This year is the forty-fifth anniversary of the UKs best loved small cat and also heralded a welcome return to the name Dart 15. The National Championships were held at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club in Essex and saw a very healthy entry of forty-six boats, including a strong showing from the home fleet.
With a fairly early start on Saturday morning due to the tides, the majority of the fleet arrived on Friday and some took advantage of a Coaching Session provided by Tom Phipps from Windsport International on Friday morning.
Nigel and Fiona Denchfield had kindly agreed to be our guest Race Officers for the event - a welcome return having supported numerous Dart 15 events in recent years. Thorpe Bay had assembled a strong team of safety and support crew and the caterers were ready to keep everyone fed and watered.
Everything was all set for a fantastic weekend - apart, that is, from the weather forecast which was showing 35 knot onshore winds for Saturday and not a great deal less for Sunday. With a planned schedule of nine races - three on Saturday, four on Sunday and two on Monday morning, this was far from helpful.
Eventually after some exhilarating racing the fleet headed ashore after five hours of racing and five enjoyable races across a range of wind conditions making for a proper Nationals regatta.
The important trophies were then handed out: Youth trophy to Sophia McKenna, Over 50 to Mark Aldridge, Over 60 to Len Flynn and Over 70 to Jim Bowie. The Heavyweight trophy went to Jan Elfring (Draycote Water) and the Most Persistent Trophy went to John Laliberte (Thorpe Bay) for completing all the races.
the 1st Amateur Glass was awarded to the highest place sailor competing in their first Nationals which was Nathan Sverdloff, the youth entry from Thorpe Bay. The Most Improved Trophy was somewhat awkwardly won by the overall event winner.
We then proceeded with glassware for 12th place upwards and the metal ware for race winners and the top of the fleet.
David and John Ball won the 2 up cup following another close fought regatta with Sophia and Sean McKenna. As with last year, the two boats were only one position apart in the overall results.
Hector Bunclark, one of our leading young sailors, took fourth place overall and winner trophy for Race 3.
Mark Aldridge took third place overall, putting in very consistent top four results.
Len Flynn took second place overall and winner trophy for Race 1.
Jenny Ball was race winner for Race 2 and 4 plus Single Handed Champion and Dart 15 National Champion for 2023.
The Dart 15 Association would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to everyone at Thorpe Bay YC for hosting and to Nigel and Fiona Denchfield, Dan Bard and all the volunteers for enabling such good racing. We would also like to thank other Fernhurst Books and Majestic Crystal for supporting the event.
Overall Results:
Pos Helm (& Crew) Sail No Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Pts
1 Jenny Ball 2025 Marconi Sailing Club 2 1 4 1 7 8
2 Len Flynn 2031 Thorpe Bay Yacht Club 1 5 3 9 2 11
3 Mark Aldridge 66 Grafham Water Sailing Club 3 3 10 2 4 12
4 Hector Bunclark 1951 North Devon Yacht Club 4 4 1 6 5 14
5 Chris Tillyer 2020 Thorpe Bay Yacht Club 7 6 5 3 1 15
6 Liam Thom 2034 Shanklin Sailing Club 5 8 9 7 3 23
7 Steve Sawford 2033 Rutland Water Sailing Club 14 10 2 4 BFD 30
8 Ed Tuite Dalton 2023 Draycote Water Sailing Club 17 13 6 13 6 38
9 Angus Cook 1989 North Devon Yacht Club 8 12 7 11 DNC 38
10 Scott Wilcox 1359 Stewartby Water Sports Club 9 16 19 5 12 42
11 Simon Giles 2029 Shanklin Sailing Club 11 11 12 17 8 42
12 Skip Atkins 2032 Stone Sailing Club 13 25 11 8 13 45
13 David Ball & John Ball 1923 Marconi Sailing Club 19 14 8 12 15 49
14 Sophia McKenna & Sean McKenna 2018 Shanklin Sailing Club 16 2 23 22 14 54
15 Jim Bowie 2021 Thorpe Bay Yacht Club 15 24 18 10 11 54
16 Jan Elfring 2030 Draycote Water Sailing Club 12 20 13 24 10 55
17 Jacob Aldridge 1962 Grafham Water Sailing Club 20 21 14 16 9 59
18 Jon Pearse 2035 Marconi Sailing Club 23 15 20 20 17 72
19 Gary Sverdloff 1963 Thorpe Bay Yacht Club 6 23 32 23 22 74
20 Derek James 1744 Draycote Water Sailing Club 22 27 31 14 16 79
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