49 Finns gathered at Hayling Island over the 4-6 July with a forecast of strong winds throughout the three days of the championship. PRO Mark Woods gave an extensive briefing that included how to safely negotiate the infamous Chichester Bar on the way back from the race course, when the Spring tide would be running out of the harbour, in direct opposition to the wind…

With an even stronger wind forecast for Friday, Thursday’s schedule was optimistically altered to allow for 3 races, with the first race planned for 1 pm. At noon the fleet headed out to Hayling Bay in a gusty 18-20 knot westerly breeze, bright sun and a lumpy sea.

Once safely clear of Hayling Beacon, the water flattened out a little, allowing the first race to start on time with a 2 lap windward/leeward race track parallel to the Hayling beachfront. Half the fleet headed right, to take advantage of the flatter water inshore, whilst others headed out left, looking for a forecast shift to the South.

World Number 1, Laurent Hay (FRA 75) rounded first, coming out from the right, ahead of John Mackie (GBR 68), Cameron Tweedle (GBR 8) and Richard Sharp (GBR 90). At the bottom of the downwind sleigh ride Hay still held a good lead, but Cam Tweedle had pulled up to second, using his long reach to power his strong pumping technique, John Greenwood (GBR 5) also moving up to third. On the second the leaders headed out to the left as the breeze unexpectedly dropped to a comfortable 15 knots that gave everyone a great surf downwind to the finish. Cam again showed his pace, clearly loving the conditions to squeeze past Hay, himself no slouch downwind, to take the gun from the recently crowned Finn World Master. These two finished over a minute clear of the remainder of the fleet, with Lawrence Crispin (GBR 74) taking 3rd from Simon Percival (GBR 636) in fourth.

Race two followed swiftly afterwards, with the breeze building back to its earlier 18-20 knots. The pin end looked to be favoured at the start, with the fleet again evenly split on which side of the track to take. As it was, the forecast shift to the south did materialise, bringing reward to those who went out to sea. On board the Committee word was coming through from race committees further west of 30-knot gusts coming down the Solent, and right on cue they hit the fleet as it rounded the windward mark. Cameron Tweedle revelled in the conditions, rounding first ahead of Richard Sharp (GBR 90) and Mike De Coury (GBR 21) with the World No.1 deeper in the pack. By now there were a few boats inverted in the huge waves, and with masts bouncing off the shallow bed of Hayling Bay the result was not good news for insurance companies.

At the finish, it was another clean sweep for Cam Tweedle, with Richard Sharp from Emsworth Slipper SC holding on for an excellent second place ahead of Laurent Hay, who showed his downwind skills to power down the run to get past Mike De Courcy in 4th and John Greenwood in 5th.

With the conditions worsening, PRO Mark Woods decided to abandon any attempt to start a third race and sent the fleet ashore – easier said than done given the huge waves now building over the bar, as the ebb tide in full force storming out of Chichester Harbour met the full force of the 30-knot southerly head on, with numerous capsizes as a result. The ride back to Hayling Island was hairy, to say the least, with those that had the bottle to ease the vang to let the boom rise up and the sail twist off fairing better than those that kept it on but would then have the end of the boom caught by a wave, flicking them upside down in an instant.

All the Finns were safely escorted back to the club by an armada of additional safety boats sent out by the club, with the final tally being 8 broken masts and two badly damaged boats.

After licking their wounds overnight and suitably refreshed with beer courtesy of PSB Boat Repairs, the remaining sailors turned up ready for a second day’s battle with the elements, with an even worse weather forecast. The Race Committee wisely decided that the only option for racing would be in the flatter water of Chichester Harbour with the westerly direction providing a decent beat from East Head towards the Sandy Point. In truth, the PRO went afloat to measure the wind strength expecting it to be well over the 25-knot limit, but was surprised to find it was reading only 19 knots, so those still up for the fight were quickly summoned to go afloat.

Race three started with the majority of the fleet lining up by the Committee boat, ready to tack onto port to seek out the weaker flood tide over the Stocker Bank. Local Hayling Island sailor Simon Pettit (GBR 3) made a good start, tacking immediately at the Committee boat and with great pace worked his way into an early lead.

At the top mark, Cameron’s speed pulled him through the fleet despite starting near the pin to challenge Simon, but the local lad kept his cool to round first and continued to hold off the current National Champion down the run. Behind the two leaders, the athletic Aubert Lerouge (FRA 3) and Fergus Allen (GBR 86) led the rest of the pack, with the World No.1 rounding mid fleet but Hay then staged an impressive recovery, sailing low, choosing the best waves and pumping hard on his own down the run to round the port gate simultaneously as Fergus Allen in third rounded the opposite gate.

On the second beat, Simon Pettit again chose the right-hand track to avoid the last of the flood in the main channel leading the taller and heavier Tweedle to the right. By the top mark however, Cameron had taken the lead, with a rapidly gaining Laurent Hay hot on Simon’s heels. At the finish, Hay had literally pulled himself through to second, as Tweedle took his third gun of the championships.

The tidal situation was changing for the fourth race, with high water approaching and the current in the main channel to the left of the beat due to a switch in direction. This time Simon Petit was the furthest towards the pin and blasted off the line with great pace, but with the bulk of the fleet heading right again he tacked over to remain in touch with the fleet rather than striking out on his own for the channel. Lawrence Crispin also had a fast start, getting out into clear air to chase Tweedle hard to the windward mark.

At the top, Cameron rounded first, a few lengths in front of Crispin, followed by Pettit continuing his strong form in third and an impressive showing by Tom Glissane in fourth. What was surprising was to see Laurent Hay arrive deep mid-fleet, but again he chose his own lane downhill, staying in the pressure and playing the waves to take places. With 3 laps of the windward/leeward course posted, the PRO moved the committee boat to the windward mark to signal a shortened course finish there, mindful of the turning tide which was beginning to tempt those with local knowledge out to the channel on the left.

Cameron Tweedle, clearly enjoying himself in the solid breeze continued to pull ahead of the field, crossing the line over a minute clear of the chasing Lawrence Crispin and Laurent Hay, who true to form, had pulled through to third. Crispin had a moment of drama as his main halyard jumped off the masthead lock and the sail slid down the mast, just meters short of the finish. With plenty of wind to just hold the sail up long enough to cross the line to hold second, the situation looked just about saveable. However, two tacks were required to make the finish line and how the 6′ sailor managed to tack his Finn twice with the boom lying on the deck and still hold off the World No.1 was truly inspirational to watch.

The remainder of the fleet had now picked up on the building ebb tide in the channel, with the result that many overstood the finish, reaching in from the left. Safely ashore with no further damages to the reduced fleet, the wind soon picked up to the forecast 27 knots.

Friday evening saw the club host a ‘Round the World’ championship dinner, with original entertainment provided by Jon Pyke’s unique ‘Finn Bingo’, programme, MC’ed by Roman, which kept the sailors amused all evening.

Saturday dawned with yet more high winds, this time gusting to 32 knots on the club race box anemometer. Once again Mark Woods headed out into the harbour to check the windspeed, whilst some sailors voted with their feet, packing up their boats whilst those still in the hunt hung around their boats, nervously looking out to the water. At 10.30 the postponement flag went up but 20 minutes later the racing was finally called off, leaving Cameron Tweedle as the Rooster UK National Champion 2024, and now on his hat-trick. Finn World Grand Master Laurent Hay proved his World No.1 standing and picked up a few more useful ranking points to stretch his 200-point lead, and previous Laser World Champion Lawrence Crispin fulfilled his potential in third.

At the prize-giving Hayling Island SC Rear Commodore David Hitchcock who has recently returned to the Finn class remarked that in his 40 years of sailing from Hayling, this had been the roughest he had ever seen Hayling Bar, but he hoped the fleet would return soon for a national or International event. With great prizes from Rooster, Intego Pro, North Sails everyone went home with a nice memento of the epic championship.

Cam Tweedle retained the Sunday Times Gold Cup trophy, adorned with a real who’s who of Previous British Finn Champions, from Vernon Stratton, through Chris Law, Iain Percy, to Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott. We wish Cameron all the best when he represents the British Finn Association at the Gold Cup in Aarhus in September.

Overall Results:

Photos by Peter Hickson

Daily Highlight videos by Phill Williams