The Scorpion inlands at Grafham saw strong performances for the latest HD Scorpion sails as Tom Jeffcoate & Mark Hogan finished 2nd and Andy Mckee & Tarren Jones finished 3rd overall winning half of the races between them. Shifty and gusty conditions greeted a very strong fleet of 24 for 6 very close races in testing conditions. Saturday saw the 2 HD sails boats in dominant form scoring 1,3,1 and 3,1,2 respectively to occupy the top 2 spots overnight. Some missed shifts in the first 2 races on Sunday allowed 2 other boats into the mix and going into the last race Tom & Mark were tied with Tom Gillard & Andy Thompson with Andy & Tarren 1 point behind and with former National Champions Dave Wade & Ben Rayner a further point back. Tom & Mark and Tom & Andy broke clear from the rest of the fleet and after 4 laps with barely more than a couple of boat lengths between them it was Tom & Andy who just managed to get water at the last mark and hold on to win by less than 1/2 a boat length and take the inland title. 4th for Andy & Tarren in the last race was enough to secure 3rd spot overall. Overall another successful event for HD sails with some great boat speed only let down by the occassional driver error creating plenty of optimism for the next open at Chew Valley in 3 weekends time.
Championship-winning designs, made by championship-winning sailors.