Monday, July 11. 2011North Down Borough Council Irish Topper Nationals 2011
Ballyholme Yacht Club
8-10 July 2011
3 days – 9 races scheduled with 2 discards – only 8 races sailed.
Day 3 Sunday 10th July 2011 – 3 races and Final ResultsTim Brow from Ballyholme YC won the North Down Borough Council Irish Topper Nationals 2011 today at his home club, having already won the GB Inland Youth Nationals (Eric Twiname) earlier in the year. Following the first two days of very close racing between brothers Dan and Matt Venables from Sutton Sailing Club, Birmingham, Laura Gilmore from Strangford Lough YC and himself, Tim lead the event overall on countback - equal on points with younger brother Dan. The first race of the final day saw similar close racing with Tim taking a 30 second lead into the final run of the trapezoid course. However - in only 5 to 7 knots of breeze Dan slowly overtook Tim and Laura with slightly stronger wind on the right hand side of the course giving him his first win of the championship. Of note in this race, Freddie Chiddicks from Alton Water had his best race leading at the first windward mark and managed to hold onto 4th. The wind strength reduced even more for the last 2 races and Tim saw his challenge for the overall Open meeting prize disappear with a frustrating first beat in the second race. Andrew Penney from East Antrim Boat Club made it first to the windward mark with Dan Venables in close pursuit - Dan quickly overtook Andrew on the first reach and kept the lead thereafter for his second win. The first beat on the final race caught many of the top boats out with very light shifting winds. Dan Venables and Laura Gilmore found themselves closest to the front but with a number of boats ahead of them – they then had to rely on superior boat speed and being the first to work out how to deal with a huge shift at the bottom of the first run which had some boats having to tack around the leeward mark. The race was then shortened at the end of the second beat with Laura winning the final race from Dan. With a superb final day’s tally of two wins and a 2nd Dan Venables, from the RYA GB Topper Squad, won the overall Open Meeting. Tim Brow’s earlier form in the first 2 days kept him as 2nd overall with Laura Gilmore 3rd overall and 1st girl. Matt Venables was 4th overall and 1st under 17, while Laura’s brother Peter Gilmore was 1st under 12. The 4.2 fleet decided to stay further inshore on the final day with an emphasis on fun after the previous 2 long days. This encouraged a few of the standards to reef their sails and compete on an “equal” footing to join in the craic. Ellen McCarlie from County Antrim YC continued her form winning both the final races and the overall prize. Much thanks must be given to race officer Robin Gray in very testing conditions with very light and shifting winds, and to the event organizer Paddy Brow for a very well run event. Thanks were also given to David Cockerell for bringing the RYA GB Topper Squad over to Ballyholme for some great competition and training in the week before the event including competing in Ballyholme’s club racing on Tuesday night. Thanks also to North Down Borough Council who supported the event. Many of the Topper squads now travel to the British Nationals being hosted in NorthBerwick, Scotland in a couple of weeks. These are then followed by the World Championships back in Ireland hosted by the National YC, Dun Laoghaire. Tim and many of his fellow Topper sailors will be hoping for some stronger breeze. Overall ResultsOpen Meeting full rig: 1st Dan Venables Sutton SC
Irish National Championship 2011 1st Tim Brow Ballyholme YC
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