Astral Azure 2000 Class Nationals at Castle Cove Sailing Club
Published 4:26pm on 28 Aug 2022
It was champagne conditions for the 2000 National Championships at Castle Cove. The class recognized the tremendous race management led by Bill Barker and wonderful relaxed shore back up managed on behalf of the Club by the Pascoe Family.
A very healthy fleet of 57 boats registered and raced at the event. One of the great things about the 2000 is that it caters for everyone regardless of age, gender and size. So this year the racing featured 6 year old Ben Pascoe winning three races, 89 year old Ernie Hatton nearly getting round a windward mark in the top five, an Olympic gold medallist, Lijia Xu (Lily) from 2012, people who only started sailing two years ago, a very healthy number of parents racing very competitively with their children and an increase in the number of female helms.
The week started with very gentle winds with 6-8 knots for the first three races. An extremely sensible decision to move the lay day from Wednesday to Tuesday allowed racing to take place on Wednesday in nice medium winds and easily catching up the lost race. One of many great calls made by PRO Bill Barker and his excellent team. Their rapid laying of the alternative windward mark during races kept true courses throughout.
The final two days racing then took place in total champagne conditions of blue skies, sunshine and glamour winds of 13-20 knots. Literally something for everyone. Another genius move was to have an ice cream van at the club after racing on the hottest day when we tallied off; free ice creams for all competitors thanks to Astral Azure.
Sam Pascoe was Castle Cove's main coordinator for the event and he had the ideal preparation for the event by catching an over night ferry from Cork where he had just finished second overall at the 505 Worlds to arrive home at 04.00 the day the Championship started. Luckily his son Ben was up to the task and guided Sam through to win the first three races by big distances. How Sam hung on up wind in the breeze later in the week to still score numerous top ten results I will never know. His second overall was remarkable.
The class act though was Lijia Xu (Lily) (CCSC) and Callum Farnden who put in a near faultless display to record results never outside the top seven, using a borrowed boat. Always getting glorious starts it was very hard to remember them missing a shift upwind. You may recall that Lily was the women's Laser Radial gold medallist at the 2012 Olympics. She has now made Weymouth her base/home and Castle Cove is her home club.
Talking to her afterwards, the 2000 Nationals is the first event since 2016 Olympics in Rio where she had finished the full series of races due to ongoing shoulder injuries. It is also the first time she has done an event in a boat with shrouds and the first time in a two-person boat. Rumour has it was Thursday before she told Callum they were tacking in advance!
Defending champions Rob and Sarah Burridge were one of the few boats able to consistently challenge Lily but frequently finally lost very close tussles to eventually finish third overall. Just behind in fourth were their club mates Paul "Spanner" Cullen and Richard "Fresh" Abendstern who showed real speed in the fresher condition.
Fifth overall was another Weirwood boat father and daughter Jonathan and Louisa Ching who scored a fine race win on Wednesday and earning Louisa a Champagne Moment for her first win.
In sixth place was newcomer to the fleet Pete Vincent with last minute stand-in crew Sophie Bentley who he had never met until Monday's race. Just behind were previous National Champions Simon and Katie Horsfield in seventh with first youth helm Johnny Sargent eighth overall.
Events like these are not possible without the sterling efforts of the Castle Cove Sailing Club volunteers and the generosity of our sponsors:
Astral Azure Ltd,
Noble Marine Insurance,
Rooster Sailing,
Cerne Abbas Brewery
and
Fernhurst Books.
The 2000 Class Association is supported by RS Sailing
If you want to know more about 2000 Class sailing then contact Mark Foley on publicity@2000class.org or 078 3333 2055.
Class websites are: 2000class.org / facebook.com/2000classassociation
The content of this article was taken from the full article published in Yachts and Yachting on 26th August 2022 by Pete Vincent.
Photograph © Rich Bowers.
Article and Full results can be found HERE