photos of racing at Poole YC by Mike Millard - click to expand
The 2008 English broke several records, with the first ever lady national champion in the form of Emma Barry and secondly it is believed this is the first National Championship to be completed over two different venues and in fact two different countries.
With 91 entries, record numbers for recent years, the Poole Yacht Club Mirror Nationals 2005 was set to be an extraordinary event and with the previous two times National Champion Dan Ellis not attending a new Champion would be named. The standard of entry was none the less exceptionally high, with champions from other classes competing and the 1978 National Champion returning in the Bronze Fleet.
The 40th Mirror National Championships took place at South Caernarvonshire YC, Abersoch in the week Sat 26 July to Fri 1 August. Impeccable organisation by Mike and Nicky Crompton made this one of the most popular Mirror Nationals, benefiting also from the generous sponsorship of Henri Lloyd, Vimto, Halliwell Landau Solicitors, the Yorkshire Building Society and Speed Sails. Fourteen-year old Dan Ellis was crowned with his brother James as possibly the youngest ever National Champion in a week that had winds to test much older and stronger of the 87 teams that entered.
Brightlingsea Sailing Club hosted the Mirror National Championships over the May Bank Holiday weekend. A large entry of 72 mirrors from all over the UK and Ireland were treated to some exhilarating sailing with gusts on the Sunday registering 30 knots. Seven out of the eight scheduled races were sailed with one discard allowed.
Photos by Jan Grieg-Gran?
The Nationals of 2001 will be remembered as a fantastic event run extremely well by Weston SC. The weather was good and it was one of the first nationals where sailing was possible on all three days, even though it took a while arriving on Saturday. It soon became clear, that numbers for the event were up, partly due to the RYA Youth Squads (National and Regional) which brought many new sailors to the championship.
Jan Grieg-Gran
