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405 Inland National Championship 2007
Held at the
Nottingham County Sailing Club on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June
It was
Saturday 23rd of June, and the day of the Inlands dawned bright and early.
Everyone had been looking forward to this event for weeks. But even the
prospect of heavy rain didn't put anyone off. As usual my dad and I were
running late and with this got a phone call from Hannah and Beccy telling me
off! But we made it with plenty of time! When we got there, we rigged our
boats all ready for a day of racing! I personally was astonished at the fact
that we had wind for once this year, for a 405 event! After the usual
briefing, we all got changed and off onto the water we went ready for a day of
racing.
The
first day we had 4 races all of which were very close races. Race 1 James and
I got off to a cracking start getting a first for Banbury with Hannah and
Beccy right behind us. The rest of the races were yet again close with Banbury
going strong and achieving 3 of the 4 1st's available (due to me and James not
having time to get down to the port end of the line due to a lack of wind!).
At the end of day one James and I were in 1st with Hannah and Beccy in 3rd ,
who had also had a good day thanks to there being some good wind!
 Saturday
evening loomed and with this up went the tents! In which I had to totally move
my tent over so that Beccy could fit hers, her entrance was literally a metre
from me it was so cramped! After the fun of putting tents up, we were told to
do the barbecue! How could we refuse! After almost setting fire to one of our
fellow 405ers after placing a sausage over the little hole, I felt that I
should retreat upstairs! The evening dragged on mostly talking about sailing
and other random things, which was fuelled on the many bottles of wine, which
the adults kept glugging down! We all said night about 12.30 and trekked off
to our tents. (I must also mention our new fireball friend Mike who managed to
stand most of the evening with us, who we all made rather good friends with!).
Day two was an early start with the first race at 9.30 due to club racing
later on. As soon as we were washed and ready, off to the boats we went trying
to get the same tension as the day before, which some how seemed impossible!
At 9.15, PDO Ken Twemelow walked over and said. "The first gun shall be in 15
minutes". I have never seen a sight like it everyone ran to the changing
rooms! After everyone was out on the water two short races were raced. One of
which James and I won.
 After
the lunch break, we were back out for the last race, which was of course to be
eventful! Everyone had an amazing start with James and I leading most of the
race, until the last downwind run when a knot in our spinnaker down-haul
allowed everyone to catch up! (Rather worrying moment really!). After a scary
few seconds fiddling around it, it was freed and we sailed off to our 5th 1st;
7 in the series.
In my opinion, this was a fantastic weekend! Unfortunately, fellow Banbury
sailors Hannah and Beccy got pipped the post by two points for third place.
But still had a great weekend, especially the cooking of the food on Saturday.
All in all Banbury sailors had a brilliant weekend!
Results
1st.
James Briggs & John Whelton - Banbury
2nd. Adam Larvin & Natalie Hood - Beaver + Hornsea
3rd. Sarah & Helen Burgess - Pugneys
4th Hannah Briggs & Rebecca Kelsall - Banbury
5th. Jackson Green & Matt Simon - Staunton Harold
6th. Patrick Ford & Ella Hubbard - Notts County
7th. Jack Clay & Aimee Goghill - Notts County
Report by: John Whelton
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Banbury Sailing Club