News.......Back to news home
Mon 5 Jan
So a Few of the things that happened in 2007...
Scroll down for prize winners!
First up...we welcomed 9 boats into the fleet with open arms and raised bottoms...I mean glasses... 812 "Resusitation" Alice Glover, 1194 "Rather Slippery" Jeremy & Caroline Marriage, 854 Andy Shaw, 1246 The Slopers, 1066 "...and All That" Clive & Alex Mann, 1124 Lilias Lamont and 1250 "Spoof" Mike & Emma Harris, 1109 Jason Merron and Jeremy & Sarah Sibthorp...and unofficially Patch Fillery who comes from Littletton SC and will be with us in '08 with new boat!
We had 42 boats in the club, the largest fleet in the club -with the exception of the Mirrors....but I'm not counting them....with some of the best and friendliest sailors... not counting the Swallow sailors on that one either... :-)
Some Stats:
Did you think there were more boats out this year...well, you'd be right!Including all club and harbour racing (not Fed Week) we had 640 starters throughout the season, up from 520 in '06. A 23% increase in activity. Yeeharrr!!!
Our biggest fleet days were the Wallace trophy at Easter with 14, the Bosham CHS with 13 Itchenor boats, 13 Itchenor boats out for the Open in May, 12 for the Wigmore, 16 for ISC Harbour Series, 13 on a random Sunday in September! and a fantastic 15 out on the Saturday Firecracker in November!
As you can see from the table below, the number of boats racing 20 or more races also increased, from 9 in '06 to 14 in '07. Lets keep that up for 2008.
'06 '07
1-9 races 13 11
10-19 races 12 13
20-29 races 7 10
30-39 races 1 3
40+ races 1 1The average number of boats per race for the year increased, from 6.2 to 7.1.
David Patient sits on top of the fleet with number of races sailed this year at 40, followed by "Ronnie" on 39 and then Piers and Sarah Shepherd on 34, which might explain why they lost out on the capsizing trophy this year....all the extra practice...! 1235, Philip Pascall & Sue Kalderon made it into the 30's, though that included lending the boat out, much applause... I did take those results out of their overall points score by the way!! And Prof and Kate made a very welcome return back into the class with 28 outings and a few wins too!
All the prize winners at this years dinner are listed below, the most noticeable fact, compared to Andy Fitz's domination last year, was out of the the 16 main prizes only one person won more than one award, a most excellent state of affairs.
Some of the achievements away from home:
Fantastic having our youngsters represent the club in magnificent style. George Yeoman, Georgie Akin-Smith, Andy Shaw & Rob Struckett won the Youth Team Racing champions in Fireflys at the end of the season. Maybe we should do a bit of that in the 200's.Andy and George just failed to defend their Youth Match Racing National Championship Title by the mother of all riding turns after looking good in the final.
Ed Fitz is currently putting in a stirling performance at the 29er worlds, on top after day 3.
At the 127 boat Nationals, George was first Itchenor boat in 33rd place, and 4th in the Silver fleet, Rob claimed the Bronze division trophy and one very special top 10 placing.
At the Inlands with 100 boats entered, Andy Shaw in his new boat claimed 13th spot... equal 10th on points, and just 3 points away from 6th. A hugely impressive first effort, especially as he was carrying round an extra 4 stone in the bow...albeit in the shape of Lee Sydenham, and it was pretty light winds!
Itchenor boats out and about were, at the Nationals: 1243 David Leach & Caroline Marriage, 1194 Clare Marriage & boyfriend Gordon -hope we can see them at the club sometime and 593 Patch Fillery and Sarah Skerton who were at several of the SEAS events too as were myself and Sara. Ian Senior & Anna Starkey had the joy that is Frensham Pond in the Spring. Martyn and Clare Jones did the insanely windy Shoreham regatta -check out their shot on the RS200 e.newsletter (on the RS website). Andy Fitz has and is doing the CYC Snowflake, and of course Harry and Prue Roome who did both Stokes Bay and the Inlands.
Harry and Prue were first of the 10 ISC boats competing at Fed Week followed by Martyn and Clare, Bully and Milley, David Patient & Katherine, Mark & Annabel, David Leach & Caroline Mariage, Rory and Caroline, Ian and Anna, Will Smythe and Ben Mitchell in 527 "Red Oktober" and Clive and Alex Mann, though unfortunatley for them, racing was canned on the days they had planned to race. :-(
A bit on Ronnie's mad season away from home: Rollercoaster and beyond our wildest expectations!! I think the last Itchenor boat to win an Open event was in 2000 during the Edwards/ Helen Williams (nee Toms) era, they won the Nationals too, but just to prove that anything can happen in sailing -if you feel lucky! In mid October Team Ronnie posted an overall win at the final Fat Face Open of the year at Datchet. It was the culmination of a pretty amazing year for us, from a right frisky Frensham open, a bruising howler at Bristol where we were lapped!... making a right mess of the mast at Shoreham...to what we thought was the highlight of the year at Weymouth when lying 3rd from 46 overnight...we'll settle with that...Then we were stoked at the Inlands when we were 3rd in race 2, and then at Datchet the world went bananas and I think we became the worlds luckiest ever 200 at an Open! I mean we were quick an' all, but talk about getting lucky shifts and puffs at the right time, other boats tacking & gybing away opening our way through the fleet, hard to believe at times! Then to cap it all Roger Gilbert and Jane Willan after 33 races in the Fat Face circuit (never counting lower than a 5th) banged in a poor result after running away with race 1-although in fairness if they had had a 5th we would have still won! :-)... and the weekend's event completed in perfect fashion (for us) with not a breath of wind on Sunday and racing abandoned!! I mean to win an open, that wasn't even close on the radar of goals for the season. All very surreal and an exciting experience, and I don't think we stopped smiling for a month...I think it's going to be hard to get motivated again!
We were also delighted to finish 12th overall in the Fat Face circuit and 2nd Silver boat....Not bad starting the season in the Bronze fleet!!!
As I've mentioned before, anyone keen to improve their racing, attending these circuit events is really a fast track in learning. If you can find the time, your efforts will be rewarded for sure....
And at Home:
So here, finally, Big Fanfare...is the glorious list of 2007 Prize Winners. All awarded cups, glasses, medals and all manor of things at our annual dinner back in Septemeber: Congratulations to one and all...!Autumn Trophy ’06 582 Ian Senior & Anna Starkey
Ladies Centreboard Saturday series 1179 Steve Davies with Juliette & Olivier
Jubilee Cup Sunday series 485 Piers and Sarah Shepherd
Wallace Trophy Easter 816 Martyn & Clare Jones
Tail End Trophy May Day Bank Hol 681 Mark & Annabelle Timberlake
Spring Bank Hol 486 Richard Neall & Sara Terry
The Burgee ISC Open 772 Tom & Jo Hewitson, Rickmansworth SC
Wigmore Tropghy Club Champs 1158 David Patient & Lucy Davies
Darling Trophy ISC Regatta 1175 Chris & Jilly Darling
August Bank Hol 596 Chris Fox & Kate Owers
Gieve Cup Most Races sailed 1158 David Patient -29 (40 in total for 07)
Autumn Trophy ’07 results not in
Firecracker 1077 Pete Vincent & Jo Holden Bristol Corinthian YC
CHS results not in
1st ISC boat at Nationals 1106 George Yeoman & Georgie Akin Smith(To have sailed 10 races or more:)
Gold Fleet 816 Martyn & Clare Jones
Silver Fleet 1235 Philip Pascall & Sue Kalderon
Bronze Fleet 585 Susie Upton-Brown & Sarah Macfarlane
Most Improved 223 Phil Ford with Jamie & Lucy
Best Newcomer 1250 Mike & Emma Harris
Best Capsizing 926 Rory & Scotty Clarke
Most 2nd Places 1243 David Leach & Peter Hansell
Rear Gunners 360 Andrew & Caroline Marsh
Having Too Much Fun 527 Richard Smyth, John Haire & families
Jammiest! 1250 Mike & Emma HarrisWith Special thanks to:
Socials Cesca Leaver and Louise Fisher
Results Ian Senior
Support! Sara TerryWhat a cracking year it was! Here's hoping for sun and F4 every day in 2008!
Richard Neall