Most of the competitors at the norwich union Endeavour Race. agreed that it was the toughest event of the year. Sue Pelling was there to find out justhow grueliing the race was.

James Hunt and Paul Hobson, representing the Solo class, are the new dinghy champion of champions. Five first places, a third and a fifth were more than enough for the superfast duo to win the coveted Norwich Union Endeavour Trophy. The event, which took place on October 7-8 at the Royal Corinthian YC, Burnham-on-Crouch, was sailed in one-design RS400s. Now in its 40th year, the Endeavour Race continues to go from strength to strength, attracting a high-calibre fleet made up of champions from the most popular racing dinghy classes.

Having not sailed an RS400 for more than a year and not sailed together for at least six years, Hunt and Hobson jumped in the boat in the breezy conditions on the first day and clocked up a third and four first places. Their worst result of the weekend was a sixth position in the last race. Fortunately, this result did not count and they finished with a total of just 13 points. "Painful is the best word to describe the racing," explained Hobson "it was a totally exhausting, but a thoroughly enjoyable weekend." Modest until the end, Hunt expressed his surprise in winning: "I know we clocked up a string of first places, but I really was not expecting to come here to win. It was incredibly hard work and my poor hands hurt!"

From the first race it was interesting to watch the winning duo demonstrate a fine display of textbook-style racing. They made very few mistakes on the fast and furious downwind legs and gybed the boat without slowing. They even won the third race on Saturday by a margin of 1 minute 45 seconds - quite a lead in one-design fleet racing.

RS400 representatives, Roger Gilbert and James Stewart, started the weekend off with an excellent first race. They were lying third, with Pinnell leading and Hunt second, when they made a sneaky last-minute manoeuvre rounding the final downwind gate and took first place. They followed their initial success with a second place in the next race in the windy conditions and, despite a couple of results out of the top five, were able to secure second place overall.

"It was probably the toughest event of the year," explained Gilbert. "The short start lines and short courses kept everyone on their toes and I think we probably made more mistakes than we've made all season because there was so much pressure. It was a great event and I hope we'll be back one day to give it another go."

"Competing against some really hot sailors was a fantastic experience," added Stewart. "They certainly showed us a thing or two out there this weekend. The fact that we were last to reach a couple of marks today and finished second overall shows just how competitive the racing was."

Ian Pinnell, a winner of the Endeavour Trophy on numerous occasions, was representing the 505 class and sailing with specially åpicked' RS400 crewman Andrew Bonsey. A second, a couple of fourths and a first place in race six were enough to secure third place overall from former Endeavour winners Ian Renilson and Stewart Robertson. "I've never been so shattered in all my life after the first four races on Saturday,' said Pinnell. "Sunday's slightly lighter conditions were much more to my liking."

After a string of four general recalls in race six, Renilson and Robertson, who finished just two points behind Pinnell and Bonsey, were one of the black-flag start victims. And although this result was discarded, with just two races left, they were unable to improve on their points score sufficiently and had to settle for fourth place overall. Renilson commented: "We blew third place overall in the last race. We were ahead of Pinnell for the first two rounds, had two bad offwind legs and dropped to 12th. Where we lost, Pinnell gained and eventually finished the race in fourth."

Another pair of top performers were Firefly representatives Stuart Hudson and Clare Cummings, who finished in fifth place overall. Despite an OCS in race five, which they were also able to discard, they sailed an impressive series and notched up a string of consistent results including a fourth, a third and a couple of seconds. They really showed their true colours in the final race when, having led on and off throughout, they crossed the finish line just seconds behind the ever-improving Stevie Morrison and Liam Murray. Morrison and Murray, who took sixth overall, finished the weekend on a good note with a first place in the final race after a very close battle with Hudson, Gilbert, Pinnell, and National Twelve representatives Tom Stewart and Peter Conner. Richard and Kit Stenhouse, who were the initial race leaders, had to settle for seventh place and 15th overall.

Overall Results (eight races, one discard)

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