Always keen to visit Lyme Regis, the five-oh fleet had their largest turn out to a Nationals for many years. Ultimately 46 boats, including 5 from Ireland, 3 from France and one from the USA took to the water for four days of power sailing in Lyme Bay.

Locals say that these are the best sailing waters in the UK. As the fleet sailed out on Day 1 into a sunny twelve knots south/easterly for race one, they appeared to have a fair case - conditions really couldn’t have been much better. Every day the wind master seemed to crank things up by another couple of knots. Apart from Ian Pinnell and Carl Gibbon, other crews to impress were the scratch pairing of Tim Rush and Richard Nurse who won race one at the end of a great three way tussle with Ian/Carl, and the flying Irish crew of Ewan Barry and Charles Dwyer. Places swapped all the way on the final run to the finish. They were chased in fourth place by father and son team Harry and Simon Briddon.

Race two saw the Irish crew and Ian/Carl pull away from the fleet. Behind these two, Charlie Walters and Dougal Cram slugged it out with Andy Smith and Tim Needham for third place. Ultimately the Midlands team of Andy and Tim pulled just clear to begin their charge for the top places.

After returning to shore, Lyme Regis Sailing Club’s renowned hospitality was sampled with the Commodore’s reception. A hearty welcome was made to the 505’s, who were returning after their last nationals at Lyme in 2004. The Commodore then challenged the fleet to ‘outdo’ the Albacore fleet, (whose nationals had been in Lyme a few weeks before), as figures of drinking habits were divulged. The evening was enjoyed by all as tales of glory and disaster swept the bar. Reports have it that the 505’s definitely took that one, probably helped by Neil Fulcher buying the fleet a barrel of beer!!! But by the end of the evening no one could remember or care!

Day 2, same conditions, just a little more breeze, increasing through the day. Race three finally saw Ian and Carl start to stamp their authority on the Championships with the first of 5 bullets closely followed by the Irish pair. Behind this, a three way scrap for the final podium position ensued between Smith/Needham, Russell and Andy Short, and Walters/Cram. These three finishing in this order after several place changes.

Race 4 is called the "Race of the Year". It typically has two extra laps, and is a massive test of endurance for crews already fatigued by two hard days sailing. With increasing winds, this marathon really tested equipment and athletes alike. Ian and Carl again took this race closely followed by Andy and Tim, with the high wind specialists Mike Holt (USA) and Neil Fulcher starting to make an impression as the winds freshened.

Day 3 was similar to day 2 with even more breeze and some pretty big waves starting to make life downwind flying the monster spinnakers quite interesting. Races 5 and 6 were dominated by Pinnell and Smith with Mike Holt claiming 3rd in Race 5 and Scutcher and Diebitsch getting their first podium in Race 6.

Day 4 loomed with even more wind and even bigger waves. The Five-oh’s were now really flying. Again Ian just took race 7 from a frustrated Andy Smith who suffered gear failure whilst leading. The Irish team of Barry and Dwyer were again back on the podium in third.

Ian by now had won the championships and sailed back in to let the others play in the wind and surf. Mike Holt finally got a well deserved first in the final race with Terry Scutcher and Andy Smith taking second and third.

Ian Pinnell and Carl Gibbon retained the 505 National Championship title after four days of champagne sailing at Lyme Regis. The series consisted of two races per day over the four days, and Carl and Ian's domination was such that they had actually won before the final day's sailing had started.

As well as the serious action at the front, the UK class association has been encouraging those with older boats or brand new to the class to come down, give it a go and learn a bit more about their boat.

A ‘Not so Hot’ handicap league was introduced with handicaps based on age of boat, experience of crew and type of gear on the boat. Coaching sessions also took place every night in the boat park hosted by a plethora of World and National Champions who shared their knowledge on all aspects of sailing from how to use the Gate Start through to tuning techniques and also sailing techniques. A buddy system was also introduced which proved amazingly successful with those at the back receiving one on one coaching and tips.

There were a number of prizes awarded in various ‘made up on the day’ categories.

• ‘Overall Not so Hot Handicap’ winner was Philip Male and Kev Francis in 7336 who completed all the races in a very smart highly pimped up 25year old boat.

• The ‘Spirit of 505 Sailing’ went to Nick Creak and Don Bulfin – 6155 the oldest boat by far. They normally sail on a small lake near Hillingdon and sail their boat for fun!! They finished one race without a rudder. When asked by those with shiny new Rondar boats what they were going to do, the answer was very simple – ‘Put bigger washers on the transom.’ Nick and Don were a bit bemused by talk of changing shroud tensions etc – nothing to adjust on their boat!

• 505 Endeavour prize went to Iain Christie and Walter Douie from Mayflower. They were determined to finish the first race on Day 4 and despite a number of capsizes – eventually crossed the line as last boat to finish that race, many boats having retired or decided not to venture out.

• Prize for the hardiest male crew without a wetsuit went to Michael Male, also from Castle Cove – they breed them tough there!

• Special prize for the hardiest female crew without a wetsuit went to Lisa O’Brien from Monkstown – enough said!!

Each of the four days was fully sponsored with a host of superb prizes; special thanks must go to the Sponsors: Pinnell and Bax, North Sails, Zhik and Infracast who all provided some great prizes that were spread amongst the fleet.

Special thanks must also go to Lyme Regis Sailing Club who organised and ran a superb and faultless event. The OOD minimised the amount of time between races and the whole team functioned really smoothly.