Mal Grace reports on the final round of the British Paragliding Cup that was held in Snowdonia over the weekend of 13 – 15 August. Martin Sandwith won, with Richard Butterworth winning the overall cup for 2010.
British Paragliding Cup 2010 overall winners' podium. L-R: Sara Spillet (best female), Graham Cummins (3rd), Richard Butterworth (1st), Tony Spirling (2nd), Tony Bradley (3rd)
The forecast for the weekend was not promising, so we hoped that this would work the opposite to all the other rounds where the forecasts had been good before but the actual weather turned out decidedly poor.
Friday, however, started off with strong winds and a low, low base. With no chance of improvement the day was canned early.
Day 2
Saturday started with a low base again in the morning with a chance of it lifting later but the already-strong winds were set to increase in the mountains, so most expected the day to be canned as Friday.
The northern end of the Snowdonia park can be an odd place where the wind is concerned. No-one can work out why, but it can be very windy in the mountains and the northern end of the valleys but quite often still flyable on the coast, which had been discussed in anticipation, with questions of whether we could actually get 40 + pilots on the costal sites.
With the forcast and Gareth and Calvo’ s eternal optimism, we set out for the coast at Penmaenmawr, to wait for the costal winds to drop to a flyable level.
So with the winds dropping we set off for the rarely-flown and first-one-for-a-comp at Foel Lus, behind and overlooking Penmaenmawr.
A short 19km task was set with several turnpoints, which turned out to be an amazing task which everyone enjoyed, even the locals who had never managed to have such a flight at such heights along this costal run.
Once the task started and every one realised you didn’t have to find a climb on the hill, it was take off and go. It was a full-on race dodging clouds, in them, out of them, above, below and surfing the front for the whole task, and actually trying to loose height to get under the clouds to get to the turnpoints.
15 pilots in goal, the fastest in the cup being Martin Sandwith in an incredible 18 minutes. Hardly any pilots made one 360 turn – it was glide and race all the way round all the turnpoints.
The majority that didn’t make goal on the scoring only messed up by missing a turnpoint, either because of the cloud or because they were enjoying themselves so much!
Tony spirling, the cup leader after four rounds, missed a turnpoint allowing Richard Butterworth to overtake him in the overall rankings, with only the chance of one more task on the last day.
Cloud racing in the Snowdonia round of the BPCup 2010
Day 3
Sunday, the last day of the BPCup 2010, saw low base to the east of Snowdonia, with unusually a higher base, but not as high as we would have liked, in the mountains. So with a NE wind promising to turn Northerly as the day progressed, it was off to Moel Berfedd for the last task.
Task was set for a 23km race to goal at Criccieth Castle on the Llyn Peninsula. Gareth did his, “don’t do this, don’t go there or land there or the mountain trolls will eat you” routine.
Window opened, pilots opting for the sensible option after the lessons of previous years on Berfedd: launch, 2 beats then go – no messing about. An incident on takeoff delayed some pilots, but as soon as they were told that Simon was relatively OK then everyone was away and over the back on to the pump!
Lots of bumbling around here on the ridge, on the pump and out in the valley trying to find the elusive thermal that will whisk you up the Wenallt ridge and on to the high peaks, with pilots breaking away and climbing in pairs, and others falling below the pump and running towards the campsite.
Soon there were a couple of groups soaring the top of the Wenallt, but with base low and further climbs on the Lliwedd ridges not possible it was a run off for most to the lower slopes of Y Aran, which didn’t seem to be working. We ended up with a group landing at one of the usual bombouts by Llyn Dinas, and the next group in Beddgelert.
Overall winners of the Snowdonia round 2020 were Martin Sandwith, and Richard Butterworth in second place and first overall for 2010.
Overall results for Bpcup 2010
1 – Richard Butterworh (Gradient XC2)
2 – Tony Spirling (Gradient XC2)
3 – Graham Cummins (Sky Ares)
EN B / LTF 1-2
1 – Alan Ford (Gradient Golden 2)
2 – David Fentum (Nova Mamboo)
Best Female Pilot – Sara Spillet (Niviuk Artik)
Best Newcomer 2010 – Tony Bradley (Gradient XC2)
Prizes were donated by Ozone, Gradient,V12 Outdoor, UK Airsports, Red Dragon Paragliding, Nick Pipe of Digifly UK and Cross Country magazine.
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