This year’s English Boat Championship was held on 20th and 21st May out of Eastbourne. Friday evening saw most of the 32 anglers at the HQ for the event which was the Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club. After being made welcome by the yacht club’s commodore the anglers collected their registration packs and entered the team events.
Day 1
At 7:45 we assembled at the harbour and loaded our gear onto one of the four charter boats taking part in the event. We caught the 8:00 lock and headed out to sea. Angling was confined to inshore marks due to the strength of the north easterly wind. Most of the boats drifted sand bars for Mackerel and Bass and then rocky marks for Wrasse, Pout and Pollack. One or two Cod were also caught. For the last couple of hours some boats anchored up catching Dogfish, small Conger and a few Ray.
Boat winners on the day were Ken Smith on Manx Belle, Ray Barron on Excalibur, Perry Dack on Deep Blue and Mark Smith on Odyssey.
Day 2
With the same start time as yesterday we headed out from the lock with most boats adopting similar strategies to the day before as the wind conditions had not changed much. Fishing was much as yesterday this time all boats anchored at some stage of the tide. As we arrived back in the lock at the end of the match there was much speculation as to who would take the top three places as it was very close.
The presentation was held at the Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club. It was Mark Smith who was presented with the gold pin by Marcus Wuest Chairman of EFSA. Mark had a boat win each day to get 200%. Second place and silver pin went to Gary Galbraith with 197.30%. Perry Dack took the bronze pin with 192.94%.
Top Senior was Richard Russell
The 4 man open event was won by the team of Darren Rose, Perry Dack, Ray Barron, Andy Selby.
The 2 man open event was won by Mark Smith and Matt Osbourne.
The 4 man drawn team event was won by the team of Kevin Preston, Mark Smith, Ken Smith, Barrie Senior.
Longest Cod was won by Marcus Wuest
Top boat was Excalibur skippered by Lance Brown
Thanks to John Little, skipper of Manx Belle, who acted as a commodore for the event. To Simon Logan skipper of Deep Blue, Lance Brown skipper of Excalibur and John Goldsmith skipper of Odyssey
We are grateful to Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club for allowing us to use their club house for the registration and presentation.
And finally, thanks to our members who helped with the organising of the event especially Andy and Charlotte, Kim and Matt.
Barrie Senior
Full Results
Gallery
