2021 RG65 GBR National Championship at Keighley
by Graham Elliott 21 Sep 2021 14:11 UTC
18-19 September 2021
RG65 GBR Nationals at Keighley © Sue Brown
The 2021 RG65 GBR National Championships were hosted by the Keighley club over the weekend of the 18th and 19th September and saw an entry of 17 boats with 9 different designs sailing.
Saturday morning saw a very light Southerly wind so our PRO, Damian Ackroyd, set a course on the far bank of the reservoir, the fleet sailed 5 races from this position before the wind swung more to the South East and a new course set on the near bank. The sailing was extremely difficult because of the shifting wind and because of this we had 8 different race winners out of 16 races sailed. Race positions at the end of the day saw Graham Elliott with a decent 20 point lead over Tobias Laux but only 10 points between 2nd and 5th everything was still to play for.
Sunday started off with plenty of rain but no wind so the start was delayed until the wind finally kicked in from the South East again, there were still massive shifts and gusts for the skippers to contemplate which made sailing interesting with large leads lost very easily but also large gains for those that gambled. The wind continued to build in the afternoon, that much so a few skippers opted to change down to there lower aspect full area rig for the final 2 races of the day.
In the end it was Graham Elliott from the Birkenhead club, sailing his Brad Gibson designed 'Electronica' that took the Championship with a consistent set of results and scoring 53 points from the 28 races completed, runner up was John Tushingham from the host club, sailing a Richard Wills Scurry design, scoring 100 points after unfortunately missing 2 races at the end, third position went to Martin Gray from the Punta Gorda club sailing an 'Uno' designed by Caccerelli.
Many thanks must go to our host club Keighley, our PRO Damian Ackroyd and Judith Baldwin for scoring. Next years Nationals will be held on the South coast at Eastbourne and all will be welcome, as ever.