250 sailors compete
Report by Oliver Machell
Saturday morning 250 sailors including 2 RYA squads and the youth squad arrived at Grafham water all competing for the title of national inland champion 2010.
Saturday saw no racing due to lack of wind. A few bands of breeze came over the lake however insufficient to race.
Day 2 however was a different story entirely. With a constant 17 knots gusting 22 on the water the fleet were launched for race 1 of the topper inlands.
Race 1 got underway, at the windward mark it was James Dugdale leading the fleet and I was in second place going round to do the inner loop leg, with the rest of the fleet a good 7-8 boat lengths behind. Halfway down the run and Dugdale and I were battling it out, however I caught a good wave and managed to overtake. At the leeward mark I was in the lead and led the fleet for the next 2 beats, finally winning by a leg.
Race 2, with a bad start in dirty air, I tacked off early and went to the right hand side of the course for clear air. My boat speed paid off and I popped out at the windward mark in 3rd place, with Ellie Meopham and Ed Jones in 1st and 2nd place. Downwind my boat speed was not good enough and I was overtaken, going into 4th place at the leeward mark. Up the beat I managed to get back into 3rd however being overtaken on the last reach finishing in 4th.
The wind continued to blow and picked up to gusts of 28 knots by race three. A good start however a large shift caused port end to pay when I was starboard end, but still managing to be in 9th position at the windward mark. I went on to gain places throughout and finished the race in 7th place.
Overall a good day however lack of energy in races 2 and 3 lost me the event. I finally finished in a respectable 5th place overall.
Links:
Website: Topper Class Association
