THE National Youth Championships for the GP14 class of sailing dinghy was hosted by Budworth Sailing Club over the weekend.

The event attracted an excellent entry of 33 boats from 14 sailing clubs as far afield as Northern Ireland, Northumberland, Kent and Gloucestershire.

Six boats represented Budworth Sailing Club while three boats made the short trip from Winsford Flash SC. These included some of the event's youngest competitors, Christian and Nick Birrell (11 and 13) and Mark Stockbridge (13).

The championship was based over five races, two on Saturday and three on Sunday.

Racing at the front of the fleet was very close, with the championship winner in doubt until the completion of the final race.

Eventually, Andy Hately, crewed by Chris Anderson from South Staffs Sailing Club, emerged as winners, beating Jonathan Sinclair and Jonathan Harrison from West Lancs SC by the narrowest of margins.

Budworth entrants from the Northwich area featured in the final results with Adam Birkett, Tom Groves, Martin Milner, Ellen Milner and Geoffrey Edwards all producing good performances.

Sailing at Budworth will continue with an autumn series of races on Sundays until Christmas - open to visitors from other clubs. The season will end with the traditional Boxing Day handicap event, open to all types of dinghy.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.