Streaker Southern Area Championships at the WPNSA

Jasper Barnham winner of the Streaker Southern Championship © Neil Firth

14 boats competed in the 2021 Streaker Southern Area Championships at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy on the weekend of June 19th-20th.

Saturday's three races were sailed back-to-back in a light south-easterly. This was a joint event with the Europe Nationals with a shared trapezoidal course, the Europes starting first and doing the outer loop while Streakers sailed the inner loop. There was an hour's delay, waiting for the breeze to settle, but then it was all systems go.

In Race 1 Jasper Barnham and Veronica Falat started at the pin end of the line and gained an early advantage but were soon joined by Graham Sexton and the three of them had a close race to the first mark. Falat rounded first, just ahead of Sexton, but by the leeward gate, after a long run, Sexton was a boat's length ahead and it was then another shifty upwind leg. Again Falat took the lead and managed to hold it down the remaining reach, run and reach to the finish. The Europes were also completing their first race and the two fleets became one which added to the difficulty of finding clear air and chances to overtake. Sexton had to be content with 2nd, with Barnham 3rd and Howard Frear just beat Alan Gillard to 4th place.

Race 2 was a matter of choosing whether to go right or left up the beats. Each side paid at times so everyone felt good at least momentarily but at the first mark Sexton and Barnham, who had favoured the left, rounded ahead of Gillard, who had gone right. Falat and James Dawes were also well placed. At the leeward gate, the race was still tight and on the next beat Gillard, again on the right, looked like he had found a starboard lift to take him into the lead but this didn't last long enough. Barnham, Sexton and Gillard arrived at the mark in close order and stayed together on the downwind legs to finish like that while Falat followed along in 4th.

Race 3 followed a similar pattern in its early stages with Sexton and Barnham going left on the first beat, with Gillard and several others trying to find the shifts on the right. By the end of the first run Sexton, Barnham and Gillard were very close but they split at the gate. Sexton and Barnham again headed left while Gillard, Dawes and Chris Smith went right - and this time right paid! The starboard lift finally played its part and Gillard crossed ahead of the fleet by a clear margin. Dawes got to the windward mark in 2nd place with Falat just ahead of Barnham and Sexton. This was the finishing order except that Barnham overtook Falat on the run to take 3rd.

Three more races were scheduled for the Sunday but unfortunately the breeze was too light and racing was abandoned after a postponement ashore. This meant that Saturday's results were the final ones, with Jasper Barnham taking the Southern Championship trophy, 2 points ahead of the next 3 boats which were tying on points. Alan Gillard took 2nd overall and Veronica Falat was 3rd, leaving Graham Sexton to take 4th having led all three races much of the time!

The championship was the first of the 2021 Rooster Super Series and also counted towards the North Sails Southern Paddle series.

Despite the disappointment of only racing on one day and the long distances most of us had travelled, it was very good to be sailing at WPNSA again. Thank you to the Europe class for inviting us to share the weekend!

Overall Results: