mirrorweek

A great turn out for this years Mirror Week with 66 entrants... conditions have been varied, with some strong winds at times - here's some pics of the action to date...click on the images below for a larger version...best to wait for all pics to load before clicking...

for more pics - click here...

Championship Report by Jonathan Sharp

South Caernarvonshire YC hosted their annual Mirror Week at Abersoch from August 7^th to 11^th sponsored by West Coast Surf and Abersoch Boat Yard. In only its fourth year the informal but well organised racing attracted sixty-five boats making this one of the UK’s largest Mirror events.

Instigator Mike Crompton designed the series to encourage family racers of all abilities to take part. The large fleet normally have only two back to back races each day run on triangular, in-shore courses from the committee yacht Kristoria. Racing was lost on Tuesday to high winds, safety and an enjoyable week being key issues. Wednesday had an optional non-counting race in high winds for experienced crew only with Thursday having four races to make up.

At the sharp end of the fleet newly crowned UK Youth Champion Nicki Birrell, crewed on this occasion by Richard Cornes, from Winsford Flash took early charge, winning the first two races. They only had to discard a fifth en route to an assured victory.

An impressive all girl crew of Nikki and Sarah Sharp from Budworth made best use of the windier four races on Thursday to keep a mathematical chance of winning on Friday but failing that still secured a comfortable second overall, first Lady Helm and first All Girl Crew having sailed consistently at the front all week.

Christian Birrell (the victor’s brother and usual crew) was given a boat for the week and preceded to demonstrate his helming skills crewed by Kim Pickering. By dint of a gifted win in the last race he pipped Tom Crompton/Ben Cooke (Budworth/SCYC) to third by a single point, Tom giving a performance that still included two race wins.

Peter Gray and Simon Forbes (Staunton Harold) finished fifth with one race win ahead of ex Laser National Champion, Richard Robinson (SCYC). The Hughes family from Hollingworth finished seventh and eighth, son beating father ex GP racer David, winner in 1998 but now finding the young teams difficult to beat. The fleet included many luminaries including RS400 and Melges National Champion Mike Budd sailing with his son, reflecting the nature of the week.

Well done to all competitors, organisers and helpers - see you next year. Thanks also to the "Hollyoaks" girls who very kindly presented the trophies we will try and post up on these pages all photos taken of the racing and presentation...