Sun 31^st Jul to Fri 5^th Aug

The host location for the 2011 Topper nationals was North Berwick in East Lothian. Some of you might not know but this is all the way up in Scotland. So for a lot of people this was a long journey which would have taken up the whole day in the car, 7 hours for us!

The Topper Nationals also include a Regatta fleet split by sail size – 4.2 & 5.3 fleets normally made up of brothers & sisters of competing national sailors. In total 324 Toppers sailors and their families had descended on North Berwick. Chew was represented by: Freya Cumpsty & Olivia Jones in Regatta 4.2. Oliver Martindale in Regatta 5.3 and Tom Hole, Ellie Hitchings, Ella Cudmore, James Cummins, Jess Harding & Henry Martindale in the main National event.

We left on the Thursday so that on the Friday and Saturday we could have 2 training days before racing starts. The coach for the two days was former Topper Ladies World Champion, Lynn Billows. The coaching gave us a great opportunity to perfect our sailing skills and to also get used to the sailing club and launching area. On the Friday we worked on boat speed and sail controls and on the Saturday we practised starts in the morning, we then went through the notice of race for important information followed by boat measurement. Boat measurement is important nowadays because we don’t want anybody to cheat so every Topper has to go through the process.

The first 3 days of racing was the qualification series for the nationals (the regatta fleets were engaged in their own event); on the first day (Sunday) it was light winds which favoured the lighter sailors. Despite there being next to no wind the racing committee managed two races however the third race had to been abandoned due to lack of wind. On Monday it was very light winds again and after the best part of the day, we finally we went out for a race! Some of the competitors managed to cross the finish but for others still out on the course there was a 180 degree wind shift and the race had to be abandoned. On the third day it was raining hard and with the rain came no wind - we didn’t even get on the water. In the evening was the a selection of highland games including tossing the caber and tug of war which the National Youth Squad won against the National Junior Squad in the final. Thursday came with lovely weather but still little wind, the fleet went out with the hope that the sea breeze would come which it eventually did, overall they completed two races before they had to send everyone in due to the build-up of fog on the race course.

At the end of the Nationals qualification series we were all split into 3 fleets of roughly 90 boats making up Bronze, Silver & Gold.  Tom, Ellie, Ella, Jess & I had done well enough to get into the Silver fleet and Henry did even better and qualified into the Gold fleet.

The first day of the Championship Series began despite being one day late and with a steady breeze. The first race was completed however the sea mist/fog that was building became so bad we couldn’t even see the windward mark so the race committee had no option but to abandon racing for the day. The final day dawned and finally the wind came; the racing committee where eager to get us out, so racing was brought forward by an hour and we managed to get three races in with time to spare. Only 2 races were originally scheduled for the final day’s sailing, but because only 1 race had been run, running 3 on the final day allowed for a discard.

Overall Gold winner was Giles Kuzyk from Parkstone YC, second was Matt Venables from Sutton SC and third was Curtis Mearns from Leigh & Lowton SC. Henry M (chew) finished a very creditable 36^th. Finn Murphy from Portishead won the Silver fleet with Thomas Goodbourne from Burghfield SC in second and Chew Valleys own Tom Hole finished in third place. Chew sailors then finished 19^th Ellie H, 42^nd Ella C, 52^nd James C & 54^th Jess H. In Bronze fleet Patrick Morgan Mumbles YC won with James Mapley Felpham SC in second and Joanne Foster Dalgety Bay SC in third.

Oliver M won the 5.3 fleet in the Regatta series and Freya C came 3^rd and Olivia J came 16^th in the 4.2 Regatta fleet.

James Cummins

PS. As a foot note some of our Chew Topper sailors following these Nationals have made the trip over to Ireland for the Topper World Championships. We would like to wish the best of luck and good sailing to Ellie Cumpsty (currently 30^th after 2 races), Henry Martindale (50^th), Oliver Martindale (66^th) and Ellie Hitchings (146^th)