Finn Southern Championship 2024 organised and run by Warsash Sailing Club.

Over the weekend of October 5-6th Warsash SC hosted the BFA Southern Championship, the grand finale meeting of the British Finn 2024 Travellers Trophy.

A bright and breezy sunny morning greeted a small but elite fleet of 16 Finns who prepared for a hard day’s racing in the Solent on the Hill Head plateau. A forecast of a steady southeasterly of 14-19 knots suggested a great day’s racing. Several sailors were contesting a podium finish in the Travellers Trophy with others using the event as a warm-up before crossing to Europe for the Finn Europeans in Cannes.

Warsash SC Race Officer Peter Knight, ably supported by a strong race team and mark layers prepared a testing windward leeward course at an area in the Solent where the tides provided challenge and waves created a rising swell. A one-mile windward leeward course with three windward legs, set the intent for the weekend to make sure the sailors had to work hard to complete the four scheduled races. Race One saw two boats caught over the line at the start, but, unusually for the Finns the rest of the fleet got away at the first attempt. Arkadii Kristanov, ITA 5, led from the start followed by Lawrence Crispin, GBR 74, with the two early starts Kristian Sjoberg, FIN 201, and Martin Hughes, GBR 567, finishing next, but, promoting Tim Carver, GBR 8, into third.

There was little time to recover between races as the committee boat signalled the start of race 2. With similar conditions to race 1, but with slightly less tide the second race started cleanly but a similar pattern to race 1 soon appeared with Arkadii followed by Lawrence and Martin.

There was little time to digest post-race snacks and jelly babies, before the race team moved swiftly to the warning signal for race 3. The fleet built to start at the committee boat end leaving a tight cluster. However, normal service was quickly established with Arkadii , (the only Open category younger sailor and an Olympic campaigner for Rio 2016) and Lawrence leading the fleet from a tight battle for third with Mike de Courcy, GBR 21, fighting with Tim and Martin for third, fourth and fifth places, with Tim taking third and Martin fourth.

The wind picked up a couple of knots shortly after the start of race 4 to well over 20 knots in the guests, combining with the increased ebbing tide, to build the size of the waves, making the downwind legs even more brutal with competitors pumping hard to stay on the fastest part of the wave.  At the front of the fleet, Arkadii and Lawrence battled throughout, until the final gybe on the final run when Lawrence took Arkadii to the right of the course forcing both boats to have to crash gybe onto a reach to make the final mark. In a significant gust, Lawrence made the gybe, but Arkadii did not and had a long swim leaving the door open for Lawrence to take first place, Martin to finish second and Tim to take third.

Ashore after racing the fleet feasted on homemade cakes, tea and coffee made by sailors participating in the event. The Rustic Chef at Warsash Sailing Cub provided an excellent meal of steak pie, curry, treacle toffee pudding and apple crumble to revive the exhausted sailors.

Following a short briefing the fleet returned to the Hill Head plateau in a reduced and shifty southerly. Under a low leaden sky, producing gusty and shifty conditions the first race commenced. A race of snakes and ladders for many, with gains made on a lift when on the right+ side of the tide, but big losses made if you got the wind or the tide wrong, and if you got both wrong then you could easily go from top two to bottom two as many discovered.

Race 4 started cleanly with most boats opting for a committee boat end start. With the fleet then splitting, those who played the central game came off best, by not venturing to the extremes of the course. The lighter conditions saw the return to the front of the fleet of Allen Burrell, GBR 2, who after holding a good lead for the first half of the race succumbed to the superior downwind speed of Arkadii, who again took line honours with Allen second and Lawrence in third, which proved to be the Stone SC sailor’s lowest score of the weekend.

The tricky conditions continued for race 6 with Tim following both Lawrence and Arkadii to the finish. As the tide began to flow towards Southampton everyone started cleanly in the final race of the day. With a strong tide sweeping down the mainland shore and out in the North channel, it was a case of getting the shifts right. After leading around the windward mark Martin missed the shifts upwind and fell back to 12th on the second windward leg whilst others made the most of his misfortune. Lawrence took the win with Arkadii second and John Heyes GBR 61 in third.

The final results showed the dominance of Arkadii and Lawrence who took the top two places with Tim 3rd, and Martin 4th. The prize-giving followed the consumption of more tea and cake and the Race committee and support team where highly commended and praised for their management of a fantastic sailing weekend.

These final results were fed into the BFA Travellers Trophy spreadsheet demonstrating that attendance at events is critical if you want a good result with the overall title and 1st Grand Master going to John Mackie, GBR 68, with Howard Sellars, GBR 777, 1st Legend, Martin Hughes, GBR 567, 1st Great Grand Master, and Roman Khodykin 1st Master.

Full results: 

Report by Martin Hughes