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Club News

WYC B14 Crew success at the UK Nationals

Posted: Tuesday, 02 June, 2015

Whitstable Yacht Club member Tom Pygall crewed on the winning B14 at the Seavolution B14 Nationals last weekend. Crewing on B14 Whitstable Marine, for help Nick Craig, they came in first in some very testing conditions. WYC boat Seavolution North Sails, sailed by Mark Barnes and Ruth Oliver came in 6th overall, and WYC boat Team Harken, sailed by Simon ad Nikki Hadley came in 15th.

The Seavolution B14 Nationals 2015 took part at Stokes Bay SC from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st May. It was windy from the SW, so there was some big full on sailing on Friday, where WYC member Tom Pygall crewing for Nick Craig in Whitstable Marine won the single race, with WYC boat Seavolution North Sails (Mark Barnes/Ruth Oliver) 3rd and WYC boat Team Harken (Simon Hadley/Nikki Hadley) splitting their mainsail and retiring. First girl by a distance was Ruth.
Saturday was averaging 16 - 20 knots with holes. With all the fleet sailing it was snakes and ladders, but Whitstable Marine came out on top to lead on 1, 3, 2, 2, 1. Seavolution North Sails was not so lucky and lost 2 top 5 positions to get 8th both times in holes downwind giving them 3, 8, 8, 5, 5. Team Harken had a good day until Simon had a hand issue and retired from the last race DNF, 7, 6, 11, DNF.
Day 3 started very windy again. However, the breeze eased to 20 - 25 knots, and provided full on sailing. Whitstable Marine and Seavolution North Sails revelled in it, both in the top 5, with Whitstable Marine getting second, Seavolution North Sails having been 4th pulling out with a destroyed kite, and Team Harken unable to sail. Second race and with many helpers holding the boat afloat in the surf, Seavolution North Sails made the start with new kite with less than 4 minutes to the start. The same top 5 roared off the front with only 40 m. separation at the windward mark. The slay ride downwind was great, over the next 2 laps the wind increased with Seavolution North Sails being flattened to 80 degrees at the last windward mark, but somehow the boat spun out as the wing net sent the boat into the wind and rig righted itself. The other 4 meantime hurtled downwind with Whitstable Marine in the mix in the first 3. As the wind increased their leeward shroud mount exploded post mid leg gybe, and with 3 sails up they made the gate and drop to finish 4th. Seavolution North Sails came down in the biggest breeze full bore on a white knuckle ride (one Ruth enjoyed and will not forget) gybing full bore on top of a wave coming through in 5th.
Whitstable Marine won the hard fought nationals, with Seavolution North Sails 6th on count back with Ruth first under 21 and Team Harken ending up in 15th.