Nationals form guide

With the GB Nationals almost upon us I figured someone ought to do a bit of a form guide for it!

1. Simon Payne
The old boy has been at the top of his game for so long now, it's hard to see any of the young pretenders knocking him off the top spot. Super fit and going fast, but lacking in the marginal stuff where he used to be king.

2. Mike Lennon
Put in some solid results this year in his new M2. Will he pull some new sail out of the bag to give him that extra edge? Will his boat work for an entire regatta?

3. Adam May
You can never discount Adam from the top of the UK fleet and with his dissapointing result in Horsens you can bet he will be back with a vengeance - as long as he can keep his hacksaw away from his foils and his gantry attached...

4. DJ Edwards
Local (ish, he lives in Wales at least!) boy Dave was going fast at Corus at the end of last season but hasn't been seen since. A sailor of his pedigree won't have been sitting idle.

5. Rod Harris
"He's just a good club sailor", but capable of going very fast in breeze and rapidly getting his Prowler very well sorted. May become distracted by alternative use of the tiller.

6. James Roche
James has been struggling to find the form he had with the "Flying Lime" in his new boat, but in light airs he's very quick and probably does more of that cycling/fitness stuff than the rest of the fleet put together...

7. Andrew Friend
Always there or thereabouts in his BR, the mad professor of the Moth fleet. Usually has some crazy contraption on his mind so will be interesting to see if he's come up with anything.

8. Robin Wood
Another local laddy, Robin knows what it takes to win Moth regattas and with his very light weight should be a force to be reckoned with in the marginal stuff. Not very long in the boat yet though - he will be up there soon enough.

9. Jason Russell
Jif has been the best of the rest at a lot of the regattas this year but for some reason really struggled at Horsens with a load of boat mods before the event. Hopefully he will have it all tuned up in time for Saundersfoot.

10. Gary Ireson
Been out of the country most of this year, so lacking in time on the water but he will be keen to get back in the mix. May become distracted by Rods tiller...


There are always others that get missed/forgotten in this sort of thing, Geoff Carveth for one - will his SB3 commitments clash? Will Doug Pybus Franken-NinjaProwler hold together for an event? Will Adrian Murphy be allowed out from Work? Has Jason Belben got a boat yet?
Then there is me. In the true spirit of the form guide, you dont rate yourself. Been going fast in the light stuff and Denmark was a surprise in that I wasn't slow in the windy stuff either. I've got a few extra toys on the boat since the Euro's but haven't really had time to get them truely pimped up so we shall see what happens I suppose...