Nationals at Sunderland Yacht Club - by Ian Renilson

Sunderland was great fun - although the sailing was rather curtailed due to excessive wind! It would have been fabulous as a spectator - Paul Manning took some people out to watch in the big Ovington Boats rib. They also took some video footage and that might be available sometime.

The first day was cancelled due to too much wind (my tent got flattened every time a gust went through, until I arranged extra guy-lines to a near-by picnic table). Then we had one full day of racing in a stiff breeze (5 races). On day 3 it was very windy and we started one race, but a mammoth gust came down on our second lap - the race was abandoned for safety and then they gave results based on where you were when the race was abandoned - very fair and quite easy with a small fleet (30 boats). On the last day racing was also abandoned due to excessive wind.

I’ve NEVER gone so fast on a small boat as I did just before they abandoned the race - and that includes ribs! I had the kite up when the BIG gust hit - I was already blasting along as fast as I’ve ever gone in a Skiff and then suddenly the gust hit and I bore away a further 20 degrees and accelerated like you would not believe it is possible with me flat-wiring at the back of the rack. The sea was quite choppy, but the bow stayed up because of the kite and the boat leapt from wave to wave. It was very very exhilarating (and maybe just a little scary!). Also, the gust took me way below the lay-line for the finish and I had to drop the kite to close-reach up - I thought dropping the kite in these conditions would be impossible but even that was OK.

Even when the fleet was caught out in the big wind there was only one significant bit of boat-breakage, which was a snapped trapeze rope (immediately followed by a snapped tiller extension) - which says a lot for the boat. I don’t think anyone had to be rescued at all - despite the extreme conditions.

We had great racing and it was very close - the challenge for the top spot was very tight and in the end Richard Stenhouse was beaten by 4 points by Kev Anderson from Sunderland.

The event was very well organised and the locals made us very welcome. The socials were also excellent and everyone was near-by with camping in the club grounds - and when the racing was abandoned for the day we took 3 big ribs up the river Wear for an impromptu pub-crawl, and found some live music, before coming back to the club for the organised social.

The top guys are also very open and helpful about discussing how to sail the boats, so the time spent watching the wild water outside the harbour was well-spent.

There were 30 boats at the Nationals at Sunderland, which was a wee bit of a disappointment, but events are always a bit down when they come far North. Next year on the South coast I hope we will top 50 boats. The class is growing at break-neck speed and there is an amazing buzz about the class - well beyond anything I’ve ever felt before in other classes, which are often dominated by the same old faces year-in year-out!

I bought my boat in July last year and it is number 128 - I think the highest number Sunderland was 174 - that’s 46 boats in 13 months. Many of these new guys need a season to get the hang of it before coming to the Nationals - so we should have a big increase next year with the event on the South Coast.

Hope to see you in a Musto Skiff soon.

Happy sailing,

Ian R

MPS GBR 128