NATIONAL POLICE LASER and
DINGHY SAILING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Lasers - Wednesday, 16th June, 2004
All Dinghies - Thursday/Friday, 17th-18th June, 2004
Venue: Worthing Y.C.
Hosts: Sussex Police

Alan Husk takes the Dinghy Regatta once more.... Graham Cook wins the Laser Nationals

L.G.
 

Pictures of the event

 Report, Results & Pictures below -

At this time of the year we associate cramming with school and college exams. But for the 37 helmsmen or crews (representing 15 different forces) that met to do battle at this year’s national police championship it was a case of cramming two days sailing into one. Plan A was to hold three races on Thursday and two more on Friday, and start the racing at 11 o’clock on Thursday morning. The race officer and his team went afloat and set the course for race 1 in spite of the very brisk breeze and choppy sea. The competitors were on the beach in plenty of time, their sails crackling in the wind. I should think that most of them were praying that the westerly wind, blowing about force 5 to 6, would abate somewhat. Two or three of the crews had reefed their mainsails, but most boats were sporting their full rig. Eventually the braver souls took to the water and promptly had their crafts flooded by the pounding surf. It took a volunteer beach party to hold the boats steady whilst the helmsman and crew got aboard and readied themselves for the off. Capsizes were inevitable for the less initiated, and even for some more skilful competitors. The Albacore of the unfortunate Dave Gough and Ian Tribick (Leicestershire) turned upside down before they could get out into the deeper water and their mast was pounded into the gravel beneath the waves and ended up broken into three pieces. Len Gooch and Clive Bishop were having some difficulty with their Albacore. They were keeping upright but, like others, found it impossible to tack through the wind, so they lowered their mainsail and started sailing back to the beach under foresail alone. It was just as well they did because on the way they discovered that the collar holding the spreaders to their mast had split. They were fortunate not to lose their mast. By the time they got ashore well over half the fleet was parked on the sand. The race officer had wisely cancelled race 1 before it had even started. A little while later he abandoned racing for the day.

The competitors spent the rest of Thursday resting, sunbathing or making repairs to their dinghies. The ‘Social’ for this event was held in the clubhouse of Worthing Yacht Club. It consisted of watching the England versus Switzerland European Cup football match on TV, followed by a barbecue. Switzerland scored first and the glum faces of the 40,000 English spectators at the Portuguese stadium said it all. However, their spirits, and those of the sailors at Worthing, were soon lifted when England equalised and eventually went on to win 3:1. The barbecue went down well, and Bob Trevis and his team are to be congratulated for overcoming the smoke and the swirling wind to feed the hungry competitors. The sailors were advised to have an early night, as the race officer was planning to start racing early the next day to make up for lost time.

The weather for Friday was much more user friendly, and allowed the race officer to bring into play plan B to save the championship. Four races were to be held back to back, starting the first race at 0930. The race officer and his team were out early laying the 4-mark course. It was essential for all competitors to pass through a ‘gate’ set in this course to allow the race committee to ‘average lap’ the slower boats and finish the races as quickly as possible. Each race was to take about an hour to run. The wind did pipe up to about force 4 partway through race 2, which made conditions more interesting, but it dropped off again in race 3. After being out on the water for four hours or so the competitors sailed back to the beach tired but happy that they had been able to show off their boat handling skills and that a result had been obtained for this championship.

It was the modern flying machines, such as the RS 600 of Rob Jones (the sole representative of Hampshire) and the RS 400s of Peter Walters and Simon Judge (Nottinghamshire) and Ian Ingram and Andy Carter (West Midlands) that led the fleet on the water in all the races, but it was the Phantom of Alan Husk (Essex) and the Lasers of Graham Cook and Andy Taverner (both Metropolitan) that came out well on handicap, with Husk winning three of the four races. Cook won race 3 and came 2nd in races 1 and 2. Rob Jones in the RS 600 came 3rd overall, and Andy Taverner was 4th. See the list of results below for the individual performances. One discarded result was allowed out of the four races.

It had been a tough time for the organisers and particularly for the Race Officer, Dave Winrow assisted by Adrian Fenton and Claire Winrow.

Unfortunately the official results were not ready by the time the Sussex ACC arrived for the prize-giving, and so that ceremony had to be postponed. It is probable that the trophies will be awarded at a Police Sailing regatta later in the season. Confirmation of details will be posted here when known.

L.G.
 

Update, July, 2004: The main presentations will take place at NSY, MPD on a date to be fixed. Any further details from Stuart Jenkins.
 

  9/7/04 - The preponderance of trophy winners being in the South, plans are afoot to present trophies at NSY in October - details to follow.

Pictures from Day One

Presentation of Trophies took place at NSY on 15th November, 2004

Sussex organiser for Police National Dinghy Champs, 2004 is:
Bob Trevis
Tel: 07986-304562

A reminder that the hosts, Sussex Police Sailing Section have their own website at: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/sxpdsc .
(Nov, 04 - this is the new website address)