Seven Marconi boats travelled to the Dart 18 World Championships hosted at Bridlington in early August. The opportunity to compete in a fleet of 140 boats in UK waters was too good to miss! The Dart 18 fleet consists of some extremely talented sailors so it was a great opportunity to sail with them and learn from the experts.
To read more about our exploits – visit our Event Report: Marconi at the Dart 18 Worlds
The event was superbly organised by the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club at Bridlington and based from their beautiful sandy beach. A full range of social activities were laid on every day in addition to a schedule of ten races over five days, preceded by practice racing on the Saturday.
The weather did its best to ruin things with cool temperatures, strong winds and a day of driving rain thereby re-enforcing the stereotypical English summer to our European guests! The practice race went ahead in breezy conditions on the Saturday, but strong winds cancelled sailing on the Sunday. Monday had three races and Tuesday only one race due, ironically, to light winds. Wednesday was cancelled due to very strong onshore winds and bad sea state together with driving rain!
Two races were completed on Thursday but the strong winds and 2m waves dented participation and a final two races were completed on Friday, also in strong winds, but flatter seas. The conditions were punishing and Team Marconi had its fair share of capsizes but the boats and crew were all relatively unscathed and enjoyed some fantastic racing in big conditions and big fleets. The thirteen sailors are also very grateful to the extensive Marconi support crew on hand to help with launching and recovery after four to six hours on the water.
Jason Clarke and Jenny Ball were highest placed Marconi boat, coming 18th and winning the highest placed newcomer trophy. Jon Pearse sailed all eight races without capsizing and single handed which was very impressive given the conditions. Rob Clay and Scarlett Cobb managed to get the most pictures taken by the official photographer and Nigel and Karen did a good job of turning their mast into a banana shape. Christophe and Amelie had the most Marconi capsizes and Andrew and Emma hands down had the best practice race position. Finally, Pete Richardson and Kyle Tibbs acted as official interpreters as Pete is from “the north” and therefore Bridlington folks could understand him. Well done to all the Marconi competitors.
Full results for the World Championships are here.
Full results for the UK National Championships are here.
