Sailors have been enjoying the near perfect weather, warm and sunny with a strong breeze seems to be a rare combination, writes John Keast.

In addition to this weather, the Hayman family enjoyed a perfect week at the Scorpion National Championship in Looe, Cornwall.

Sidmouth sailing veteran Andrew Hayman was the proud patriarch, as a 60-year-old participating in the week-long championship and sailing with his older son Max, a sail maker in Sydney who had returned to Sidmouth for James and Emma Salter’s wedding was able to stay and crew for his Dad.

Out of the 52 boats participating they finished just in the top half. A great result for this wily competitor helming this exciting and twitchy boat which is dominated by much younger sailors, but undoubtedly benefiting from the experience, strength, and relative youth of Max.

It is likely these two will have been distracted by what was happening at the front end of the fleet, with younger son Alex (now a boat builder in Lymington) sailing with Chris Turner a boat builder from Lyme Regis, they dominated all week sailing consistently to become the 2017 Scorpion National champions.

The top three boats in the fleet all sailed well and the final race (out of a series of 10 races) was to be the decider.

Chris and Alex went into the final race with the smallest of advantages, a one point lead, and this would have given them the psychological edge as the other two boats were doing the chasing.

Chris and Alex nailed it extending their lead by a further point. Out of the 10 races they finished in the top three eight times and won four of the races, brilliant sailing and a fantastic achievement.

Sidmouth boat builder Kevin Gosling, who took on Alex Hayman as an apprentice boat builder and is the brother in-law of Chris Turner also enjoyed a successful week. Andy Service from Hong Kong sailing with Kevin finished eighth overall and won the over 50’s prize.