#moth – 2004 Olympic sailor Rory Fitzpatrick from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire has finished sixth at the 58–boat UK Moth National Championships.
The final day didn't provide the glamorous conditions of the previous two days, but the Stokes Bay Race Team, led by Principal Race Officer Mike Rayden, managed to complete the full series in marginal foiling conditions.
With Chris Rashley clearly out in front, the battle for second place overall was hot - just six points separated 5 boats going into the final day.
In the end Ben Paton just pipped Jason Belben thanks to a third place in the final race. The pair ended equal on points but Paton's greater number of second place results gave him the runners-up spot on the podium.
The fleet has gone through a lot since the Moth Nationals were last held at Stokes Bay and Jason reflected on the quality of the racing throughout the fleet, "I think if you compare it to last time we were here, which was about four years ago, there was a big spread then, but you can see how the whole boat has developed and the people sailing it have got used to waves and everyone's come closer together and we're all using similar equipment now. There's not a lot of difference in boat speed now."
Chris Rashley continued his blistering form to make it 11 wins from 12 races, with just the slight blemish of his 2nd place in race 1, but with two discards in the event he was still discarding a 1st place. - Mark Jardine
Full results here
