Miracle End of Season Championship at Shustoke Sailing Club

Miracle End of Seasons at Shustoke © Clara & Adrian Padro

Miracle End of Seasons at Shustoke © Clara & Adrian Padro

Shustoke Sailing Club hosted the Miracle End of Season Championship on 5th and 6th October. Although there was a small turnout of only four boats, we all agreed it was a weekend of quality over quantity!

Saturday provided a light and shifty south easterly breeze; a good course was set with 2 good beats and a variety of spinnaker legs. All four boats reached the first mark in close proximity, but it was Graham Watts and Helen Jacks who managed to pull away and create a substantial lead. They were eventually worn down by David and Zara Turtle, and then by Wayne Atherton and Angela Sweeney. Andrew and Paul Robinson unfortunately hit a mark so dropped back to take fourth place.

Race 2 saw David and Zara round the windward mark first, closely followed by the rest of the fleet. They were forced to work hard though, with Wayne and Angela significantly closing the gap on the last lap. Graham and Helen also put a spurt on for the final spinnaker leg, almost taking second place from Wayne and Angela! It was a close finish, with all boats finishing on the same leg.

After a team effort to fine tune Paul's rigging the group went for a well deserved meal in The Plough across the road, with the lighter crews opting for extra courses in anticipation for the heavy winds due on Sunday!

Sunday dawned bright and (very) breezy but with pleasant sunshine to keep the chill off. The first two races were held back to back. David and Zara were just too keen to get going in the first race of the day and ended up having to do an emergency about-turn before the start to avoid being early. They then followed this up with further manoeuvring practice doing a 720 at the windward mark... Wayne and Angela pulled out a good lead on the next spinnaker leg, David and Zara recovered well and pulled through to take second, followed by Graham and Helen, and Andrew and Paul.

Miracle End of Seasons at Shustoke - photo © Clara & Adrian Padro

The wind really got up for the second race of the day, with some large gusts coming through. Wayne and Angela again pulled out from the rest of the fleet and kept this to the end. The large gusts provided some good spectator entertainment; they didn't know which way to look! As one particularly large gust came through at one end of the lake Andrew and Paul were hit on the gybe mark and after some spectacular rolling ended up in the water, at the other end of the lake David and Zara were going for the windward overtake of Wayne and Angela but they were overpowered and also took a dip! So well done to Wayne, Angela, Graham and Helen for keeping upright to the end!

So that left it all to play for on the last race! The anticipated close racing was put under even more pressure as the last 2 boats bowed out, making it a 2 boat race in more ways than one! After a close first beat Wayne and Angela rounded the windward mark first, David and Zara managed to take the lead on the following spinnaker legs and for the rest of lap 1. However after several tacking matches Wayne and Angela managed to power through on lap 2 to take the lead and keep this for the remainder of the race, making them this year's Miracle End of Season Champions - Well Done!

Overall Results:

End of Year Round-up

The Miracles have had 10 open events this year plus the Nationals with 9 different winners!

• David and Zara Turtle won the Northern, Southern, and Welsh Area Championships
• Tracy Amos and Gemma Gibson won the Midland Area Championships
• Graham Watts and Helen Jacks won the Girton Puddleduck
• Wayne Atherton and Angela Sweeney won the End of Season Championships
• David and Rebecca Southwell won Inland Championships
• Sarah Jarman and Andrew Robinson won the Thornbury Open
• Louis Moulden and Lucas Skehan won the Port Dinorwic Open
• Jon Willars won the Welton Open
• Ian and Katie Fryett won the Nationals