Southern Championship Swanage Sailing Club TT : Summer Series
Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th June 2008

Report By: Adrian Whaley


Despite a mixed weather forecast for southern England the sun shone, as ever, in Swanage for the Sprint 15 Southern Travellers Championship. With 7 ‘travellers’ joining the 8 Swanage Sprint 15s all was set for a fine battle, with the breeze building to a lively 3 to 4 on the Saturday afternoon for the first of 3 back to back races. A quick dash around a square course twice saw Kevin Dutch of Seasalter Sailing Club, live up to his boat name, the Flying Dutchman, and show a speedy pair of heels to secure the race by the narrowest of margins over local expert Mike Cemm. Henry Clark, Steve Littlejohn and Andrew Langley, all from Swanage SC followed closely behind and set the stage for a strong local showing over the weekend. Between the first and second races Richard Milller decided to cool off with a swim recovering just in time to get to the race 2 with seconds to spare. In a keenly contested start , the second race set off in a building breeze with local family combination Adrian and son Sam Whaley, 2 up, jostling with Dutch, Cemm, Clark and Littlejohn. At the end of 3 hard fought laps Cemm came out ahead by just 3 seconds on corrected time from Whaley followed by Dutch and Clark. The third race was equally as exciting with Clive Stracey on Tommy Tippee trying to see if he could go any faster by going upside down with his mast in the sand whilst there were a few impressions of how to turn a Sprint 15 into a submarine. By the end of day 1 tired and aching bodies retired to the BBQ and the bar to retell their stories.

Second day dawned with contrasting conditions – light, variable winds. After a 45 minute delay to let what breeze there was settle in direction, the fourth race started with half the fleet electing to start on port at the port end of the line whilst the other half elected to sail along the line on starboard. After some vocal jousting the fleet set off to the windward mark where Clark led round followed by Cemm, who put the accelerator down and pulled out a commanding lead to wrap up the fourth race, followed by Whaley (now with younger son Ben), Dutch and then Clark. Littlejohn fought off the attentions of Eamonn Quigley (GWSC) and Peter Lytton (Papercourt SC) to secure 5th place. Race 5 saw the most keenly contested starts with Dutch being judged to being within millimetres of the right side of the line followed closely by Whaley and Clark. By the leeward mark Clark, Cemm, Littlejohn and Whaley were contesting for the lead. Taking advantage of a lift on starboard tack Whaley took the lead by the windward mark, holding on to this to win the fifth race with Dutch’s race being foiled by a broken mainsheet fitting. The final race saw Richard Harrison (Netley SC) storm off the line and maintain his speed to win. Mike Cemm’s second secured him the overall Southern Travellers Championship and a one, two, three for Swanage Sailing Club.

A big thanks to all the volunteers who made it a very enjoyable championship and the weather for playing its part too!

All Pictures by Bob Carter
All Pictures by Bob Carter

Henry Clark leads Overall Winner Mike Cemm
Henry Clark leads Overall Winner Mike Cemm

Results:


Full Series Results available here



Two Up Fleet
CompetitorsEvent Placings
NameSailClubFormatHandicap PlaceFleet Place
Adrian Whaley and Son1632Swanage Sailing ClubTwo Up21
Steve Petts and Alexander Petts1934Grafham Water Sailing ClubTwo Up115
Alex Varnava and Nick Allen1800Queen Mary Sailing ClubTwo Up146
Una Fleet
CompetitorsEvent Placings
NameSailClubFormatHandicap PlaceFleet Place
Kevin Dutch1938Seasalter Sailing ClubUna Rig42
Richard Harrison2001Netley Sailing ClubUna Rig63
Eamonn Quigley1715Grafham Water Sailing ClubUna Rig74
Keith Chidwick1840Queen Mary Sailing ClubUna Rig157
Sport Fleet
CompetitorsEvent Placings
NameSailClubFormatHandicap PlaceFleet Place
Mike Cemm1717Swanage Sailing ClubSport11
Henry Clark1866Swanage Sailing ClubSport32
Steve Littlejohns1887Swanage Sailing ClubSport53
Peter Lytton1221Papercourt Sailing ClubSport84
Richard Miller1847Swanage Sailing ClubSport95
Andrew Langley1616Swanage Sailing ClubSport106
Nigel Adcock1723Swanage Sailing ClubSport127
Clive Stracey1781Swanage Sailing ClubSport138