Watergate Course Racing in the sun

BKSA National Course Racing Championships round 1

Location – Watergate Bay

Sponsors- Extreme Academy

Dates – April 9^th-10^th

PRESS RELEASE

The BKSA kicked off the new season with a return to Watergate Bay for round 1 of the National Course Racing Championships.

The competitors were greeted with an abundance of sunshine however little wind but great surf on the Friday!

However the new course boards do not require a lot of breeze to get going and on Saturday the wind forecasted was SE 20 knots which is bang offshore – not a problem for the new kit

Saturday dawned with a stronger than expected offshore winds – competitors registered and waited for the tide to drop so they could get out to the start line at 11am

Three races were to be held back to back however after race one we had to alter the course as the wind had shifted.

It was great to see how riders had improved over the winter and it was a very close race and positions changed widely in the top 10 except for 2008 and 2009 British Champion and local Cornish chap Denzil Williams who took all 3 races .

Each race is two laps of an upwind/ downwind course which took approx 12 minutes for the top finisher the rest of the fleet had 15minutes to complete the course

Racers then came if for a rest , change of larger kites as the wind had dropped a bit and a late lunch the next 3 back to back races starting at 3pm

Three times World Champion Steph Bridge on a 13m kite took all 3 races with son Ollie Bridge close behind

Other great performances in the 6 races were 2010 Britsih Champion Callum Edge, Gareth Morgan, Steve Stubbs and Ben Todd who all showed each other very close fishes the smallest being 1/2 second between Callum and Ben who took the win in race 5

Sunday had a forecast for light Northwesterly which did come up however enough to race however the sun and surf was enjoyed by all

Prize giving was held at 2 pm who would be the winner the top 3 had the same amount of points however after one discarded race allowed the final positions were announced with only one point between each of the top 3

Ollie Bridge was awarded the “King of Watersports” prize for best newcomer

Final standings

1-       Denzil Williams Fone/ Escape

2-       Steph Bridge North/ Edge Watersports

3-       Ollie Bridge North / Edge Watersports

 

 Full results

 

Thanks to Alison, Claire and Judi of the Extreme Academy

Race Crew Ben Granata and his team , Anton from Soundworxs and Will Richardson race director