Top Firefly Guy

Guy Davison writes about his trip to the Firefly National Championships (the 79th!) - a great competitive event and a great holiday in Lyme Regis, in August.

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Though I love sailing and racing on our lake, there is still something extra to enjoy when sailing on the open sea, and this year threw up some extra delights in the form of the fleet dolphin and how each day “Sushi” cavorted around and even jumped with a marvelous splash on re-entry, better than waterworld.

With 75 Fireflies at our Lyme Regis venue, it was great to meet up again with friends and families who I’ve raced against now for a few good years. I was a fresh 18-year-old when I first did a National Championship, so now I race parents and their offspring and the youth now beat us all on occasion!

The excitement of the event starts early in the year, and locating accommodation at venues like Lyme Regis, Felixstowe, Abersoch and Tenby (our 2026 venue for the 80th Anniversary Nationals) has to be booked months ahead with coastal resorts being so popular. Sharing with friends a holiday let, or campsite, is definitely part of the fun.

Obviously dinghy prep has to be done, as sea sailing for 6 days will find that fraying control line or faulty jamming cleat!  I even smooth off the foils with wet and dry ending with 1,000 grade.  Then packing the boat, selecting one’s best sails and checking the road worthiness of the trailer, all jobs to tick off.  Nothing is ever worse than a bald/burst tyre on the way! I always pack 2 spare wheels for any serious length trip, and it usually works as I’ve not had a problem for a while…..

The first day at the event is always busy, with boat scrutineering, looking at class rule compliance and seaworthiness.  This year we had Adam Withey the RYA Tec Sec on site actually aiding with measuring.

Sailing Instructions are then the next job, and familiarising oneself and crew with the start procedures, fixed line or gate start, and course configurations - we had 6 for the PRO to choose from this time!  Usually the courses are a mix of triangles, sausages and trapezoidal.  Because the fleet is large and the sea and weather can be unpredictable, there is a tally system to abide by before launching.  Knowing the  International Flag Signals is always helpful too.  Race teams use these obviously to communicate with the fleet both when ashore and at sea.

Being a 6 day event we run usually 8 or 9 races and crews aim to accumulate a good series of places and we can discard the worst result in the final scoring total.  This makes for sometimes conservative sailing, not wanting to risk a poor result by taking too big a risk on the course.  Starting well then takes on considerable importance and finding a clear air lane is an urgent priority once the start gun has gone.  Gate starts funnily enough give more boats that chance and are easier for the PRO to gat the fleet away without use of the U and Black Flags, and it saves hanging about for multiple restarts.

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Above: a "gate start," in which a nominated competitor starts to beat to the first mark on port tack - followed by a race-management boat. All other competitors start on starboard tack crossing the gate boat's (and following race-management boat's) transom. The gate remains open for a fixed time, when the gate-boat may tack onto starboard and continue to race normally. 

My results this year were ok as my Ninja Crew Sally, had to endure appendicitis four weeks before the event.  So, we actually only raced on four days, with another kind volunteer crew helping me out on a windier race day. We gained a credible 26th overall, but I was delighted with 4 four results being in or around the top ten places, especially with so many good racers in the fleet.

It is worth adding that maybe a week at a championships is a big leap for sailors at the start of their racing journey.  Most dinghy classes have an annual events calendar of Open Meetings.  Being one day or weekend events, this is a great way of experiencing the challenges and fun of sailing in different venues, against other crews in some of the marvelous waters we enjoy here in the UK.  Results of course matter but it’s the taking part that makes it so worthwhile, and you’ll make friends for life in the process!