Streaker Southern Championship 2024 at Bartley Sailing Club

(L-R) Alan Bishop, Sam McKay and Steve Blackburn - Streaker Southern Championship at Bartley © Sue Firth

This year's Streaker Southern Championship, held at Bartley SC on Sunday 29th September, also counted as the final event in the HD Sails Southern Paddle series but the hoped for crowd of southern-based Streakers didn't materialise and, of the nine entrants, only five were southerners. What's worse is that, as it turned out, the top four places were taken by northerners!

The two morning races were held back-to-back in a southerly breeze blowing across the reservoir and the course consisted of three beats, three runs and a nice long reach each lap. That would have been straightforward if the breeze hadn't been so shifty. At times it was hard to work out which mark to be heading for!

In race 1 Sam McKay soon had a good lead while the rest of the pack were busy fighting among themselves but, towards the end of the first lap, Sam made a navigational error allowing Veronica Falat to catch up and then these two managed to pull clear and eventually Sam took the win with Veronica second. Dave Borrett was third just ahead of Neil Firth and Steve Blackburn.

Race 2 was the same course but now the gusts were getting stronger and the shifts were even more dramatic. Sam again did well on the first beat, this time accompanied by Alan Bishop and these two were never caught by the bunch in which six boats were changing places on each leg of the course. Gradually Steve Blackburn got clear in third but the scrap continued with the other boats criss-crossing each other again and again in the gusts and shifts.

The fleet came in for lunch but the wind was soon too strong for further racing to take place and so, with two wins, Sam was the clear winner of the event. However the next four boats all tied with 8 points! On count-back, Alan Bishop was runner-up and Steve Blackburn third.

In the HD Sails Southern Paddle series, the winner for 2024 is Simon Gillow from Chipstead SC. Veronica Falat is second and Matt Whitfield third.

The Bartley event also counted towards the Streaker Midland series and the winner is Peter Gray from Staunton Harold SC.

An important part of the prize-giving was the draw for the HD Sails prize sail. To be in with a chance of winning it, you have to be a class member and have sailed in at least one Southern Paddle race - but the more races you do, obviously the better your chances.

This year the winner was James Dawes - but as he works for HD Sails, he's kindly said the sail can be drawn for again! So that draw will take place again at our End of Season Championships at Beaver SC on October 19th.

Thank you to Bartley SC for providing two challenging races and friendly support ashore. And we love the custom-made glass artwork presented as prizes!

Overall Results: