Astral Azure 2000 National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Fast, Family, Fun or Fast Family, Fun?

For a few years the 2000 Class has used the #Fast, Family, Fun. After this year's fantastic Astral Azure 2000 National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club it might need to drop the first comma, recognising the incredible performances by fast families at this year's event. Mark Jardine's flash report rightly focussed on the extraordinary achievements of 9 year-old Ben Pascoe and dad Sam, but family boats with junior helm or crews also placed fifth (Jonathan and Louisa Ching) and eighth (Jonathan and Matthew Bailey).

Astral Azure 2000 Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Richard Bowers Photography

This years entry of 59 boats saw a significant step up in numbers on the mid fourty fleets since Covid amd also a very significant step up in standard and depth of the fleet particularly in the top 20 overall.

The Class maintains a traditional week-long structure for its Championships, beginning with a welcome on Saturday night, with racing starting on Sunday afternoon. A flexible approach to crew changes and Family Junior and Youth prizes in Gold, Silver and Bronze together with a mid-week lay-day help everyone, including older families, and, frankly just older sailors, get through a week of intense but fun racing. The 2000 is also a progression boat for sailors from across the Armed Forces and they made up a third of the 59-boat fleet, slotting in from second and fourth to 53rd to 55th in the final results. Furthest travelled this year were Jens and Julia-Kristina Fleitmann from south of Munich, who had neither raced against another 2000 nor sailed on the sea before the event! In this context a final overall result of 40th overall and 3rd in Bronze was quite an achievement winning them the champagne moment of the Championships..

Astral Azure 2000 Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Richard Bowers Photography

Sunday

The fleet enjoyed a champagne sail out to the start in the brightest of sunshine and what would prove the strongest wind of the week, 12-15 knots from the south-east. With the tide under the fleet and a little bit of first race nerves the first start was General Recalled, and, as he had promised, Race Officer Matt Stein went to Black Flag. Four boats fell victim to it on the restart. Generally the fleet took the right hand-side of the beat, looking for the little extra tide available, and it was a crowded starboard lay-line. Down-wind the lighter crewed boats were able to plane consistently, while the heavier weights used the waves to take depth. Both races were won by Simon and Katie Horsfield, but ominously Ben and Sam Pascoe (at all of 115kg) were able to hang on well enough upwind and use their down-wind speed to bag second with a two and a three. Spanner and Fresh lay third with a three and a four.

Traditionally the Class pays for a photographer and makes the digital copies available to the fleet. This year it was again very lucky to have Richard Bowers behind the camera and drone joystick, quickly turning material for a multi-media debrief after racing, which focussed on sail-shape and weight placement downwind. Many of the fleet were sat in their buddy groups, having collected a free ice-cream together which was sponsored by Lakes Mortgages, and carried on the motions over Fish and Chips in HISC's restaurant.

Monday

With the wind slightly further left and slightly lighter, and an earlier start time, the tide was less of a factor and the breeze was less stable and more random. At the windward mark both right and left seemed to pay at times....but not the middle, at least according to this author and many of the mid-fleet. In Race 4 a right shift after a port biased start caught many out and saw an interesting fight through the fleet for many of the top teams. Ben and Sam were turning on the style upwind as well as down now and began a remarkable series of eight race wins. Swapping scorelines with the Pascoes Simon and Katie picked up a two and three, so these boats were tied for first. No-one else achieved the same consistency. Third for the day was ILCA sailor Archie Munro-Price, sailing with Merrin Attridge while Jay and Alice Whitehead were fourth with a fifth and a seventh. All of the other contenders picked up at least one big score, including a black flag for Spanner and Fresh. Enterprise National Champion Jeremy Stephens/Rebecca Bradley in their first ever 2000 event would have had a star bar 3rd if they had followed Spanner over the start line.

Astral Azure 2000 Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Richard Bowers Photography

In a fascinating debrief Richard was able to overlay two images of Ben and Sam's spreaders which they had tweaked overnight, and show how it had affected sail shape...this was the hors d'oeuvres before the main course of Pete and Sophie's Cultural Quiz sponsored by West Country Boat Repairs - rapidly becoming one of the highlights of Nationals week. Rounds on sport, music, and TV and film, all with a twist, were followed by the participation round, with teams recreating, without speaking, famous comedy scenes from TV and film including Only Fools and Horses, Morecambe and Wise and with gusto the Inbetweeners movie....I'm not sure that all of the parents of the junior sailors had been born when the shows first aired! In a brilliant climax a tie-break for first place was broken with a Moo Off between Alex from Bough Beech and photographer Richard Bowers. The 2000 Class is giving serious consideration to adopting this as an alternative dispute resolution process.

Tuesday

Conditions were pretty much more of the same....slighly less wind, slightly less waves, slightly more off the land and slightly more difficult to spot the shift pattern. More of the same was also at the front of the fleet two, with Ben and Sam taking two big wins, and the Horsfields two thirds. Spanner and Fresh were back on form with a five and a two, matched by Jonathan and Lousia Ching. Tim and Linda capitalised on a great start to take a fourth, and Pete Vincent and Sophie Bentley continued their streak of nines and fours to consolidate in the top six.

The debrief starred 2062, Beanie and Robert Southern showing the fleet how to start, elegantly captured on Richard's drone footage. After pie and chips, the fleet settled in for a big night with a live Band, the evening tilled 'Party like you don't have to sail tomorrow'. Kids of all ages danced hard, but there could only be one winning couple: the Fleitmann's owned the dancefloor!

Astral Azure 2000 Nationals at Hayling Island - photo © Richard Bowers Photography

Thursday

Thursday dawned with the potential for three races due to the iffy Friday forecast. The breeze was now oscillating either side of north and slightly less strong again. The trick was generally to escape early on port off the port biased line. Matt Sargent and Ross Southwell managed this best in Race 8, rounding in first and exploiting some big shifts downwind to hold off Ben and Sam for two laps, despite weighing 42kg more, before slipping back to fourth. With a big and evenly matched fleet choosing the right exit from the leeward gate was critical. Race 9 was sailed in a breeze that fell further, shutting down to about five knots before picking up again on the last beat. The Horsfields recovered from deep by finding the first of the pressure in the extreme right, and Jonathan and Matthew Bailey (second) and Oliver and Elliot Thompson (third) also enjoyed stand-out results.

Friday

After a few hours postponement the fleet slipped out to the race course in a better breeze than forecast, this time from the south-west at 6-8 knots. It built steadily and steady, with the fleet enjoying slightly less random conditions. The top three finished in Championship position order, with Ed and Andrew Connellan (fourth overall) breaking the sequence with a fifth.

HISC were outstanding hosts and their race team were a well oiled precision team who delivered. Huge thanks to Astral Azure for being headline sponsors. Lakes Mortagages, West Country Boat Repairs, Noble Marine, Orange Ocelot and Creation covers for their valuable and much appreciated support.

Roll on 2026 Nationals at Brightlingsea. Could it possibly be as much fun - you bet it can.

Overall Results: