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Mike Shaw: www.fotoboat.com Midlands Photographer. Official photographer for this event.
Thanks to all at Northampton SC for the ride and a special thanks to Chris who helmed the rib.
Your photographs will be featured on www.fotoboat.com and some photos may be seen at www.yachtsandyachting.com/ please consider purchasing a photograph, any photograph's purchased will help towards fuel cost's and help to maintain the excellent service fotoboat provides featuring great pictures of you and helping to promote your club and your class.
For each print purchased you will be entitled to one free high resolution image file of your choice plus the image file of the purchased print please contact Mike Shaw for more information on this offer, high resolution image files available on request.
Please visit www.fotoboat.com to find your picture due to the large volume of images it is possible your picture may not be featured on the www.fotoboat.com website please contact Mike Shaw if the image you require is missing.
STEVE NICHOLSON MEMORIAL TROPHY 2006
The Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy hosted by Northampton SC attracted a total of 89 competitors, the event was very kindly sponsored by Pinnell & Bax who provided a huge amount of prizes kit bags of all sizes, shirts, hats and many other sailing items. Steve Nicholson was a former employee of Pinnell & Bax and the prizes were exceptional. The event was blessed with excellent sailing conditions with sun throughout the day and a steady wind force 3 to 4 which increased as the day progressed, the ever increasing wind provided plenty of thrills and spills especially for the many high performance boats that took part from the well established Fireball class to the 29ers.
The race officer Chris Wright set excellent courses and some of the reaches across the reservoir culminating in the gybe saw some dramatic sailing and on many occasions the rescue boats were kept very busy, the event was split into single handed, Double handed, and asymmetric fleets, the single handed fleet was dominated by the "Big Boys who ate all the pie's" (Phantom Class) 13 Phantoms took part and secured the first 5 positions with 1st Nick Beloe, 2nd Brett Cokayne & 3rd Allen Burrell. The double handed non asymmetric fleet was a blistering demonstration of fast sailing and certainly no room for errors the dominating attendees were the Fireballs with a fleet of 9 boats and in the first 6 positions saw 4 fireballs placed, however the first position was secured by the 420 Class and two youth sailors from Derbyshire (Staunton Harold SC) Tom Gillard (Helm) & James Foskett (Crew) both of these youth sailors are a force to be reckoned with and are very talented sailors indeed and well known sailors on the youth circuit. 2nd place was taken by Kevin Hope (Helm) & Russ Thorne (Crew) sailing a Fireball closely followed by fireballers Vince Horey (Helm) & Richard Wagstaff (Crew)
The 3rd fleet was the asymmetric`s "there's fast and there's too fast" all sailors received speeding fines from the local water authority however the activities of the asymmetric fleet never allowed the spark plugs to oil up on the rescue ribs and kept everyone alert, 1st position went to the youth sailing 29er`s Matt Hollis (Helm) & Nick Hollis (Crew) 2nd sailing an RS 700 Anthony York and 3rd position another 29er sailed by Andy Wood (Helm) & Ali McInnes (Crew)
The host club commodore (Carol Travers) requested everybody to raise a glass in memory of Steve Nicholson and presented the prizes, the event organised by Ian Castle and supported by everyone at Northampton SC raised nearly £2000 which will be donated towards Asthma UK Please bookmark your diaries for next year, this is a winter event not to be missed and will take place again on Sat 27th Jan 2007.
Images taken at Northampton SC Jan 2006 (Saturday)
SINCERE APOLOGIES During the event I was unaware that two Optimist dinghy's were competing and consequently there are no photographs of those two particular competitors, it was only after the event and especially after scrutinising the results it became obvious that the two Optimist sailors deserve suitable recognition. Well done to Derbyshire Youth Sailors Mathew Foskett and sailing friend Hannah Jones who both sail at Staunton Harold SC and finished a very credible 16th and 18th respectively.
Club & Class Association Representatives Bookings for Midland Events 2006 are accepted now please CLICK HERE
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