34 Mirrors gathered on the south coast in great sunshine at Itchenor on the 5th & 6th September for the Southern Championships which also incorporated the 2009 Youth and Junior championships and a Southern Traveller event. It was the first championships since the successful Nationals and Worlds in Pwllheli earlier in the summer and a number of regular competitors were missing having moved on to other classes. However, there was a good turn out of local boats bringing new faces to the fleet a couple of boats from Cornwall and l from the North travelled from Windermere.The race officer set 7 great courses throughout the weekend which tested local knowledge and sailing skills.
I understand this was scheduled for Poole YC 21st & 22nd June. As only one race was held at the Nationals at Llandudno (in May), that was not enough for a valid championship, so the remaining races towards the Nationals took place at the same time as the Southern Areas. There is a full report of this event.
Itchenor Sailing Club once again hosted the Mirror Southerns on Saturday and Sunday 16th and 17th June.
A great turnout of 31 boats saw very varied conditions over the two days. The Race Commitee decided to divide the 6 races evenly - so Saturday saw 3 races held in very windy and very wet conditions.
Round 4 of the Selden Mirror Nationwide Series came to Hill Head SC over the August Bank Holiday weekend, incorporating the Southern Area Championships. If that was not enough it was the last National Squad selection event. This ensured that entries come from all over the UK from as far afield as Penzance and Windermere.
It was Saturday the 17th of September, and Itchenor was looking at its best in the bright (if slightly cold) sunshine for the first day of the Mirror Southerns. As Itchenor had only hosted two Mirror open meetings before this, and never a championship as large as the Southerns, this was by no means an easy task for the class captain, Sarah FitzGerald and the many other people who helped to make the event happen.
With a forecast for light winds and roaring tides, the sailing was never going to be easy, but this didn't put off the forty-seven mirrors that entered, Peter Gray even turning up to the event without a crew or a place to stay!
