Don't forget to get your entry in before the end of July to get the reduced entry rate. It's not that far away now.

I am so sorry that it has taken so long but at last the Paypal button is available to pay for the 2013 nationals. You can find it on the nationals page under the Events tab above. Please forgive me

If your browsers cache has expired, or even if you cleared it yourself you will have found yourself on this nice new shiny website for the class. I have moved it over to a new platform as the old one was out of date and therefore at risk security wise. This site is a little quicker and things generally seem to work a little better than they did before.

There is still a little work to be done on it, but I'm getting there, so please bear with me

A big thanks to Ollie Shaw for giving us the up to date results following the event at Pennine SC. You can find them under the events tab above.

The second Crewsaver super series event took place at Stone sailing club on the black water over the weekend of 10th/11th June. Competitors were met with full on sunshine and a force 3 which built during the afternoon to give perfect Phantom conditions.

The first race got away with local sailor Neil Fulcher and first time visitor Nick Orman from Castle Cove/Sutton Bingham showing first at the windward mark, with Tyler Harmsworth, Shoreham and Paul Beesley, Thorpe Bay in close attendance, the P shaped course provided some excellent reaches, the whole fleet stayed quite bunched for the first lap. Harmsworth made his way past Orman and Fulcher downwind to take the lead, Fulcher regained the lead on the next beat just rounding in front of Harmsworth, Orman and Beesley were having a battle royal behind with Orman managing to keep his nose ahead. Harmsworth again took the lead on the first reach a started to pull away until he encountered a vision problem up the final beat when he lost his glasses over the side, whilst attempting to recover them (lost cause really, as without them he couldn’t see) both Fulcher and Orman passed. Giving up on recovery Harmsworth carried on trying to keep close enough to Fulcher to find the marks. Orman got himself stuck in irons during a tack for what seemed like a life time letting Beesley through to third and Rod Thorpe, Creeksea through to Fourth.

The second race started with the breeze freshening, the windward mark saw James Case, Wells SC (welcome back to the fleet) first just rounding in front of Orman, Fulcher, Harmsworth and Beesley, Harmsworth again made his way to the front and started to pull out a comfortable lead which he maintained to the finish, behind the next 4 boats positions were changing like a game of snakes and ladders, upwind and down, Beesley used his superior down wind speed to take second ahead of Fulcher, Orman and Case.

Race 3 got underway after a short delay due the changing tide, which caught a few out at the start. Windward mark saw the usual suspects Fulcher lead with Harmsworth, Case, Orman, Thorpe and Beesley, Fulcher and Harmsworth battled all the way until again Harmsworth again sneaked past downwind (must be a weight thing). This race saw a number of retirements as the breeze strengthened, With the course tweaked to allow for the tide there were two fantastic fully hiked reaches to fly down. At the finish Harmsworth took the gun followed by Fulcher and Case, Orman crossed next to silence (the start of a trend) moving Thorpe up to fourth with Beesley fifth. Back on shore those who wanted watched some football game that had been recorded for them while the rest sat in the sun with Stella. The evening continued with a excellent meal at the club and banter with the Snipe fleet.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, but unfortunate'y the breeze was also taking time off to sunbathe as well. Racing did get underway at midday in a light breeze that by all accounts should have built with the sea breeze, but didn’t. Orman and Harmsworth made the best of the first beat finding enough breeze to beat the tide, Case and Beesley were close behind. The ride down tide was pain full at times, Orman kept his concentration to lead through the gate the first lap, the next beat saw Case change up a gear finding more breeze on the right of the beat to take the lead at the windward mark.

Orman rounded just ahead of Harmsworth but then made a tactical mistake when he elected to try and cross in front of a cruiser making his way down tide, this allowed Harmsworth through to second. The race officer shortened to two laps with Case nearly throwing it away by over standing the finish as the wind swung, Harmsworth Second, Orman third, Beesley fourth. Race two started after the course was reset to the slightly steadier breeze. Case made no mistakes and lead from start to finish with Harmsworth, Beesley, Orman and Chris Roberts, Creeksea SC having a better race only to find he was OSC along with Beesley and Orman (again, must have been all that laser sailing he used to do) This promoted Nigel Blake of NH&EB into third, Fulcher to fourth and Jim Frost, Buckingham SC to fifth (good to see as he had put his back out during the second race on Sunday).

The final race started in the best breeze of the day, sadly it only lasted for half of the first beat, when it dropped and started shifting left, Case again aced the first beat with Orman on his heels, these two started to pull away from the rest until the wind went walkabouts coming and going from every direction, the whole fleet was reversed at one point. The race officer shortened as the fleet made its way to the down wind gate. Beesley was 10 yards from winning until the rest of the fleet blanketed him on the bear away to the mark Dave Hawkins, Denver SC found some extra momentum to take the gun, Orman slipped over second , Beesley third and Case recovering to Fourth. Back on shore tales of frustration and elation were exchanged until the prize giving. Superseries prizes were supplied by Crewsaver and taken from their fantastic new range of dinghy clothing and included the new Sphere cag.

As generous as ever, additional prizes were donated by Seabrook Developments and Jim Frost continued his luck at the prize giving again by being drawn as the spot prize finishing 10th overall, this time picking up a new spray top, this shouldn’t be as difficult for his wife to swallow as the carbon mast he won during the nationals held at stone in 2004. Thanks goes to Stone Sailing Club who as ever put on fantastic event both on and off the water. Thanks Guys.

20 sailors gathered at beautiful Creeksea, the jewel in the crown of Essex’s Dengie Peninsula, for Creeksea Sailing Club's Phantom open over the weekend of 24th and 25th of June. There was a substantial and, ah, lively Norfolk contingent from Wells, Blakeney, Rollesby and Hickling Broads, Buckenham and Denver, as well as visitors from Wembley, Stone, Blithfield, Arlesey and Thorpe Bay.

Creeksea, just outside Burnham-on-Crouch is the most amiable of clubs, and did quality hospitality, with catering, beer, and a T-Shirt thrown in with the entry fee, and the visiting tractor boys did their bit with an admirable display of quality sailing and serious good humour. It was one of the two Norfolk Jims, James Case who ultimately won the event, from local stalwart and Creeksea Commodore Chris Roberts.

On Saturday morning there was so little breeze that the loudest noise was the sound of millions of grasshoppers bouncing on the sails laid out for measuring by the rigorous John Torrance. It did build during the day, but showed the level of commitment and co-ordination that Sven's boys have been showing in the early stages of the world cup finals, and both races were turned inside out by huge holes. The first leg set the tone: a long, light-air beat over the flood tide up to Burnham. The locals stayed left, enjoying one of their set piece tacking duels round the little headlands on the north shore, and it was left to a small group of visitors, led by Nigel Blake in his brand-new second hand boat (the memorably named Scabdog, ex-Rod Thorpe) to sail over to Suicide Corner (which never works) under the Russsian Wharf and of course pop out way ahead. Later on, down the other end of the river there was a further inversion of the natural order, as the remaining backmarkers sailed round a group of rockstars, marooned in midriver like Calder mobiles in a sculpture park: even the famed Creeksea Phantom River Dance didn't work. Try to imagine 16-stone male ballerinas doing a yachting Billy Elliott with a balletic recreation of 1970s Liverpool football fans singing You'll Never Walk Alone.

A big up here to Paul Neve, who piloted the oldest boat in the fleet - the stitch and tape 724, lovingly saved by him from the bottom of a garden where it was slowly turning to compost - to 6th place in this race (and 12th overall), patiently sticking to his knitting on the north bank on the way up the river. Blake held on to second, ahead of James Case, both behind Alastair Warren, and was so shocked by the success that he didn't go out on the Sunday at all. The second Saturday race was much the same, but a bit less so, and the quality began to make itself felt with Case winning from Rollesby's Darren Pike and local guru John Torrance, owner of the Black Book of Creeksea, with 40 years observations of every little curl of tide and bend of wind.

Plans for Saturday night were dampened a little bit by the theft of the barrel of Crouch Vale's best the night before, but the party was reconvened at the marina restaurant. If you listened carefully, from the far river bank, you might just have made out the gentle tones of partying Phantomeers discussing the finer points of the location of the laminar flow separation on Dorsal compared to Milanes foils, and the niceties of rights in referred calls for water, all conducted over a fine claret. Well, alright, you probably wouldn't have, but you would have heard a great deal of laughter bringing light to the rather soul-less surroundings, the legendary social skills of the fleet leaving at least one fringe participant literally in tears of laughter.

Sunday was overcast but with a slightly less shredded breeze, which built through the day to give a couple of quad-stretching beats and the odd fast reach (is any boat as much fun with a bit of a breeze on a close reach? They go like the clappers with at the same time a feeling that they're on rails). With two races before lunch on the same (excellent) course the quality began to sort itself out: Pike won the first race from Stone's Neil Fulcher and James Case, and Roberts got the second from Fulcher and Case.

The last race, after lunch, was a shorter beat and triangles in front of the club, and Case, who had already won the event ended up in the White House windshadow and booked a twelfth. Fulcher, who only sailed the Sunday won to make it two seconds and a first, from Thorpe Bay's Paul Beasley (who also only did the half-meeting) and Torrance.

Special prizes were handed out, including to Simon Fielden from Hickling, at his first Phantom open meeting (10th overall – he got a bottle of wine and an option to purchase the Creeksea Commodore's Fireball), to Paul Neve as first wood-and-tin boat. Also, to James “JimJim” Frost, a birthday cake for having come out on his 40th: it was that sort of meeting.

Rank SailNo Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total Nett

1st  1255  James Case  Wells SC  3.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 (12.0) 22.0  10.0

2nd  1128  Chris Roberts  Creeksea SC  (15.0) 5.0 5.0 1.0 4.0 30.0  15.0

3rd  1206  Alistair Warren  Blakeney SC  1.0 (6.0) 6.0 4.0 5.0 22.0  16.0

4th  1183  Darren Pike  Rollesby Broad SC  (12.0) 2.0 1.0 5.0 9.0 29.0  17.0

5th  1200  John Torrance  Creeksea SC  5.0 3.0 (8.0) 7.0 3.0 26.0  18.0

6th  1193  Neil Fulcher  Stone SC  (DNC) DNC 2.0 2.0 1.0 47.0  26.0

7th  1256  Rod Thorpe  Creeksea SC  (9.0) 4.0 9.0 6.0 8.0 36.0  27.0

8th  1157  Jim Frost  Buckenham SC  4.0 (13.0) 10.0 9.0 6.0 42.0  29.0

9th  1202  Paul Beasley  Thorpe Bay YC  (DNC) DNC 4.0 8.0 2.0 56.0  35.0

10th  1022  Simon Fielden  Hickling Broad  10.0 8.0 (12.0) 10.0 7.0 47.0  35.0

11th  1165  Roger Beavis  Blakeney SC  13.0 7.0 7.0 (14.0) 11.0 52.0  38.0

12th  742  Paul Neve  Creeksea SC  6.0 10.0 11.0 (13.0) 13.0 53.0  40.0

13th  1249  Alan Tolly  Blithfield SC  11.0 11.0 (15.0) 11.0 10.0 58.0  43.0

14th  947  Ed Maggs  Creeksea SC  7.0 14.0 14.0 12.0 (15.0) 62.0  47.0

15th  1171  David Hawkins  Denver SC  8.0 9.0 16.0 15.0 (DNC) 69.0  48.0

16th  1113  Nigel Blake  Nth Herts & East Bucks  2.0 12.0 (DNC) DNC DNC 77.0  56.0

17th  1115  Ken Daniels  Wembley SC  17.0 15.0 13.0 (21.0 DNF) 14.0 80.0  59.0

18th  931  Noel Sutcliffe  Creeksea SC  14.0 18.0 (21.0 DNF) 16.0 16.0 85.0  64.0

19th  880  Brian Spurling  Creeksea SC  16.0 16.0 17.0 17.0 (21.0 DNS) 87.0  66.0

20th  866  Chris Henry  Creeksea SC  18.0 17.0 (21.0 DNF) DNC DNC 98.0  77.0

Crewsaver Phantom Northern Championships - Staunton Harold Sailing Club

18 brave souls arrived on a blustery Saturday morning to what would become 2 days of attrition, both for bodies and boats with 6 races scheduled in total.

Racing was close all day between the top 6 boats. Boat breakages were the main factor for the day with Gulliver being sent into an involuntary gybe, death role and subsequent vang failure. Couch breaking a halyard and Cokayne C doing a reverse summersault with pike as his toe strap gave way in race 3. Day one race wins were shared between Gulliver, Couch (2) and Cokayne B. Tyler Harmsworth also got in on the act with 2 seconds for the day and mixing it all up at the front as did Cokayne C. Pete Evens was showing that plastic was indeed fantastic in a borrowed boat (his own is wooden) as he always showed early on.

Saturday evening was spent in the local pub/curry house. Some were amused by the strange yet perfect combination but conversation and lager flowed. A huge platter was provided that beat even the hungriest phantom sailor. The evenings highlight was a rather long debate on the possibilities of a foiling phantom and whether a 17 stone man could get airborne! Consensus was that the foil would have to be wider than the boat!

Day two dawn as many a weary sailor yawned. Still windy, but at least only two races for the day. Couch and the Cokayne brothers led at the top and proceeded to stretch away. Couch took the gun with the Cokayne brothers enjoying a 2 lap grudge match on their local water that made exciting viewing from the shore side, nip ‘n’ tuck all the way, with ‘little’ brother C sneaking it.

The final race would be a showdown between the top 3, Couch, Cokayne C and Gulliver. The first six boats broke from the pack and left Cokayne C struggling in dirty air after a poor start. Places between the six changed frequently in the gusty and shifty conditions but by the end of lap one Cokayne C was back on their heals. He saw his opportunity as they followed each other off the leeward mark on a header and he tacked at the buoy. Tacking back on the next shift he crossed all six transoms heading to the right on a large lift. The whole pack then headed right and at the lay line a fortunate header put Cokayne C at the front as he fetched to the windward mark on starboard. Cokayne C and Couch then extended and tussled to the finish where Cokayne C took line honors with Couch doing enough in second to claim the title. Gulliver rolled in third, setting up an interesting National Championships in a month’s time at Lyme Regis.

Special mention should go to Clive Morley who traveled all the way from Margate for his first phantom event ever and claiming the Stella

Andy Couch    RYA                          10

Clive Cokayne    Staunton Harold    11

Will Gulliver    Northampton              15

Brett Cokayne    Staunton Harold    18

Tyler Harmsworth    Shoreham         20

Pete Evans      Rudyard                    20

Nick Orman    Weymouth                   28

Richard Sims    Carsington                 37

Paul Lester                    Chase           45

John Pryer                    Chester         51

James Case    Wells                           52

Mike Potter    Staunton Harold           64

Andy Downie    Glossop                     70

Brian Dennis    Attenborough            75

Eddie Brook    Elton                            87

Roger Day              Attenborough      89

Andy Kennington    Staunton Harold    90

Clive Morley    Margate                    95