Twenty Five Hurricane 5.9 SX catamarans visited Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club for the National Championships of 2024. Along with the usual travelling crowd, 7 of those boats were attending their first national championships! Storm Lilian brought strong winds recording over 52 knots to the first days racing with the wind only abating enough to take boats off the trailers late in the afternoon, with sailors rigging through the evening taking a quick break for beer and a BBQ! Whilst the wind blew, most of fleet had downed tents and taken a walk down the beach to the town to sample the local seafood in the lobster capital of Europe!
The event supported by AB Graphic International and the classes usual sponsors Sailing Chandlery, AW Sailboats and M2 Graphics eventually got underway on Saturday. Four races were scheduled with strong offshore SW breezes and a small swell from the south bringing some fruity conditions to begin with. The first race got underway with the top 7 boats enjoying some close racing, but it was the Stone SC boats that pulled through to the front with Jack Tindale & Hugo Bull taking the win followed by Trevor Bawden & Tom Wass in second and Richie Hanmore & Matt Kimber in third. Race 2 got underway in similar conditions with Jack & Hugo leading the way enjoying the gusty, shifty conditions but this time it was Stokes Bay SCs Adam Charlesworth & Rich Robinson coming through to second after a great start and European Champions Alex Farrall & Alex Warrington from Thorpe Bay YC in third.
Race three started to see the breeze fade with the gusts still coming through strong making some snakes and ladders racing. Alex & Alex took the win from Jack & Hugo with Stones Dan Tindale & Lee Saunders in third. The last race of the day saw the wind easing off further and some tired bodies. Jack & Hugo took their third win of the day from Dan & Lee and Richie & Matt rounding out a Stone SC top three.
Sunday saw the strong winds return, with the morning showing 25-30 knots and chop. Hoping the wind would abate, the race team postponed racing until later in the afternoon with the fleet happy to have a little rest and again heading into town for some bowling and lunch. Revisiting the conditions and forecast at 2pm and the wind not backing down, racing was abandoned with more heading into town for beer and more bowling!
The final morning brought a good force 4 and with an early start and 4 races scheduled the fleet were too keen to get moving with race 5 being called back for a general recall. With the fleet reining their enthusiasm back in and a clean start, again the gusty conditions provided more snakes and ladders racing. Alex & Alex took the win from Trevor & Tom and Jack & Hugo. Race 6 got underway and with a turning tide saw Jack & Hugo take a big lead up the first beat and not look back. Dan & Lee followed in second and Richie & Matt in third.
The wind had begun to ease for the last 2 races with Alex & Alex taking race 7 from fellow Thorpe Bay YC sailors Paul & Robert Palmer and Trevor & Tom in third. The last race got underway with some tired bodies. Jack & Hugo took their 5th win of the regatta from Thorpe Bay YCs George & Howard Warrington and Simon & Sophie Boygle.
Jack & Hugo sailed a superb regatta showing consistency in very shifty and gusty conditions taking their 4th national championship win. Stone SC won the team trophy with 4 boats in the top 5 all showing impressive speed.
Other notable performances came from Starcross YC’s Rupert & Caleb Greeves winning the battle of the maiden national championship contenders. Chris White & Mike Wright sailing their boat for the very first time out to race 1, having moved over from the local Dart fleet, showed some impressive speed towards the end of the regatta and won themselves a brand new jib in the raffle! With 4 under 19s in the fleet, 14 year old Rowan Greeves who only started helming a Hurricane at the beginning of this summer won the Reg White trophy.
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