John Pollard Takes Third Successive UK National Title

The 2008 UK National Championships were held in Guernsey over a very windy long weekend. After a postponement two races were sailed with A Team Westaway winning both races. Further racing was cancelled as it was getting dark.

Next day racing was brought forward to start at nine and three further high wind races were sailed before racing was abandoned for the day with gusts of 33 knots recorded.

The race officer did a fantastic job in getting five quality races in to give a discard.

That evening a great Melges event was held at the Guernsey Yacht Club. The John Merriciks trophy was presented to A Team Xcellent and John Pollard in turn presented this to class legend Rob Smith who gave a moving recollection of John Merricks after which the bucket was handed around raising £250 for the trust.

Next day there was no let up in the wind and further racing was cancelled. The prize giving was held in the morning with Pollards team consisting of himself, Rob Smith, Mickey Shwartz and Fred Kemp winning the championship for the 3rd time, with five first places.

Pollard was also elected as Class Chairman and looks forward to increasing enthusiasm and numbers in the UK and channel islands of this fantastic sports boat. His message to the class was ‘Spread the word and help all who join or show interest’.

Photo by Katina Read : : Report by John Pollard: :

Overall results:
xcellent 111111
mad cap 32222
white rabbit 23363
first Corinthian mad cap
john meriks xcellent