Astral Azure National Championships 2024 - RTYC
Astral Azure 25th anniversary 2000 Nationals at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club Ollie and Esther win overall in style. Full results
After the lay day and the exceptional Noble Marine young sailors fish and chip supper which was a tour
de force Thursday dawned a little dodgy. Torbay was not looking at its best, totally grey, very low cloud,
constant rain showers scudding through and at times poor visibility. Paignton frequently completely
disappeared which many of the RTYC volunteers believed vastly improved the situation. There was also a
little matter of a fairly breezy forecast.
But none of this was going to stop 2000 sailors and far more importantly the RTYC race team. The
brilliant PRO Bob Penfold got his team out on the course area early and quickly reported the breeze was
pretty stable from the SW at around 14-18 knots with the odd tiny excursion into 20 knots so the fleet
launched for what proved a major epic day.
After mounting the pin end boat on race 6 Ollie Groves and Esther Parkhurst knew they had no room for
error now but sailed a majestic faultless day to win both races in fine style. Also on top form were Ed and
Andy Connellan who pushed Ollie/Esther throughout to finish 2nd in race 7 and then won a full on very tight fight with Matt Sargent/Zak Mitchell to claim 2nd in race 8.
Matt/Zak had met for the first time on Saturday and clearly time in the boat was showing with a fine Thursday; 3rd also in race 7 they climbed to 3rd overall.
With one day to go the overall was seriously tight throughout the fleet. 1st and 2nd overall were separated by 2 points, 3rd/4th overall were on the same points, 5th to 10th covered by 5 points and the top 5 in the Bronze fleet covered by 4 points. After a dodgy weather day on Thursday Torbay produced for the Friday.
It was if Carlsberg did final days at Championships this was it; sunshine, blue skies, 10-15 knots from WSW, spot on race management and ear to ear smiles.
Race 9 and Ollie/Esther led from mark 1 just ahead of the Connellans and Pete Vincent/Sophie Bentley.
After 2 more laps Ollie/Esther were still in the lead but could not shake off Pete/Sophie who then hooked
into a little bit of extra pressure in the final quarter of the last run to get the overlap at the final leeward
mark to win. The Connellans were 3rd with Adrian/Ros Stell having a fine championship in 4th. The final race felt a carbon copy with the same 3 boats in the same order at the first mark but this time Ollie/Esther
marshalled the fleet well to score a fine win to take overall victory at be crowned the Astral Azure 2024 2000 National Champions.
Huge vote of thanks to Astral Azure overall sponsors and the fine support from Lakes Mortgages, West
Country Boat Repairs and Noble Marine.
It was an extremely happy 2000 fleet that gathered for the final overall prize giving; beaming faces, red
noses spoke a 1000 words. Other prizes winners were
- 1st Grandmaster Alan Goule Paignton SC
- 1st Youth Helm Jacob Allen Cardiff Bay YC
- 1st Newcomers Oliver and Elliott Thompson West Riding SC
- Family/Junior Jonathan and Louisa Ching Weirwood SC
- Top Club RNSA
- 1st Silver division Oliver and Elliott Thompson West Riding SC
- 1st Bronze division Alan Goule Cathy Stevens Paignton SC
With immense gratitude to all the RTYC volunteers who made the 25th anniversary Nationals such a triumph.
Pete Vincent
Last updated 18:37 on 23 September 2024
