UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge

The UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge 2010 promises to be one of the most exciting yet attracting participants from across the whole country and from every spectrum of the emergency services including fire, police, ambulance and mountain rescue. The UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge provides an annual 3-day event opportunity for crews of 8 personnel to compete, using the same design yachts under race conditions, in an environment where the skill level varies from expert to mere novice. It is open to personnel from the fire service and other blue light services. From 9 competing boats in 2005 to 31 in 2009.

The event is very competitive and provides a significant challenge, in testing conditions, for individuals and teams. The fleet is split into classes at the end of day one providing the opportunity for crews to compete in class races on day two as well as the overall event competition. This enables less able crews to compete for UKFSC trophies on an equal footing to those more competent sailors. The UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge also facilitates the entry of up to additional 5 yachts that are made available to our sponsors, crewed by their staff and customers, to compete for their own trophy as part of the overall event race. Charitable donations made after each event and each season's recipients are detailed on the charitable support page.

UKFSC 2009 results

The popular UK Firefighters Sailing Challenge was run for the 6th consecutive year on 28th, 29th and 30th April 2009 on the waters of the Solent. As the event has become more well known and respected invitations have been extended to the other emergency services to participate and 2009 saw 5 Police services, 2 ambulance services and 1 mountain rescue service entries as well as 23 entries from UK fire Services. This makes the event, probably, the only true 999 sporting event in the country.

Apart from the benefits of all of the emergency services competing in a single event and having the opportunity of meeting with colleagues and making new friends and fostering better relations, it provides a platform to raise money for charity.

		Race
Position	Team	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8
1	West Yorkshire (2) P. Crowther (+), (#)	1	3	1	12	1	3	2	4
2	West Sussex (1) - A. Murphy (++)	10	2	7	1	4	2	1	1
3	Hampshire (4) R. Crouch (+++),(+++++)	7	1	17	4	6	1	4	8
4	Met Police (2) - R Glass (++++)	2	17	6	6	2	8	6	5
5	Hampshire (1) - M. Stead (#)	17	7	3	7	5	6	5	32
6	Oxford & Gloucester - R. Jones	3	6	15	5	3	15	17	6
7	London (2) - N. Harding	18	21	8	3	12	5	8	3
8	Isle of Wight - J. Stannett	4	4	10	9	14	10	7	13
9	London (3) - D. Sharman	12	11	11	10	10	4	3	10
10	Devon Fire - E. Holden	6	12	2	13	7	13	15	7
11	West Sussex (2) - A. Horner	5	16	4	2	9	11	24	21
12	Met Police (1) - M. King	8	20	14	15	8	7	11	19
13	Hampshire (5) - A. Rhodes	11	29	5	31	19	12	10	9
14	West Yorkshire (4) - P. McCartney (*)	13	15	21	16	23	16	9	12
15	Hampshire (2) - V. Stapleton	14	5	13	11	24	20	19	25
16	West Yorkshire (1) - J. Mudd	15	27	18	8	11	28	18	14
17	West Yorkshire (3) - R. Moore (#)	22	10	16	20	15	23	12	17
18	Suffolk Police - M. Holt	9	25	12	30	26	9	29	2
19	Hampshire (3) - R. Hore	19	8	19	17	16	19	28	18
20	London (1) - C. Knight	24	28	9	14	13	25	16	21
21	Derbyshire Police - J. Childs	16	9	23	18	17	21	23	26
22	Telent - D. Redman (^)	20	14	29	19	29	18	13	15
23	Hertfordshire (1) - T. Bassett	28	13	25	25	20	14	20	11
24	Wiltshire Police - N. Holt	21	19	24	26	22	30	14	32
25	Hertfordshire (2) - A. Wolfe	26	18	22	21	21	29	21	28
26	Edale Mountain Rescue - C. Campbell	29	31	30	23	18	17	27	19
27	Hertfordshire (3) - P. Boast	32	23	28	22	27	26	21	16
28	Hampshire (6) - G. Reeve	30	22	20	24	28	31	30	22
29	SE Coast Ambulance - R. Crabb	23	24	26	28	25	24	31	27
30	West Yorkshire (5) - G. Gooch	27	30	27	27	31	22	26	24
31	BAA Heathrow - A. Power	25	26	31	29	30	27	25	32

Note: Positions shown in bold italics indicates 'White Sail' competitors; Greyed scores indicates a discarded score; Skippers shown in bold red are mid series class winners

Key to Trophies awarded:

(+) - UKFSC Rose bowl Trophy	(++++) – SolentNightz Trophy
(++) - UKFSC Silver Yacht Trophy	(+++++) - Ian Thresh Memorial Trophy
(+++) - UKFSC Miniature Silver Yacht Trophy	(*) Boddingtons Electrical White Sail Trophy
(^) - Sponsors Cup	(#) – Class Winners (Day two)

Click here for Full Report and here for Event Photo's

For general/contestant information contact: info@ukfsc.org.uk

For sponsorship opportunities contact: enquiries@ukfsc.org.uk

Sponsors