Endeavour Trophy

Nick Craig and Keith Bedborough crowned 'Champion of Champions'

A chilly, blustery North Easterly breeze cut down the Crouch this weekend to provide challenging conditions for most of the competitors at this years Endeavour Trophy. The competition, known as the ‘Champion of Champions’, is meant to be big challenge too – all the competitors are national champions in their own class, the boats are the grunty hiking RS400 and eight races are scheduled over the two days.

Five races were completed by 3.30pm on Saturday, with Nick Craig and Keith Bedborough taking an overnight lead with a clean sheet of first places. This was to turn into a victory on Sunday morning as sustained winds over 30 knots forced a cancellation of the planned three further races.

It was a happy decision amongst the competitors, most of whom had borrowed RS 400s to compete in and wanted to give them back to their rightful owners in one piece.

The action on Saturday was conducted about a mile down river from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham and was fast and furious. PRO Kim Allen and his assistants were widely praised by the competitors for a faultless day.

The day really belonged to those sailors who were comfortable in the RS 400 in those conditions, with some of the younger and lighter crews finding things quite difficult going. Rob Partridge, who had won the 240 strong Topper nationals to be here, showed what a tough little competitor he is by never giving in to the testing demands and the beastly 400 and staying out for the duration.

There were plenty of pit stops for various boats throughout the day. Keith Atkins, sailing with his daughter Zoe, representing the Laser 2000 fleet unfortunately had to come off the water from the first race due to an injured ankle.

Hardcore effort of the day went to Richard Whitworth and Matt Mee from the Merlin Rocket class. Due to a breakage they left the course and headed back to the club, got themselves fixed up, then beat all the way back to the race course – almost on a timed run – straight into the start of race four.

The small fleet quickly settled into a routine – with three boats that were consistently faster and better sailed than the rest of the pack in the conditions. The course was a bit of a one way track with a reasonably strong ebb tide making the centre of the course the best place. With the wind over the tide the Crouch was full of tricky steep, short waves which made the test all that more testing. The centre of the river was also the place to be for the best of the gusty 20 knot breeze, however there were shifts to be had, which Nick Craig used to his advantage on the final beat of the second race, overhauling Lee Sydenham in the final 20 metres to the finish line.

Knowing your RS 400 seemed to be the order of the day. Coffin Corner on the run was littered with teams still trying to work it all out, those crews with plenty of miles in the 400 under their belt making it look effortless. Those crews comfortable with high speed asymmetric gybes included Musto Skiff reps Kevin Anderson and Martin Boatman – more used to trapezing upwind on the plane, the pain came hiking the 400 around the track.

Race four saw a slight levelling of the sea, as the tide neared the end of its ebb and the breeze relented slightly. The pin end was still being fought over as the best place to get you out into the middle of the course and a well timed port tack start by Dan Vincent (Solo) and Roger Gilbert saw them launch into a big lead. This was not to last however as problems with their main halyard saw them throw in their almost certain race win to beach themselves, pull the boat over and try to fix the problem. Again the competitiveness was there, as they rushed back into the race to complete the course.



So it was a bunch of pretty knackered sailors who coasted back down to the club at the end of racing. Waiting for them was the bar and pasta bake.

The evening dinner at the club was somewhat subdued as sailors licked real wounds and stretched aching legs.

The decision to bin the racing on Sunday was swift and correct and the prize giving was held at 11am. The Endeavour Trophy was handed over to, a now smiling, Nick Craig and his crew Keith Bedborough. A case of finally a job-done-tick in the Endeavour box. Lee Sydenham (RS 200) and Geoff Carveth came in as runners-up.

There was plenty of discussion at the event about why entries have been slowly declining, the choice of boat raced in and the format of the racing and the social. This is an interesting debate and The Daily Sail (or maybe The Daily Star?) will be looking at the arguments in detail this week.