2006 Nationals

Nineteen boats took part in the RS Elite National Championships at the Royal Burnham Yacht Club, held from Friday to Sunday with three races on Friday and Saturday and one on Sunday.

Winners were Michael Patten, David Fleming and Ed Lewis sailing Matterhorn Jack from the Royal Burnham YC. Second place went to Mike Dawe, Simon Payne and Paul Carpenter, sailing Duel from Hayling Island SC. Third were Stephen Herring, James Young and Joe Thompson sailing Bacchanalia, Royal Burnham YC.

The first two days were magnificent, wind, sun and excelent courses set by Edwin and his crew of race officers and mark layers. Sunday was a hot still day with winds below the 5 knot minimum level at which they would not race.

Because many of the competitors had to get back to Hayling Island on the south coast at the end of the day, there was not time to see if it would fill in and the race was abandoned. Still six races were completed and a good time was had by all.

Mike Tong (Ciao Bella HISC) opened the racing with a win in race one but in race two it was Stephen Herring who took the line honours followed by Mike Patten. This was the start of a blistering run by Patten who won the next three races, no one else managing to match his consistencey.

In what turned out to be the final race Mike Dawe won ahead of Martin Wadhams on RS Sailing.com and the tenth place for Patten was sufficiant to take the title by just one point from Dawe.

The evenings with hog roast on Friday and a sit down dinner on Saturday went well, Men behaving sadly entertained us on Saturday night and the sailors danced untill late then drank till later! A big thanks must go to all the staff at the RBYC who worked tierlesly to make it as success, the many memebers of the club who helped out when they saw that help was needed and especialy thanks to Yvonne James, Guy Trench and Sue Hooper for overall co-ordination of the weekend.

2005 Season report

Over the winter and with a strong attendance at the London Boatshow, more orders flowed in and the season started with 13 HISC Elites (with another 10, soon to be 12, at Burnham). Total production was about 30 at this time.

The writer has counted 18 events/series available locally to HISC Elites in 2005 on top of which there were Cowes, Burnham and Round the Island entered by ardent travellers. Competition has been good throughout although we could always do with more participants and a theme for 2006 is to help more boats get out with help in crewing, performance and other tips (partly through newsletters and e-mail newsgroups).

The main series were:

· Spring Series: (6 entries) won by Ciao Bella from the Durrants in X-Tension.

· Summer: (14 entries) won by Jeff Monger and Nicky Streeter in Eclipse from Ciao Bella and then Charles Barron in Swansong.

· Late Summer: (4 entries, too many conflicting events) won by X-Tension from Swansong.

· Sundowner (Tuesday evenings: (8 entries) won by Ciao Bella from the Penns and Steve Powell in Etu and Duel (sailed by Paul Carpenter).

· Pennant Weekends: (11 entries in 3 weekends – 1 abandoned with no wind). May won by Toby Strauss and Trevor Rose in TnT, June and July by Duel, with Duel the overall winner.

As this is written, the Winter Series is in full swing with eight Elites racing with the Flying 15s. Duel and Ciao Bella are again locked together but, so far, beating the 15s.

The HISC Elite Open was held in April with 14 entries. It was at this event that the competitiveness of the classic sails relative to the redesign was shown to be very lacking. The event was won by Nick Peters in demo boat No 9 with Eclipse (Streeter/Monger) second and the second RS works boat third all with new design sails. The first classic was Duel.

Then the first Elite National were held at HISC in July with the best entry number yet at 16 boats – all the locals plus two from RS and Shaun Maclean from Scotland. There was very close racing over a great weekends weather well run by the home club in Hayling Bay. The eventual victor was Buzz Kech in No 30 the second RS demo boat, followed by Duel and then Ciao Bella.

A full report and photos available here and results here

Fed Week was won by Duel followed by Swansong and X-Tension while the HISC Regatta was won by Ciao Bella followed by X-tension and Duel.

Lastly special mention should be made of the various Harbour Pursuit races which have been well and very successfully attended by Elites. The early May Bank Holiday was a sighter with Eclipse eighth from 55 entries. Then at the late May one, the Doctors boat Eloise was fourth helmed by Andy Jameson and the Penfold/Chrismas Ellanore was sixth from 50 competitors.

Better still was to come when in the Glynn Charles Pursuit, with big prizes. Eloise (sailed by Bryony Percy) was second from 150 opposition, only overtaken in the last few yards. And, best of all, in the Cock of the Harbour, with 70 entries, the Hayling boat with Andy Jameson again, was first, the Durrants second and Duel third from 70 entries (theyll be changing our handicap!). All this showed the competitive nature of our class against dinghies as long as there is not too much reaching and planning.

Finally, we should not forget the wonderful social nature of the Class with many evenings together after racing and more formally (arranged by June). In particular there were special events hosted by the Danbys (again) and at Cowes by Sandy and Prim (again) and Duncan Patterson.

Mike Tong - Ciao Bella (1)

Further information on the boats is available from www.ldcracingsailboats.co.uk or www.rselite.org and trial sails can be arranged either via LDC, the Class Association (Peter Wareham), or the HISC Fleet (Mike Tong).

Tel: 023 - 92462371
Email: Click Here to Email Peter.