420 Inland Championships at Burton Sailing Club

420 Inland Championships at Burton © Mike Shaw / www.fotoboat.com

420 Inland Championships at Burton © Mike Shaw / www.fotoboat.com

The weekend of 29th and 30th Sept saw the UK 420 fleet gather at Burton Sailing Club for their Inland Championships. With the annual post Nationals migration of established sailors off to University and the like, there was a new look to the fleet, with many new faces and new partnerships.

Competitors were greeted on Saturday by sunny skies, a very friendly club and about 15 knots of breeze, but with big gusts and lulls. 420s move pretty fast in those conditions, so that meant four laps of a fairly short course, which led to lots of mark rounding practice and boat on boat action! Race 1 got away under the watchful eye of PRO Stog, but turned into a practice race when the leeward mark decided to make a break for the shore. The restart saw James Taylor and Tom Lovesey take an early lead that they never relinquished, being followed home by Callum Airlie and Joe Butterworth, Toby Morsley and James Dodd and Craig Dibb and Matt Wallis.

For race 2 the course was changed to a windward-leeward. Tim Riley and Luke Burywood took an early lead but, in a foretaste of the rest of the weekend, Callum and Joe clearly relished the conditions and forged through, winning from Craig and Matt, with Tim and Luke in 3rd. Callum and Joe repeated their success in Race 3, this time followed by the ladies team of Annabel Cattermole and Bryony Bennett-Lloyd, with Toby and James in 3rd.

Saturday finished with Race 4, with a win for Scott Wallis and Josh Voller, Ben Hazeldine and Rhos Hawes in second, and Callum and Joe in third. After racing, class coach for the weekend Jonny McGovern gave all the sailors a great debrief on the days events.

Sunday arrived grey and wet, with possibly slightly more wind and some big gusts. Race 5 saw normal service resumed for Callum and Joe, taking the win from James and Tom with Scott and Josh in 3rd. The final race saw Craig and Matt take the bullet from Callum and Joe, whilst Ben and Rhos were third.

Overall, Annabel and Bryony were top ladies, in 7th place overall. Fifth overall were Scott and Josh, Ben and Rhos were fourth. Third and second places were only separated by the result of the last race, as the boats had identical scores and place profiles. James and Tom were third, and Craig and Matt took second. Comfortably ahead in the end, and having sailed a great regatta, the 2012 420 Inland champions are Callum Airlie and Joe Butterworth.

Further down the leaderboard there were some great performances, especially from some of the class newcomers.

Many thanks to Burton Sailing Club for the use of their facilities, and for the great welcome, to our sponsors (LDC Sailing and CurraDinghy) for the prizes, and to all of the helpers on and off the water.

The next major event for the 420 fleet will be the End of Season Championships on Nov 24th and 25th at Graham, but before that the class have a busy program of autumn training, both national and regional. For details of what is going on visit the class website at www.420sailing.org.uk or our Facebook page British International 420 Class.

Overall Results: