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.
The first South Coast Silver Open of the season was won convincingly by our National Champions Tom Gilliard & Rachael Gray in 2013 Bearly Illegal with 5 wins and a second. The perfect conditions, if you like sunshine, a soft tide and light but sailable breezes were a good test which probably favoured the slightly lighter crews. The Meeting coinciding with the Annual Sidmouth Sea Fest ensured a beer tent was erected next to our dinghy park leaving everyone happy.
The rest of the top 10 boats, from a entry of 25 were: 2nd 2045 Peter Gray & Rich Pepperdine 3rd 2037 Matt Burge & Rob Gardner 4th 2025 Tom Jeffcoate & Alex Hayman 5th 1986 Sam Watson & Andy Thompson 6th 1958 Nigel Potter & Ferret 7th 2014 AJ Eaton & Chris Eaton 8th 2026 Ian Cadwallager & Ellie Devereux 9th 2005 Janet Ritchie & Alan Ritchie 10th 1995 Peter Rose & John Rose
Gray & Pepperdine won the final race.
Dan Henderson & Amy Clay, in Dan's first time in a Scorpion, took a 5th and a 3rd in the last two races having been hindered by borrowed boat problems suggesting that Dan's talents adapted well to Scorpions.
AJ & Chris Eaton were starting a trip down memory lane, having returned to the class in 2021 after not sailing for 10 years, with their first outing in 2014 in which AJ had come 2nd in the Championships at Lyme Regis in 2009 sailing with Tim Parsons.
Sidmouth Sailing Club did an excellent job in promoting the merits of their club and their use of professional Race Officer James Francis resulted in perfectly set courses - so great sailing and lots of beer left many happy memories as the fleet dispersed on Sunday evening.
This was the first salt water Open Meeting of the 2022 season. The home of 12 Scorpions and also veteran builder Kevin Gosling's home club, Sidmouth is the type of place the Scorpion was designed for. Light enough to get up and down the beach easily and a sparkling performance in a south coast sea breeze.
Here is the Sidmouth seafront webcam - which you can control if you wait a little while - open webcam.
The NoR and SIs for the event has been posted on the club's official notice boardhere
Some of the older sailors met at a pub near Sidmouth on the Friday evening before the Open Meeting at the The Fountain Head (web-site), Fountain Head House, Branscombe, Street, Seaton EX12 3BG on Friday 20th May, 2022.
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."
