Chew Valley Lake SC very successfully hosted the 2013 insurance4dinghies.com RS Feva Inland Championships on June 22/23. Fifty boats from across the country battled the windy weather to compete in probably the windiest event in the class’s history. The forecast was 15 – 30 knots but luckily the valley gave a little shelter resulting in only a few 25 knot gusts, but mainly an exhausting but exhilarating 15 knot average through the weekend.
Six boats from the club battled it out against the elements and though none of our boats managed to make it into the top half of the fleet overall they all proved themselves capable of getting there, with Jess Harding/Milly Godfrey coming 15th in one race and Cristian Edmonds/Rafe Watson 19th in another. Milo Gordon/Reuben Woodbridge and Michael Dennis/Keir Williams were not far behind with a 22nd and a 23rd respectively. Alice Edmonds and Liz Widdicombe kept going, completed 5 races and it was a great confidence boost for them to have completed the weekend in such challenging conditions. Ben Sykes and Max Carter did extremely well to complete even one race but hung on and finished 3 races. Hopefully they will be fired up to get themselves a boat. Top Chew boat after a weekend of hard sailing was Jess and Millie consistently showing some great starting and upwind speed.
Well done to Elliott Wells & Jake Todd from Hayling Island SC who won the event with four firsts and a 2nd. Thanks to everyone involved from the club for running such a great event, plus insurance4dinghies.com & the local Force 4 Chandlery for sponsoring the prizes. Thanks also to Reuben Woodbridge for running a number of training sessions for the Chew Feva sailors in the run up to the event.
For those wanting more details there’s a good write up on Y&Y http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/170324/insurance4dinghiescom-RS-Feva-Inlands
and some great photos on our flickr site taken by Errol Edwards CLICK HERE