Ellie Meopham and Thomas Williams spearheaded the record Welsh entry at the record breaking British Topper Nationals!! With over 40 Welsh sailors in the fleet and home waters Pwllheli certainly brought a “Welsh” feel the Championships.
The opening ceremony for the 2010 Magic Marine Topper National Championships that was held in the Welsh resort of Pwllheli took place on 30th July. This is the UK National Championships of the Topper class and the competitors proudly paraded through the streets of Pwllheli back to the club, the flags of all the nations and areas taking part were represented. In the events marquee, the Welsh National anthem was followed by a note of thanks from the Deputy Mayor of Pwllheli – Croeso gynnes iawn i Gymru – a warm welcome to Wales and a promise that the fleet would enjoy sailing in the waters of Cardigan Bay with the backdrop of Snowdonia.
Charles Glover, Chairman of ITCA GBR took to the stage and noted that once again the Topper Class had broken a record by having a total of 369 entrants for these championships, up from 346 last year. Charles highlighted that the successful delivery of an event of this scale can only be achieved with the support and assistance of a very great many volunteers – anyone can get in on the action by helping out.
And so the last day of racing arrived, by this time the sailors were getting tired yet all seemed keen to get on the water, the weather had dealt another twist in form of wind, 20 knots gusting to 30 knots, waves which were quite active now that the wind was onshore at last but more importantly bad visibility. It was the latter that was responsible for the 1hr postponement during which Dave Cockerill & Dave Hivey held an impromptu coaching session in the marquee – all those that attended were even more keen to try out the famous Pwllheli waves. There was a chink in the visibility & the fleet was sent to the beach where the mist came back down which led to another wait. Eventually the front went over, the skies cleared & the wind dropped so the fleet went out on the water for what was to become the 2 final races of the event. The sailors relished the conditions and the wind built again for the 2nd race which gave the most exhilarating conditions of the series – the Silver fleet were even treated to guidance up the beat by a school of Dolphins!
The overall points winner of the Magic Marine UK Topper National Championship series, first in Gold Fleet and winner of the Ian Proctor Trophy was Finn Lynch from Blessington Sailing Club, Eire with a magnificent 6 firsts, 3 seconds and 2 thirds. The UK National Champion, winner of the McVeigh Trophy and second in Gold Fleet was Ed Jones from Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club with 2 firsts, 2 seconds, 4 thirds, 1 fourth and 2 fifths, George Meredith came in 3rd. Consistency is key to success in this event, neither of the top 2 sailors had a Black Flag or OCS & both were counting all races in the top 5 – very impressive sailing in this extremely competitive fleet. Winner of the Silver fleet is Jasmine Hansen from Ed Gillespie 2nd and Alice Woodings 3rd. The Bronze fleet was won by 12 yr old Lawrence Clabburn from Laura Carveth Marshall 2nd & Thomas Needham.
From Wales Thomas Williams early leader of the event maintained his composure towards the end of the week to come back after some tough races mid week and finish 5th overall. For Ellie after a mid week black flag an excellent last day with a 1st and 2nd propelled Ellie up to 11th overall, 2nd girl and 1st Youth girl.
Paul Simes, Welsh National coach at the event said it’s been a tough week, and all the sailors in gold had to fight for every inch in some tricky and shifty sailing conditions. It’s also been really positive to see so many Welsh here, many at their first UK National event, and I hope have learned and enjoyed the whole experience to go forward for the future.
This was without doubt a very successful event, extremely professional race management, extremely close and competitive racing, a great social programme and a safety fleet that was ready and able to cope with all the weathers that were sent, it has to be said that a wide range of winds was sent to Pwllheli this week making the racing level for the wide variety of helm sizes. Magic Marine provided a huge number of prizes for the successful helms to take away with their memories of the event. Over 2200 individual visitors kept tabs on the event microsite where a moment by moment blog was being updated, nearly 7500 visits indicates that they returned for updates quite regularly, the blog has become an important part of the experience, parents, grand-parents, aunts & uncles can check what is going on remotely.
The fleet will be back in Pwllheli for the 2012 National Championships, it’s off to East Lothian YC in North Berwick for 2011.
Full results on the event website.