Notts County were asked earlier in the year if they could host the 2007 North Zone Championships, in the last weekend in September. Being such a critical date members of the Exec and Sailing Committees discussed it before accepting.

The event took a lot of preparation Phil Kilburn & Ken Twemlow both spending many hours ensuring everything was in place, and on the two days there were about twenty core helpers to numerous to mention, but they know who they are, many thanks to all.

Friday night was spent preparing as visitors started arriving, the lawn in front of the clubhouse was cordoned off for club boats on Sunday, it also proved useful during the event for the windsurfing exercise class and games. Tally boards were assembled, then Paulene's curry and beer called.

Over a hundred competitors entered, with over 40 windsurfers, nearly 40 toppers, and eighteen Optimists and five 405s. The RYA estimate over 900 youngsters were racing in the Zone Championships around the country over the weekend.

Saturday was an early start for many as buoys were prepared, boats cleaned and registration and course setting took place. Racing got under way at around 11am, in an almost perfect but cool northerly wind. It soon became quite clear that our club sailors had a long way to go as many soon found themselves further down the fleet than expected. Everyone commented on how high the standard was. The 10 and 12 year olds in the Optimists were swapping tacks and using the rules from 10 seconds after the gun, at a standard rarely seen in normal club racing, whilst Toppers were equally competitive with starts that left no room for error (except on the second start when half the fleet was over).

The 405s saw our best result with Lizzie Hubbard & Ami Coghill finishing second in each race, brilliant as it was the first time they had sailed the boat together. The Toppers saw Petyer Anderson our highest at 26th, followed by Jack Clay, Lawrence Logan, Jacob Flint, Anastasia Logan, Chris Mapperley & Owen Monaghan. Andrew Kilburn was our only Optimist sailor and was 7th out of 18 boats.

The Windsurfers started with a coaching session and some start practice, then on the water for the real racing. The 7.8 sailors were planning in next to no wind, and again the starts were close and keen. All except Rachael Glendening were sailing in the 4.5 fleet, with Emily Hall coming fifth, and Cameron Goghill, Jack Hutchinson & Matthew Glendening finishing their first ever races (and they weren't last). Our new John Merricks boards and rigs were put to good use.

There were four races in each fleet on the Saturday, which was a good job as Sunday was completely calm and racing was abandoned at 11am.

Photo slideshow (flash required)

Movie (10mins 40mb) windows media file

Full Results:
405
Optimist
Topper
Windsurfing

Notts County Sailors at Zone Camps at the club

Jack & Emily in 4.5 Windsurfing

Lawrence in Topper

Photo slideshow (flash required)

Full Results:
405
Optimist
Topper
Windsurfing