Hectic Few Weeks for Our British Slalom Champion

It has been a hectic few weeks. After successful BSA Harwich event and a semi-successful Slalom Worlds in Croatia.

It was time to head to Clacton for the 4th round of the British Slalom Championships.

Saturday was notable for a large number of the fleet finding themselves becalmed in a ripping tide. There was an unattractive option of trying to make it ashore before being dragged under the pier or to stay further out and await rescue. Three RIBs worked for a good 45 minutes bringing sailors in. I was one of the last rescued and must have drifted a good 2km along the coast by the time they retrieved me.

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Sunday eventually brought some wind but it stayed with us only long enough to complete one elimination. It wasn’t smooth sailing on my part. I managed to knock my watch as I gybed to start my run-up and so had no clue as to the timing. I guesstimated my start off the rest of the fleet and with excellent board speed on my iS134/R& 9.2 I made it to the first mark in second behind Ross Williams. The problem was that I was only just ahead of Kev Greenslade and gybing under considerable pressure. I didn’t manage to carry any speed and Kev passed me on the inside and I finished third. My team-mate Leigh wasn’t far behind me in fourth.

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So it was another one-elimination-event with the potential that a bad result could big-time affect overall championship standings come the end of the year. In that light I have to say a third place is OK and it means that I am (just) hanging on to the lead in the overall BSA ranking albeit without any discards in play at this stage.

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Another positive was that for the first time this year I felt I had genuinely competitive board speed on my big gear so that is a big confidence boost going into BSA Worthing in two weeks.

Authors: jamesdinsmore

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