I wanted thank all involved in a great Sportsboat Class Championship. Gareth and my recollections follow:

It was a brilliant Class Championships over the two weekends with good weather and steady winds of 9 to 12 knots increasing to 15 late on the first Sunday. The chop and the swell, as well as avoiding ships as we crossed the shipping channel, provided added challenges.

Unfortunately only 9 boats made the start line in the form of Wild at Heart, Monsoon, Fly By Wire, Exocet, Sidewinder, Merlin, Freefire 69, Good Vibrations, and Black Magic. Gaetan sailed single handed around from Shelter Cove on the morning of the first race to pick up his crew off the start boat 10 minutes before the start and gave a brilliant display of single handed spinnaker dousing in a blow.

The schedule of racing was two Sundays of a grueling 4 races each day and the Saturday race was 2 races. All courses were windward / leeward either 2 or 3 rounds with a couple of finishes on the Saturday on a shortened windward leg. The first Sunday proved challenging as it followed the SBR party at Sam's the night before and it sure took its toll on the fleet. Some crew (name protected) were heard to be throwing up during the races. Steve claimed everything was such a blur that it was unfair for anybody to ask him to think about avoiding them in a port and starboard situation. Peter tried every sort of crew/skipper combination to get the best weight-on-the-wire combination from his 3 "man" crew on the first Sunday.

The noticeable thing about the series was the speed that Frank achieved from his Magic. He and Steve dominated the Magic series separated only once when Sidewinder posted a second place in Race 5. Wild at Heart showed good results and boat speed particularly dead downwind when she wasn't getting her spinnaker into artistic shapes. The quick starts after each race were great but occasionally a little startling with some of the fleet sailing a bit too far away after their finish so that they missed the next start! Monsoon came good in the last two races with a second and third on handicap and on each occasion beating a Magic across the line.

The mid fleet boys had some very close racing with some exemplary, if not rather dubious, mark rounding from the Sidewinder team. Black Magic, Vibrator and Sidewinder continually changed positions in virtually every race with the now expected overlapped finishes between them.

Results were as follows:

Overall:
1st: Fly By Wire
2nd Wild at Heart
3rd: Merlin
4th: Exocet
5th: Monsoon
6th: Sidewinder
7th: Black Magic
8th: Good Vibrations
9th: Freefire 69

Magics:
1st: Fly By Wire
2nd: Merlin
3rd: Sidewinder
4th: Black Magic
5th: Good Vibrations
6th: Freefire 69

This last weekend was the HHYC 24 hour Charity Dinghy race. The race started in good breeze and SBR team - Team Gromit, in their Laser Bahia was off to a great start leading for the first couple of laps. The breeze was light which favoured the lighter kids teams in the Laser Stratos who were able to get through after a couple of laps. The breeze slowly died through out the evening and it was a painful couple of hours (even if the mood was lifted when our team put on a capsize demonstration in front of all of the crowds assembled on the dock! Not once but twice we saw the bottom of the boat within the space of 50m in 0 knots of breeze!). By mid night the wind had started to play game again and the lap times were falling fast. The lighter conditions in the last couple of hours did not pay the team any favours and we had dropped to 4th place when the wind picked up. However, some wind in the sails and lard on the rail let us put up a fight and soon we were back in to 3rd position overall and still lapping the other Laser Bahias in our class to open the lead! The wind stayed through the night and Sunday morning brought gusty and shifty conditions to the HHYC bay. The team was fighting hard and racking up the laps, however so were the HHYC and KGV teams who in the end took the 2 top spots over all, both breaking the 100 lap barrier, something that has never been done before! Team Gromit fell just short of the 100 laps, but managed a very credible 97, a couple of rounds ahead of some other very well crewed teams!

The main part of the event was not really the sailing or the partying, it is really raising the money for the charities. This year the beneficiaries are the Children’s Cancer Foundation receiving 70%, Enlighten  for Epilepsy 20% and the Sunnyside Club 10%. It is still possible to donate money now. Last night in the prize giving the spokes person for the Children's Cancer Foundation said that the money raised by the 24 hour race alone, in the last 6 years had helped treat 25 children, who are now able to walk again and with out the money may not even be here today, so these are definitely worth while causes. More information about the race and raising money can be found here (HHYC 24 Hr Race) if you would like to donate this can be done straight from your YC account number. You can also send Cheques to HHYC. They need to be made payable to "The Hebe Haven Yacht Club" on the back please include your name, the team name  (Team Gromit), your contact number, and "24 Hour Charity Dinghy Race 2009".

Thank you for your support and thank you to all who sailed and helped out with the team.

Nigel Snell has pics available here: HHYC 24 Hour Charity Dinghy Race 2009 - Day 1