Royal Torbay Yacht Club provided 3 days of superb racing in ideal conditions and a warm welcome and excellent on-shore entertainment for the 34 teams competing in the Albacore UK National Championships from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 August.
The event was structured so that those who wanted a full week’s racing could also race with a separate start in the Timberland Torbay Royal Regatta from 21 to 23 August and have a lay-day before the Nationals. Those with limited holiday only needed to take 1 day off work to compete in the Nationals.
An ambitious programme of seven races was completed over the three days. Royal Torbay provided top-class race management (led by Principal Race Officer David Rayment) and off the water event management throughout.
Friday dawned with a dying northerly that had died away to near calm by mid-morning. At the briefing the conditions did not look promising for any racing at all and many competitors were predicting a postponement on shore of Race 1, due to start at 1pm.
But by midday a light southerly was beginning to fill in and the competitors left the harbour on time and sailed to the race area in a building southerly. By the scheduled 1 pm start time the wind had built and steadied to about force 2, gusting 3 and a lumpy chop was building in Torbay, particularly on the more exposed left side of the course. Race 1 started on time, with top American Albacore sailor, Barney Harris, sailing a borrowed boat and crewed by fellow American Erika Seamon, leading the fleet into the first mark after starting from the slightly favoured port end of the line. Harris was never headed, but behind him a group led by Albacore veteran Neville Herbert crewed by Steve Penfold fought it out for second place. After 3 laps of the triangle, windward/leeward course, the positions finished Harris in 6701, Herbert in 6825, Orlando Gledhill crewed by Jon Frary, followed closely by Matt Potter and Mark Fowler in 7143, Richard Gray and Bill Law in 7985 and Lloyd Walker and Graham Sexton in 7506.
For Race 2 the Race Officer set an ambitious 4 laps of a triangle course. Gledhill and Gray were 1, 2 at the first mark, within half a length of each other, Gledhill having worked the right hand side and Gray coming from the middle. Gledhill pulled away on the reaches to open up a significant lead over the fleet by the leeward mark, which he held for the next lap and a half. Meanwhile, Harris and Herbert were working through the fleet to second and third with Gray falling to fourth, which he held to the finish. On the third lap, the breeze began to lighten significantly and began to die on the first reach, which became a run. As the wind began to fill in patchily from behind, Harris secured an inside overlap at the gybe mark and Herbert, who had gone low on the reach, narrowly missed an inside overlap on both. Harris rounded the gybe mark first onto a very tight second reach, looking for his second win in a row. In a puff just after the mark Gledhill luffed to go above him while Herbert tried to break through to leeward. The Race Officer signalled a shortened course and the three boats sailed neck-and-neck for the entire reach, crossing the finishing line within seconds of each other. Gledhill and Harris crossed the line unsure who had won the race, both slightly ahead of Herbert. The results showed that Gledhill had squeaked it.
The results at the end of the first day had Harris on 3 points (1, 2), Gledhill on 4 (1, 3) and Herbert on 5 (2, 3). It was clear that each of these three had the ability to recover from a bad first beat with good downwind speed and that they had a slight overall speed edge over the fleet. Potter/Fowler were showing good speed on the downwind legs but not always finding the groove upwind and Gray was fast upwind, but lacking a touch of pace at times on the reaches. Jeremy Rook crewed by James Wallaceshowed good consistent pace and strategy, but suffered from an OCS in Race 1.
The second day dawned with the wind coming off the Torquay hills from the West-Northwest with flatter water and shiftier conditions, the wind building to a solid force 3 gusting to force 4 with puffs to 5 at times. A large cruise ship moored just offshore meant that the racing area was slightly further from the harbour. Three races were scheduled. The beats were dominated by persistent shifts caused by small rain clouds dragging the breeze to one side or the other and it was important to look up the course and up to the clouds to try to see what was coming.
The Race Officer started Race 3 bang on time at 10.30, leaving a few competitors who missed the start of Race 3 wishing they had left the harbour earlier. The pin proved to be slightly favoured. Ptarmigan, crewed by Crawford Reid and Issy Martin were first by two lengths at the first mark, coming into the mark from the right hand side. Harris and Gledhill worked the left side of the beat, with poor results, Gledhill rounding about 8th and Harris further back. Good reaching speed saw Gledhill work through to third by the leeward mark and Harris a little further back in about 5th. By this stage Herbert had overhauled Crawford Reid pushing him to second place. In the first part of the second beat Gledhill managed to climb above Reid as the breeze shifted left and then put the bow down and got over him. Herbert and Gledhill worked the shifts up the middle of the course, Gledhill eating into Herbert’s lead. At the next windward mark, Herbert rounded first onto the run and did a gybe rounding to protect the inside track into the leeward mark. Gledhill continued on starboard gybe and rode a band of breeze into the leeward mark, slightly ahead of Herbert. The next beat saw Herbert and Gledhill exchanging the lead a few times in some close tactical sailing until the top of the beat, when, with Gledhill just leading and both boats slightly below the port layline, Herbert tacked off to find a wind shift to get past. However, a right shift came in and Herbert lost quite a bit of ground before the last windward mark rounding. Gledhill took a solid lead into the mark and managed to hold on over the next two reaches to the finish. Race 3 finished Gledhill, Herbert, Potter with Harris in 4th and Reid hanging on to 5th in his best race to that point.
The Race Team specialised in quick turnarounds between races and with the fleet finishing within a few minutes of the leading pack, Race 4 was quickly under way. The port end was again slightly favoured and Herbert and Harris took advantage, winning that end and tacking to cross the fleet at the first opportunity. Gledhill took their transoms to head out to the left with Walker where a band of breeze was coming down the course. That proved decisive and Gledhill and Walker were 1, 2 by some distance at the first mark. Gledhill pulled away during the reaches and was never headed, Harris and Herbert working through the fleet to finish 2nd and 3rd.
Again, a quick turnaround was made for Race 5, enabling them to fit 3 races in the day. A good number of the fleet were beginning to feel the strain in the legs after 4 long sitting out races over Friday afternoon and Saturday, but all but 2 of the fleet sailed all 3 races on the Saturday. Jean and Derek Simmons were rewarded with their best finish of the event, a 4th, and Stephen Brown, crewed by US visitor Christine Short, scored a 7th for his best race of the series.
This time the starboard end of the line proved slightly favoured and Gledhill started a few lengths down from the starboard end, with Rook winning the start and threatening to climb over to windward of him off the line. Harris and Herbert started slightly further down the line. Gledhill worked the shifts up the middle to round with a narrow lead over Herbert. Herbert and Gledhill had a close battle over the next three laps, the gap between the two boats extending and closing depending on the puffs and shifts. The second beat saw a significant windshift to the right and the third beat a shift to the left, but the beats remained square because of the excellent Royal Torbay race management.
At the end of day 2, Gledhill led by virtue of 3 race wins on day 2, but he had only a 4-point lead over Harris in second and 5 points on Herbert in third. With lighter winds forecast for day 3, the championship remained open.
The fleet left the harbour on Sunday morning for Race 6 in a Westerly force 1 gusting occasionally to 2. Big windshifts before the start led to the first postponement of the championship, but this was only for 20 minutes while the wind settled in and shifted to the right. Race 6 started in a Force 2. Harris won the slightly favoured port end and worked the left side to lead into the first mark. Gledhill rounded third after a poor start at the port end and closed the gap on the leaders on the reaches, Herbert rounding further back. On the second beat Gledhill overtook Harris half way up the beat, but Harris had regained the lead shortly after the windward mark, to lead down the run. The third beat was a similar story, with Gledhill just getting past Harris only to lose his lead at the top of the course to follow Harris round the final windward mark a length behind. Despite some small luffing battles on the second reach, the positions remained the same and Rook placed 3rd to consolidate his fightback from an OCS in Race 1.
With Herbert scoring a 4th in Race 6, the top 3 places could not be affected by Race 7, but Gledhill, Harris and Herbert all started the last race, which was sailed in a building force 3, gusting to 4. Gledhill worked the left of the beat and, after a large left hand shift, took a comfortable lead into the first mark from Rook in 2nd. Those positions did not change, but further back in the fleet, Harris and Herbert were both sailing their discards, Harris eventually coming back to 8th and Herbert retiring after 2 laps and a 720 penalty.
All in all, an excellent Championship, with immaculate race management and high-quality, close racing throughout the fleet.
With Speed plastic boats in 1st and 5th and the older wooden boats favoured by some competitors in 2nd to 4th overall, it is now clear that either can be competitive.

Final Results overall (discard):
1. Orlando Gledhill and Jon Frary, 8068, 7 points, (discard 3).
2. Barney Harris and Erika Seamon, 6701, 13 (8).
3. Neville Herbert and Steve Penfold, 6825, 16 (34).
4. Matt Potter and Mark Fowler, 7143, 27 (8).
5. Jeremy Rook and [ ], 7992, 31 (34).
Top female helm and top husband and wife team: Jean and Derek Simmons, 6439, 10th overall, 57 points (13).
Top club (based on teams of 3 boats each): Parkstone Yacht Club
Top helm competing in first Nationals: Jon Wood, 6917, 13th overall.