Joe Cross, Russell Wheeler, Matt Hitt and Tim Lees, representing the Sonata class, won the 2025 edition of the Keelboat Endeavour, hosted by Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, in Burnham on Crouch, Essex, over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd of March.
The Endeavour Trophy is an invitation event for national champions of keel boats. Since the event was started in 2018, the Flying Fifteen class has previously won the event twice.
Six teams lined up at the start of the 2025 event, to compete for the Robin Judah Trophy, commissioned in memory of Robin Judah, one of the founders of the original Endeavour Trophy for dinghies, an Olympic sailor in the Dragon class in 1968, and stalwart of the club.
The wind proved to be a tricky customer on Saturday. Despite the light conditions, Edwin Buckley, the Race Officer, squeezed twelve races in on the first day, with each team competing in ten.
The day didn't start well for the Flying Fifteen class, represented by multiple world champions Graham Vials and Chris Turner and complemented by Andrew Lawson and Chris Waples, who suffered a few breakages, they picked up the pace and finished the day in third place, with wins in races 3, 5 and 11. Graham was seen being winched to the mast head to resolve a spinnaker halyard problem; apparently he was the lightest of the crew!
Unfortunately, the river was like a sheet of glass on Sunday and with no prospect of wind, racing was cancelled for the day. Accommodation was kindly provided by Justin Waples, the local boy.
Overall Results:
|
Ranking
|
Team
|
Races
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Sonata
|
10
|
41
|
|
2
|
K6
|
10
|
33
|
|
3
|
Flying Fifteen
|
10
|
32
|
|
4
|
Dragon
|
10
|
29
|
|
5
|
Squibs
|
10
|
24
|
|
6
|
Sandhopper
|
10
|
21
|