Torbay once again proves to be a sailing paradise

The Silver Anniversary of the 2000 class National Championship proved to be a showcase for superb sailing in Torbay, and all down to the amazing work of Royal Torbay Yacht Club.

With one day to go the overall was seriously tight throughout the fleet, writes Pete Vincent from YachtsandYachting.com. 1st and 2nd overall were separated by 2 points, 3rd/4th overall were on the same points, 5th to 10th covered by 5 points and the top 5 in the Bronze fleet covered by 4 points.

After a dodgy weather day on Thursday, Torbay produced for the Friday. It was ‘if Carlsberg did final days at Championships, this was it’; sunshine, blue skies, 10-15 knots from WSW, spot on race management and ear to ear smiles.

Race 9 and Ollie/Esther led from mark 1 just ahead of the Connellan's and Pete Vincent/Sophie Bentley. After 2 more laps Ollie/Esther were still in the lead but could not shake off Pete/Sophie who then hooked into a little bit of extra pressure in the final quarter of the last run to get the overlap at the final leeward mark to win.

The Connellan's were 3rd with Adrian/Ros Stell having a fine championship in 4th. The final race felt a carbon copy with the same 3 boats in the same order at the first mark but this time Ollie/Esther marshalled the fleet well to score a fine win to take overall victory at be crowned the Astral Azure 2024 2000 National Champions.