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Countdown to Endeavour Trophy

30th September 2011
Countdown to Endeavour Trophy
A total of 25 UK champion sailors including last year's winning crew – Christian Birrell – have signed up for this year's Endeavour Trophy, which is taking place at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham-on-Crouch in a week's time (7-9 October).

This invitation-only event, to determine the overall dinghy champion of champions from the UK's most popular dinghy racing classes, goes from strength to strength, with last year's 50th anniversary event attracting a record number of 30 champions.

Because winning the Endeavour Trophy is, and has always been, recognised as an ultimate achievement in British dinghy racing, the competition is exceptionally challenging. Those who qualify for the event through winning their own class championship are given the opportunity to race equally talented sailors in a unique, highly demanding two-day event on the River Crouch, and win not only the Endeavour title, but also an entry to the British Virgin Islands' Pro-Am Regatta at Bitter End Yacht Club (29 October–5 November). The Endeavour Trophy winner will join the Pro line-up, which this year includes Ed Baird (6-time Pro-Am winner and current skipper for Quantum Racing), Peter Holmberg, Anna Tunnicliffe, Paul Cayard, Dave Ullman, Russell Coutts and Zack Railey.

To ensure the Endeavour Trophy event is made as fair as possible – taking into account the diverse entry, which includes singlehanded, doublehanded, heavy and lightweight crews – racing takes place in carefully selected, strict one-designs. Owing to the success of the last six years, the Ian Howlett-designed Topper Xenon is the chosen class once again. Not only does this particular design offer an ideal all-up crew weight range of between 18-24 stone (114-152 kilos), but also because it has no class championship, there is no class champion to gain an unfair advantage.

Topper, who have specifically built and kindly loaned the fleet of 25 brand-new Xenons for the event, have been working closely with Hyde who are supplying sails, Selden the masts, English Braids the ropes, and Allen Brothers the fittings. Together they have been able to produce an 'Endeavour boat' that is arguably the most fair choice of class in the history of the event.

The Calltracks-sponsored pre-event training session on the Friday, run by ABC for Winning coach Adam Bowers, will be followed by a pasta meal in the evening. The eight-race, seven to count Endeavour Trophy series gets underway at 1030 on the Saturday morning (8 October) with the plan to run five, 45-minute races back-to-back on windward/leeward courses. The remaining three races will take place on Sunday morning.

Endeavour Trophy 2011 Entries

Class                       Helmsman                              Crew
Albacore                 Thomas Gillard                     Andy Tompson
B14                           Mike Bees                               Martin Worth
Cadet                       Ben Hazeldine                       -
Enterprise              Christian Birrell                     -
Fireball                    Chips Howarth                      -
Firefly                       Ben Vines                                -
GP14                        Stuart Bithell                           -
Lark                           Alan Krailing                           Tim Linsell
Laser 2000            Graham Sexton                    Katrina Harborne
Merlin Rocket       Andy Davis                              Tom Pygall
Miracle                     Sam Mettam                          Geoff Phillips
Mirror                        Rory Ruairidh                        Mackenzie Calum Mackenzie
National 12            Tom Stewart                          Rachel Williamson
OK                             Nick Craig                                Toby Lewis
Osprey                    Matt Burge                               Tim Needham
Phantom                Andy Couch                            Martin Couch
RS Feva                 Owen Bowerman                Charlie Darling
RS100                     Paul Childs                             Toby Harris
RS200                     James Peters                        -
RS300                     Steve Bolland                        Pete Cruickshank
RS500                     Alex Taylor                              Tom Halhead
RS800                     Stevie Wilson                        Alain Sign
Scorpion                 Tom Jeffcoate                       Mark Hogan
Topper                     Giles Kuzyk                            Adam Cockerill
Wayfarer                David Wade                           John Meadowcroft

Published in Racing
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