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There were eighty-four Radial sailors at this year's Teva sponsored National
Championship held at Paignton Sailing Club under the watchful eye of race
officer Ken Falcon. Falcon did well to sail six of the proposed ten race
series in what was an extremely light and frustrating week. The practice race was won by Ben Marshall and it was interesting to note that every race had a different winner, a testimony to the difficult conditions.Race one saw the best breeze of the Championships with a solid ten knots. Jon Emmett and Neil Marsden port tacked the fleet but halfway up the breeze went hard right putting Guy Tipton into the lead. Emmett and Marsden tried to get across, only for the wind to go back hard left putting Michael Sims into the lead. At the top mark things became even shiftier and these three rounded the mark simultaneously. By the end of the first reach Emmett pulled clear to take the race and day one, with Steve Cockerill fresh back from the Radial Worlds storming through to take second place on the last beat.
Monday set the standard for the week with good sunshine but no breeze.
Competitors enjoyed a game of football on the beach, many demonstrating why
they sail instead of doing other sports. The fleet did eventually take to
the water but only to be called back in when the breeze died. After more
sitting around the fleet went out again and had some starting practice but
no race could get underway. Tuesday looked more promising and some racing got underway. Emmett crossed the fleet on port but had to tack back when the wind went hard right. The wind stayed right and Timothy Boydell was the furthest right and took the race. With the breeze staying hard right place, changing was difficult but once again Cockerill was on a charge, pulling through the fleet to grab third place. Race three was sailed in slightly steadier winds even though it remained extremely light. Neil Marsden who is new to the Radial class dominated the race. After a 24th in the first race he scored a fourth in race two, only to win race three. With only two races sailed he won the day and with one discard applied moved into the joint lead with Cockerill, with Emmett two points behind.
Paul Smalley ruled Wednesday with a healthy lead from the start of race
four. It wasn't until rounding the windward mark the last time Emmett got
past. However Emmett ran out of breeze on the final run, giving the race to
Cockerill with Smalley handing on to third. Race five was once again led by Smalley. However he couldn't stop a speedy Ben Paton from taken the race win. Paton who was extremely fast all week was caught infringing rule 42 by the jury to the point where one more offence would have had him removed from the regatta. Although Smalley won neither race, he was the day winner for Wednesday, with Cockerill and Emmett only just scraping top ten finishes. Several attempts at starting another race were ended after three black flag starts. Thursday Falcon moved the race course almost out of the bay in the search for breeze and in the end one race got away, but as the wind died to nothing it was finished at mark three. Emmett port tacked the fleet and with the wind well left most of the fleet could point at the windward mark. However the wind slowly died and went right, turning the race inside out and giving the race and the day to Simon Kearns. Friday saw the introduction of the second discard which meant just six points separated Cockerill, Emmett and Marsden. However by twelve o'clock it was obvious there was going to be no racing although the race committee stayed out till half one in the hope some breeze might appear. No racing meant Cockerill took the Nationals from Emmett. Without the extra discard Marsden dropped to fifth behind Conn and Mark Brewster.
First Junior was Topper superstar Giles Scott and first male youth was Conn,
the only youth to get a top five finish. The fight for top female youth was
won by Suzanne Hamilton, who finished ten places clear of Andrea Brewster.
The battle for first master between Cockerill and Marsden obviously went
Cockerill's way.
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