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Contract award by local authority with English Partnerships : 01.11.07 English Partnerships and Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in partnership are responsible for the regeneration of Smithwick in the West Midlands. This is one of the nine pathfinder areas identified by the Government as requiring new and coordinated form of intervention to improve housing markets and regenerate neighbourhoods.
The selection of development partners was considered of paramount importance. A four stage process was used to assess submissions and compliance and ensure the project will be carried out to achieve the stated aims. Cognition Team win LBCC Class 1 : 08.10.07 After five years of trying, the Cognition crew at last became Class 1 winners at the Little Britain Challenge Cup. Earlier years had achieved individual race wins and a second in cruising class but not first place overall in Class 1 Racing!
The result could not have been achieved without the effort of all crew members and our talented hard working Skipper, Tim Thubron. The task was made all the more difficult because of the number of crew changes over the three days racing. Whilst a core team sailed each day a total of 24 people took part, key roles on the boat were changed but each made without any loss of effectiveness in racing.
A race win by almost 6 minutes in light airs on the first day left us feeling confident for racing on Friday. The morning race planned for Friday was cancelled due to a lack of any wind but a sea breeze filled in during early afternoon to provide ideal event conditions. Fifth place felt a little disappointing after a comfortable win on Thursday but only 3 minutes separated five boats and the class now looked like being very closely contested.
Inspection of overall standings after two days racing showed Cognition remaining in first place. A good result within one place of our closest rival appeared to be enough to keep first place overall but with all teams around having sailed very well the Class 1 Trophy was tightly contested.
Saturdays race brought conditions similar to the previous day but a downwind start to the East as opposed to upwind to the West. The downwind leg favoured our rival who’s J133 sailed away from us slightly off the wind. More worryingly two other boats also separated us so standings after rounding the first mark left us trailing in second overall. The final race of the series is longer than on the previous days lasting approximately 5 hours so at least we had considerable time and distance to alter the early positions. Lots of encouragement and effort and resulting fine sailing kept us in touch with our rival to finish one place and only 46 seconds behind, enough to clinch our first overall win! | 
