PARKSTONE YC WIN THE INAUGRAL CREWSAVER TOP CLUB COMPETITION
Grafham Water SC were the hosts for the inaugural Crewsaver Top Club, supported by the RYA, over the weekend of Sept 18/19. Top Club is the brainchild of Emma Harris and Pete Vincent who developed the idea over a couple bottles of wine one evening and formed it into a new national club competition. Hence, it was a slightly nervous dynamic duo who looked out over a blustery Grafham on the Saturday morning wondering if the format would work, whether the teams would enjoy the event, whether the sponsors would be happy, and whether anyone would lis ten to them again! Top Club is only open to RYA -affiliated clubs; every entrant must be a full, family or youth member of their club. Each club entered a three-boat team with one boat in each of the PY group; fast, medium, and slow. Six races took place in each PY group on three separate course areas with the type of course being changed every race. With one discard, an overall result was produced in each PY group and the overall results of the three boats from the same club were then added together, the club with the lowest team score being awarded the title "Crewsaver Top Club".

The Top Club masterminds need not have been nervous. They had asked Grafham Water SC to host Top Club as it is one of the very few clubs boasting the space, the race management teams and onshore logistics capable of running such an event. Their faith was fully justified as Grafham did an excellent job, laying consistently good courses, changing the type of course (windward/leeward, triangle, trapezoid) between each race with the minimum of fuss and using average lap times to finish slower boats early so gaps between races were kept short. On shore they laid on an excellent value meal for the Lewmar party and their results team coped admirably with the complex scoring system.

The weather gods had also been relatively kind. Saturday started very blustery with a good 22 knot breeze from the south west, regularly gusting 25-27 knots; this progressively moderated all day and shifted to the west so the last race finished in 8-10 knots. With the changes in courses, this also meant that each class of boat at some stage had conditions good for them.

Sunday was a perfect day for sailing - plenty of sun and a really good 15-18 knot breeze from the west. The clubs really took to the event with some very keen racing; clearly the format had inspired many. What also soon became obvious was that all three boats in a team had to be on form to do well; clubs could not depend on a star performer to pull them through.

The 31 clubs entered 39 different classes of boat - the lessons learnt from this year will take some digesting and will spark many a discussion within clubs as to the best combination of boats to enter next year. The opening race was a very hard test of boat handling, particularly on the fast track where there were some big wipe-outs and only half the boats finished. The RS600 of Grafham broke its mast but still made it out for Race 2. The Osprey from Penzance was not so fortunate; a bent mast at deck level and broken spinnaker pole meant it was out for the rest of the event. To their credit the other two members of the Penzance team continued and scored a very credible overall result. In the fast fleet, the Rutland 29er of Edd Chapman/Tom Reel showed early form by winning first race and then scoring 3.4. Ian Pinnell/John Mildred of Northampton in their Int. 14 won race 2 and 3 whilst Stokes Bay RS800 of James Date/Mike Warren were very consistent in 4.2.2.

The Fireball pack all scored good results. The medium fleet saw Parkstone's 420, Sam Pearson/ Georgie Blaver Mann, off on a preverbal flyer, winning the first race on the water but then fell away with a 4.16 as the wind fell. Ross Jackson/Peter Horn of Shoreham in a Merlin Rocket won the second race to score 4.1.3. Simon Childs of Grafham rounded off a strong performance from the impressive Phantoms with a 3.2.1 score. In the slow fleet the Snipe of Ian Knight/Dave Bennett from Shoreham was the surprise package for many, scoring 1.7.2. Matt Undrell from Haversham in a Topper recovered from a bad first race to win both the second and third race. Going into the Lewmar dinner and party after racing the team scores showed Notts County just in the lead with positions of 4.4.5 for their Fireball, Scorpion and Enterprise. Shoreham were just behind needing their ISO to improve their position on Sunday. Some lighthearted speed grinding competition on the Lewmar grinding rig after dinner produced a win for the Staunton Harold team, just ahead of Penzance.

Sunday dawned and all was to play for. In the fast fleet Ian Pinnell/John Mildred continued their impressive form to score 1.3.1 to win the fleet. Edd Chapman/Tom Reel in their 29er scored 2.1.2 to clinch second for Rutland. Kevin Hope/Russell Hayes in the Notts County Fireball had been very consistent with 5.6.4 to secure what looked an important 4th overall. In the Medium fleet Bruce Bonner/John Lester in a Laser Stratos won the first race for Rutland and scored an extremely useful 5th overall. The Notts County Scorpion of Nigel Potter/Simon Hibbert then scored two great race wins and secured third overall along with "a what if" they had not been OCS in Race 4.

Meanwhile the Parkstone 420 of Pearson and Blaver-Mann had scored 3.5.2, discarded their 16th and shot up to 2nd overall just behind the ultra-consistent Shoreham Merlin of Jackson/Horn. In the slow fleet the Shoreham Snipe of Knight/Bennett had ploughed on, beating the GP¹s and Ents on the water to score 2.1.3 and an impressive overall victory. Undrell in his Topper continued to beat many faster boats on the water to claim second overall.

The best performance of the day went to the Saxton twins from Grafham who scored 1.3.1 in their RS Feva, powering over GP¹s on reaches to claim 3rd overall. Importantly, Anthony Osman in the Parkstone Laser 4.7 recovered from a bad end to Saturday to score 3.7.2 and jump up to 4th overall. It was all very tight and everyone was expecting the winners to come from Notts County, Shoreham or Rutland.

However, Parkstone YC, looking out of contention overnight, had sneaked up on the rails. Their 420 and Laser 4.7 had the headline positions and their Fireball of Martin Cooney/David Cooney put in a solid performance and gave them a vital 10th overall in the fast fleet - a team score of 16pts. This gave them overall victory by 1 point from Notts County and the right to call themselves "Crewsaver Top Club 2004".

As this was a club competition the prizes were designed to help benefit clubs and club sailors by helping them run training and sail-taster days. With the help of Crewsaver, this included wetsuits, buoyancy aids and spray tops for clubs to loan to people on training/taster days plus training buoys. With the help of Dinghy Sailing Magazine and "Mark Littlejohn Coaching", the top two clubs also won professional coaching days aimed at regular club sailors and to be held at their clubs. Due to it's success, the organisers have already agreed with Grafham to hold the event again in 2005. So, if you think your club could be crowned "Top Cub", make sure you get entered for 2005 and prove it on the water! More information will be available on the Top Club website, www.topclub.org.uk

OVERALL RESULTS 1st - winners of the Top Club trophy, two professional coaching weekends for their club sailors sponsored by Dinghy Sailing Magazine and a set of Crewsaver training buoys. Top South Western Area Club ­ Parkstone YC 2nd - winners of a day's coaching programme for club sailors by Mark Littlejohn.

Top Midland and EA Area Club ­ Notts County SC 3rd - winners of a set of Crewsaver wetsuits for novice training courses.

Top South East Area Club ­ Shoreham SC 4th - winners of a set of Crewsaver buoyancy aids for club training ­ Rutland SC 5th - winners of a set of Crewsaver spray tops for club training ­ Northampton SC 6th - winners of a set of Lewmar fittings - Draycote Water SC Scotland and North of England Area Top Club - Scaling Dam SC First U18 ­ Edd Chapman/Tom Reel 29er, Rutland SC First Lady Helm Judy Armstrong Albacore, Scaling Dam

1st Overall: 50070 420 Medium Sam Pearson Georgie Blaver-Mann Parkstone Yacht Club 2
176657 Laser 4.7 Slow Anthony Osman Parkstone Yacht Club 4
14652 Fireball Fast Martin Cooney David Cooney Parkstone Yacht Club 10
Parkstone Yacht Club 16 1

2nd overall:
1987 Scorpion Medium Nigel Potter Simon Hibbert Notts County Sailing Club 3
14839 Fireball Fast Kevin Hope Russell Hayes Notts County Sailing Club 4
23051 Enterprise Slow Jonathan Lye Karl Lye Notts County Sailing Club 10
Notts County Sailing Club 17 2

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