The National Scorpion Association organises racing events and events to promote the class every year. The Silver Scorpion Travellers' series of Open Meetings sponsored by CraftInsure are spread over the season and over the country. The annual highlight is the National Championships, which are hosted in 2023 by Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club in Sussex.
2022 Silver Scorpion series was sponsored by Craftinsure and included six open meetings and the 61st Nationals Championships held at Looe SC 24 – 29 July.
Lymington Town S.C. Silver Scorpion Open Meeting
11 - 12 June 2022
Twenty five scorpions were entered for what proved to be champagne conditions sailing the first day of the Silver Scorpion Open under the burgee of Lymington Town SC. A fresh SW over an ebbing tide kicked up a chop creating physically testing conditions.
Local pirates Nevill Herbert & Karl Thorne won the first race, with reigning champions Tom Gillard and Rachael Gray taking the second and Pete Gray & Rich Pepperdine winning the third race.
Three time champion Dave Wade sailing with Ben Rayner put in some consistent sailing to lie 3rd overall on Saturday evening but, out of practice in a Scorpion, he returned to the club with a spectacular spi pole induced blackeye.
The first race was quite eventful. Ryan & Hannah Buchanan were leading but missed the top spreader mark and retired. That left Sam Watson & Andy Thompson in the lead but some confusion over several racing marks of similar appearance lead to them conceding 4 places for 5th. Pete Gray lost his spi pole uphaul and had to deliverately capsize in order to retrieve it. He was surprised how hard it is to capsize when you actually want to do so.
Several NSA committee members commented on Chris Martin & John Tailby's reaching speed but Chris's hard hiking sadly lead to a a toe strap failure and John sailing single handed.
After three excellent races the Scorpion Pirates enjoyed much beer and a good BBQ as Lymington Town demonstrated what a great venue they provided.
Sunday arrived with a fairly light forecast but delivered more good breezes giving another demanding days racing conditions that were a little lighter but otherwise very similar to Saturday.
The overall results were as follows...
National Champions Tom Gillard & Rach Gray won all three Sunday races after a slightly less dominant display on Saturday. Rach's husband Pete Gray & Rich Pepperdine were second with P&B Technical Director Dave Wade and former three time champion third.
The first two overall helm results mirrored the Firebal National results a week previously.
Local sailors Neville Herbert & Karl Thorne were 4th followed by Sam Watson & new Fireball Champion crew Andy Thompson.
Tom & Penny Jeffcoate were 6th followed by Ryan & Hannah Buchanan in 7th and Chris Martin & John Tailby in 8th.
Extract from Mark Jardine’s interview with Tom Gillard re his (together variously with Rachel Gray & Andy Thompson) remarkable success in multi-classes this year …
"A good time off the water is just as important as the sailing, so I asked Tom which class, in his opinion, has the best social activities:
I would say the Scorpion. It's a chilled-out vibe, a nice bunch of people, with newcomers to the fleet alongside old hands, and everybody's very open about what they do to make the boat go fast. It's a real community. The class is going from strength to strength; whether you've got a wooden boat or a fibreglass boat, there's help everywhere, and no-one feels at a disadvantage."
