Richardson and Johnson claim PoW

In a boat only launched that morning Alistair Richardson and Dan Johnson won the International 14 PoW Cup

The traditional big course was set in a moderate to light south easterly breeze in Weymouth Bay, giving six laps of shifty conditions. Alister Richardson and Dan Johnson snuck onto the POW course by the skin of their teeth, with a 45min postponement giving them just enough time to do the finishing touches to their new boat.  After a clean start, most of the fleet headed left, with the Partington team hitting hard right, looking very rosy before, to his horror, the wind shifted left bringing Mike Lennon and Andy Rice and Alister and Dan into the lead, with the pack close on their heels.

With such a close pack the first few leeward marks gave good spectating with some boats paying a high price for some punchy calls in small gaps.  Through the early laps, the lead remained with Alister and Dan, looking spectacular in the new yellow Richard Woof boat. Andy and Tom Partington, Mike Lennon and Andy Rice and Ian Pinnell and Ian Mitchell were pushing hard, occasionally reeling Alister and Dan in to challenge for the lead.  Also chasing and breaking into the top three was Katie Nurton and Nigel Ash before they were rolled into fourth, then fifth position overall.  Holding onto sixth position to the end were James Fawcett and George Nurton.

Making up the top ten were the "youth loan" sailors, finishing seventh, eighth and tenth in their first National Championships.  These boats were won at a selection event held in April, giving the sailors a season of competitive 14 sailing in boats, typically available for ~£6k.  The sailors were Ian Martin and Ian Sharps in seventh, Tristan Jacques and Tom Dawson in eighth and Tom Heywood and Ed Clay in tenth.

The Classic fleet enjoyed a three lap course with four boats competing.  The on-form team of James and Helen Middleton Stewart taking the POW Classic title in their 1978 Ray Rouse design.  This has been restored to a single trapeze, symmetric spinnaker boat after it was instrumental in trialling twin trapezes and mast head kites as the class prepared its bid for more power in 1982.  The boat remains a "gadget boat" with adjustable everything, including spinnaker sock outhaul!!

Many thanks to Oceanair for sponsoring tonights Beer.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Club	R1
1st	Alister Richardson	Dan Johnson	Christchurch	1
2nd	Andy Partington	Tom Partington	Hayling Island SC	2
3rd	Mike Lennon	Andy Rice	Hayling Island SC	3
4th	Ian Pinnell	Ian Mitchell	HISC	4
5th	Katie Nurton	Nigel Ash	Itchenor Sailing Club	5
6th	James Fawcett	George Nurton	Hayling Island SC	6
7th	Ian martin	Ian Sharps	Burghfield	7
8th	Tristan Jaques	Tom Dawson	HISC	8
9th	Martin Jones	Neale Jones	HISC	9
10th	Tom Heywood	Edward Clay	Cambridge University Cruising Club	10
11th	Jarrod Simpson	Grant Rollerson	RYA	11
12th	Howard Steavenson	Peter Nicholson	Tynemouth SC	12
13th	Martin Pascal	Robin Pascal	I.S.C	13
14th	Matthew Critchley	Dion Houghton	Itchenor Sailing Club	14
15th	Damon Roberts	Alan Roberts	HISC	15
16th	Matt Larkin	Michael Barnes	HISC	16
17th	Julian Pearson	Nick Martin	Weston S.C	17
18th	Andrew Penman	Tim Bastow	Itchenor Sailing Club	18
19th	Colin Smith	Peter Helm	Itchenor Sailing Club	19
20th	Dicken Maclean	Sam Littlejohn	Island Barn	20
21st	Kimball Morrison	Sam Spencer	Itchenor Sailing Club	21
22nd	Charles Duchesne	Will Broom	Itchenor Sailing Club	22
23rd	Andy Fitzgerald	Harvey Hillary	Itchenor SC	23
24th	Philip McDanell	Andy Shaw	Itchenor Sailing Club	24
25th	Venetia Wingfield	Doug Walker	Itchenor Sailing Club	25
26th	Rollo Pyper	Tbc'd	Itchenor Sailing Club	26
27th	Peter Conway	Ginny Harvey	Lymington Town	27
28th	Sean Stevens	Duncan Haynes		28
29th	James Allan	Oliver Slope	ISC	29
30th	Peter Lloyd	Richard Parslow	WPNSA	DNC
30th	Daniel Harte	Jeffrey Jones	Gulf Port	DNC
30th	Douglas Pattison	Damian Ash	Itchenor Sailing Club	DNC
30th	David Turner	Claudia Papadimitriou	Draycote Water SC	DNC
30th	Brian Willmott	Andy Hunter	Beeston Sailing Club	DNC
30th	James Vaughan	Alistair Wilson	Rickmandworth SC	DNC
30th	James Middleton-Stewart	Helen Middleton-Stewart	Weymouth SC	DNC