughout the series with every sailor giving it their all. For the Golds, it was Joey Taylor and Terry Hacker who really dominated from beginning to end, a blip in race 1 of the final series and using up their discard clearly did not shake these boys up as they counted an impressive 1,2,1,1,1. Coming in second was Theo and Felix Stewart from Windermere School, Tom Ahlheid and Tom Stratton Brown stayed in the top 3 throughout the Championships and finished off in 3rd overall
Cam Mitchell was awarded a very special award for sportsmanship he jumped into the water to help 2 young teams recover from nasty capsizes in the tricky conditions on day one.
The top school returned to Sevenoaks.
The top club was incorrectly presented to Hayling Island Sailing Club in the prize giving, it should of course been presented to Blackwater SC who had the top 3 teams from a club with Joey Taylor and Terry Hacker in 1st, Sophie Johnson and Theo Aers in 9th and Nick Evans and Oscar Cawthorne in 14th.
Our thanks must go to the whole team at SCYC who helped make the event such a huge success, we really would love to return again soon!
Finally, we must give a massive thank you to our class sponsor Tokio Marine HCC, their very generous contribution to the class really does make such a difference. Rooster Sailing has also made a huge contribution to the event and class by giving us some utterly fabulous prizes, top gear from a top company!
Check out our new way to share a daily report from the event, Jon Partridge from
RS Sailing and Ian Jameson, Feva sailors' Dad and long-suffering hubby to the Class Secretary try out podcasting!
There is now a
gallery of RS Feva photos. Don't forget to use the voucher code FEVA_NATS_19 at check out to get 50% off all orders placed before the 30th May 2019.