6m Northern District Championship 21st August 2022
Nine of the skippers and their boats. One was still being rigged. Peter Chester
Fleetwood woke up to a bright start on the 21st of August with a moderate, steady breeze of around 12mph. It was a promising start made better by its westerly direction almost directly down the lake, kicking up a modest chop.
Heat one, just after the start signal. Peter Chester
An excellent entry was assembled to enjoy the conditions with ten skippers taking part, the largest turnout yet for a 6m open at Fleetwood. Eight home boats were joined by two visitors from Two Islands, old hand at Fleetwood 6m events, Mike Ewart, along with Mike Kemp who was sailing a 6m for the first time at this venue. A selection of 6m designs were on show with four Ravennas ( 12,16,61,67 ), two Renaissances ( 65,79 ), two Rococos (82,85 ), one Romanza (14 ), and one Seabird ( 101 ). There was a delay to racing following an unfortunate off-water prang that damaged one of the boats but was repaired, and the late arrival of one of the skippers ( snow on the Pennines) but eventually all ten boats made it to the start line under the auspices of our starter/scorer Trevor Bell.
Heat one, first beat. Peter Chester
The course was a simple triangle-sausage with port roundings, with the start/finish line down at the clubhouse end and the windward mark three quarters of the way up the lake out in the middle, the wing mark near the bank and the starboard start line mark doubling up as the downwind buoy. Back up to the top for the second upwind leg followed by a downwind finish. After a few races the course was changed to two triangles to ease the upwind versus downwind boat interaction. The long upwind/downwind legs meant that there was ample opportunity to make places with the modest shifts and correct tactics. Good settings to maximize boat speed were also necessary.
Sea Bird edges up the bank. Peter Chester
Eight heats were sailed before lunch. Shaun Holbeche immediately got into the groove with a combination of good starts, good boat speed and playing the shifts while still positioning versus the rest of the fleet which meant that he only gathered one extra point in the morning session.
Mike Ewart warmed to the conditions and found a good set up with improved relative boat speed, allied to good starts and working the shifts. This gave him a solid set of results in the morning, never falling outside the top three.
Derek Priestley was making good starts as would be expected but didn’t seem to be able to make it stick somehow, while Damian Ackroyd was thereabouts, sniffing around without breaking through. John Sharman was having a bit of an off day, with too many unforced errors as he acknowledged, hence a rather up-down set of results. By way of contrast Mike Kemp sailed consistently throughout the day. There was competition to be had all the way through the fleet throughout the day and the fleet was finishing reasonable compact for the most part.
Mike Ewart
After lunch the wind had clocked round to a WSW veering occasionally towards SW and it eased off to about 8mph or so but other trends established in the morning tended to continue. Shaun picked up where he left off and Mike Ewart maintained his good form. Derek and Garry retired while Damian soldiered on and John put a better string together. Garry Benson was sailing his 6m, just acquired on the Friday, having never sailed a six in anger before. Derek kindly helped him rig it and an initial set up was made, so it was something of a learning curve for him which was ultimately curtailed by a winch problem in the afternoon session. Peter, Steve and Eric were inconsistent to some degree but competing within the fleet all day, with Peter taking a couple of third places for good measure late on.
6m ND Championship trophy
After fourteen heats a halt was called and Trevor totted up the scores. Shaun retained the trophy for another year, Mike Ewart achieved a convincing second place while Damian took third spot.
And so the day was concluded. Thanks must go to Trevor Bell for his services, Ian Hawtin for helping out after lunch and Peter Isles for buoy laying/retrieval. Further thanks to Peter Chester for most of the pictures.