TWO familiar faces will be missing from the Royal Windermere 17ft Class fleet when the racing season opens tomorrow (Saturday), writes John McVey

Brian Ellis and David Thornton, both former Average Champions, have called it a day having sold their Howlett-designed yachts during the close season.

Another change in the race list sees the return of Mystery a yacht built back in 1934 and which has not been raced on the lake for 64 years.

Thornton has raced Cecilia sparingly over the last eight seasons, but Ellis has been an ever-present in the fleet for the last 20 years and one of the most successful.

His first Howlett boat, Falcon I built by Richard Pierce and launched in 1984 finished second to David McCann's Freedom in the Averages that year.

He followed up with three consecutive Championship wins and was runner-up three times in succession.

In 1993 he built again, this time at Robson's and for the next 10 years his Falcon II provided the main opposition to another Robson yacht, Chas Ingham's all-conquering Chameleon.

In 1994 Ellis finally made the breakthrough and to this day remains the only skipper to have beaten Ingham in the averages. In all, Ellis sailed 481 races winning 119 times and topping 90% in the Averages on two occasions.

Thornton's only win in the Averages was in his first season, 1989, when he had to compete in all 16 remaining races to qualify and clinched the title by beating Ellis in the final race.

The following year Cecilia finished fourth.

Mystery, originally named Waterwitch IV, has been bought by Tony Brindle and has been extensively restored by boatbuilder Dave Moss at his yard on the river Wyre.

Built for F.C. Scott, she was sold the following season to Sir Samuel Scott who renamed her Mystery. She was sold to a non-member in 1942 and taken to Barrow where she competed in one of the round-Walney races. She was later left for some years half-buried in the sand on Roa Island before being re-built by Dave Jezzard at Grizebeck and sailed for a season on Coniston Water.

She was brought back to Windermere in 1987 as a cruise yacht.

These changes leave Ingham with a clear field at the top end of the race fleet. James Nield in Amira, McCann's Freedom, John Curtis's Deva, Fred Tattersall's Liberty and Gay Crossley's Whisper will probably all win races, but it is difficult to see any of them sustaining a realistic challenge in the Averages.

Elsewhere, however, the battle in the Classic Fleet should be as interesting and competitive as ever.

May 9, 2003 13:30