Winner of the National Swallow 2019 Championship held at Bembridge SC over the weekend was Harry Roome sailing with Prue and Charlie Roome on Skua.
The close competition between Skua (S3) and Gwaihir (S93) of Mark Struckett, Keith Bliss and Mike Wigmore, came down the final race with the win for Roome giving them the title on count -back.
Taking third place overall was Osprey (S95) of James Hartley, Rob Sutherland and Jeremy Sibthorp.
Skua, Gwaihir and Osprey dominated the first day with Gwaihir winning two races after Skua had taken the opening race. This put Gwahir in first place with 4 points, Skua was second with 6 points and Migrant third with 13 points.
Racing on Day 2 started in an 8 to 10 knot South Easterly.
Osprey took race 4 ahead of Marengo (S82) Carolyn Brigg, Philip Pascal and Christine Graves, with Skua taking a third place to set-up the final race show-down with Gwaihir.
Skua soon established a comfortable lead ahead of Gwahir and S67 (Solitude) helmed by Anthony Lunch, with John Houghton and Andrew Reid.
However, Skua needed to be two places ahead of Gwahir to win the Championships, and the final beat became a match race, with Skua taking the race win and also holding Gwahir up enough for Solitude to snatch second, a mere 5 seconds separating the three of them.
This put Skua and Gwahir on level points and level places (2 firsts, 1 second & 1 third), but with a first in the final race, overall victory went to Harry, Prue and Charlie Roome in Skua.
An excellent weekend’s racing and Bembridge SC looks forward to welcoming the Swallows again for their Nationals in three years time.
National Swallow – 2019 National Championship – Final after 5 races, 1 discard
1st S3 Skua – Harry Roome, Prue Roome, Charlie Roome 1 2 -3 3 1 – – 7 pts
2nd S93 Gwaihir – Mark Struckett, Keith Bliss, Mike Wigmore 2 1 1 -5 3 – – 7 pts
3rd S95 Osprey – James Hartley, Rob Sutherland, Jeremy Sibthorp 3 -9 2 1 4 – – 10 pts
4th S82 Marengo – Carolyn Brigg, Philip Pascal, Christine Graves 6 4 6 2 -7 – – 18 pts
5th S86 Migrant – Chris Fox, James Leaver, Ginny Fox 5 3 5 -7 5 – – 18 pts
6th S67 Solitude – Anthony Lunch, John Houghton, Andrew Reid 4 6 7 -10 2 – – 19 pts
7th S94 Merlin – Julian Kinross, Mimie Currey, Charles Prescott 8 -10 4 4 10 – – 26 pts
8th S70 Curlew – Simon Slater,James Baron, Timothy Boswijk OCS 5 9 6 6 – – 26 pts
9th S88 Darter – Tony Glover, Peter Baron 7 7 -10 9 8 – – 31 pts
10th S80 Blue Tit – Paul Giles, Tom Clarence-Smith -9 8 8 8 9 – – 33 pts
11th S76 Harlequin – Mark Walker, James Govan, Peter Mcgleughlin 10 -11 11 11 11 – – 43 pts
The Swallow keelboat was designed by Tom Thorneycroft for the 1948 London Olympic Games where the sailing events were held in Torbay. Although designed for a crew of two they are more frequently sailed three up. Fleets are based at Itchenor and Aldeburgh Sailing Clubs.
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