The Hadron H2 class was represented at the Endeavour Trophy ‘Champion of Champions’ event, held over the weekend of 12-13 October at Burnham on Crouch. The event was sailed in RS200s – a dinghy which is very familiar to our representative, Jack Holden. Jack came a very close second in the H2 Nationals last month and is deputising for National Champion Ian Sanderson, who has work commitments. Jack’s crew for the event was Sam Mottershead.
Jack Holden with his H2
Jack and Sam finished 9th overall – a very good effort in a top class fleet. Here are some comments from Jack:
“A thank you for allowing me to represent the Hadron H2 at the Endeavour trophy, 2019.
Fantastic event with exceptional competition in which we managed to come home 9th overall which I am really pleased with from a first attempt. From the 8 boats in front of us (16 sailors) 10 were or had been professional sailors.
I always think to myself at a Nationals that if I had a time machine and did the nationals a second time the day after it ended, I would have easily won every race because I would know exactly what the wind was doing. At the Endeavour however, you realise that if you went back a second time you still wouldn’t win because the quality of racing is so high and the front sailors simply wont make big mistakes…Annoyingly!
A surprising number of boats knew the Hadron H2 and had good things to say about the boat. I think for the relatively short time this boat has been in existence, it has built a solid reputation and it is becoming known as a good, well designed and well built boat with tough competition. I think it is very easy for a boat to get a bad reputation for things like breakages or level of competition, especially in its early days so don’t take this lightly. It is something to be proud of that the class is being well received.
Day 1: A very light wind day, learning the venue while trying to race! LOTS of tide which turned during the six hour day, making things very tricky.
Best bit of the day: Simply being in the mix with some of the best sailors in the world was enough.
Worst bit of the day: Not being able to go round the windward mark because of no wind and lots of tide. Very embarrassing. Luckily we had a silver medallist next to us who was also struggling.
How to have improved: Lose 3 stone, be better at gaining the little places. It’s the 1 point here and 1 point there that pushes your result up, not being the fastest boat.
Day 2: A medium, eventually going to very windy day with lots of tide against you downwind in strong breeze.
Best bit of the day: Watching some of the best sailors capsize the boat in dramatic style and making you realise everyone makes mistakes.
Worse bit of the day: When we dropped the kite and tacked round because I felt we were going too fast to gybe!!!……… Don’t judge me.
How to have improved: Not being aggressive enough or willing to take more risk on start lines to try to achieve a better start.
Thank you again for allowing me to represent the class. It was an honour.
