SAILING ROYAL SOLENT YC
THE J105 Euro Cup was held at last weekend, despite the horrible weather.
Three very close races were held in a blustery South Easterly wind with very little visibility at times.
Jelly Baby, from Lymington, won two races and King Louie, from Yarmouth, won one.
Sunday was much more pleasant with a lighter North Westerly breeze but a strong tide making life very difficult for race officers and skippers alike.
Both planned races for the day were sailed, with King Louie winning the first race, Jelly Baby knew there was all to play for in the final race, but eventually finished fifth.
This meant King Louie, owned by Malcolm Thorpe, won the J105 Euro Cup, Jelly Baby was second and Neilson Redeye, who had come all the way from Brighton and had to sail back after the regatta, was third.
ROYAL VICTORIA YC
After a deluge of rain in the preceding days, all looked set fair for Round 3 of the Wightlink series at RVYC last Sunday afternoon.
With many of the Squib fleet away at their National Championships at Dartmouth, six came out hopeful of a good result.
A deliberate port-biased line was set but only the Harrisons in Hussar spotted the opportunity and took the lead away from the line.
The Squibs and fast-handicap boats were set a course around the cans in a good and steady westerly breeze, the five Lasers tackled a windward-leeward course and the Oppie fleet a shorter triangle-sausage course.
With all going well, bad weather made a sudden appearance and all boats were struck by a gusty veering wind and a torrential downpour.
As this cleared the wind died down and left many struggling to get home against a strong tide.
All courses were shortened with line honours going to Anne and Martin Harrison in the Squib fleet. Jon Evans took second and Phil Russell and Chris Rickman claimed the final podium place.
Neil Griffiths and Mark Turner had a comfortable win in the fast handicap class, the Lasers were much closer with Ben Gibson just ahead of Tom Griffiths and Dom Mortimer. Harry White beat brothers Tom and Charlie in the Oppies.
GURNARD SC
For the second Wednesday evening in succession, competitors struggled to complete their courses in light winds.
With a low tide in Gurnard Bay, the Shadows and fast handicap classes were sent offshore, but as the breeze faded, all but three of the boats were swept down tide of East Lepe buoy and had to retire, the exceptions being Carl Blenkinsop who led home the Shadows, and Mike Acton and Judith French who were the sole finishers in the RS400s.
The medium and slow handicaps inshore fared better, with the former being led home by Chris Gillies’ RS100, and the latter by Mike Peddar’s Pico.
Sunday’s northerly wind made for interesting courses.
Paul Jennings stormed off to a good lead and line honours in the cats, while behind him the places changed several times as the boats returned downwind from Quinell buoy. Jennings was second on corrected time.
Paul Bowen and James Downer swapped the lead in the RS400s, with Downer coming out ahead after they split on that downwind leg to take the gun by a handful of seconds.
Steve Cole also built an early lead in the fast group, but didn’t manage to save his time on a clutch of RS700s led by Ben Willows after the two laps.
However, Phil Wright and Alex Porter’s RS500 did manage it after finishing ahead of the RS100s of Mark Harrison and Giles Peckham in the medium group.
It was the same for Rebecca Metcalf, who finished first in the slow group in her Laser 4.7 and kept her placing ahead of Adam Coventry and Mike Peddar.
BRADING HAVEN YC
A dozen sailors took to the waters of Bembridge Harbour for the continuation of the club’s Summer Series.
There was a mixture of sunshine and showers with a shifting wind making life difficult, and it made the first race of the fast handicap fleet into a series of class races.
Simon Cooper led the fleet round the course from start to finish in his Laser followed by the Wayfarers of Duncan Bates and Roger Herbert, who continued their usual battle ahead of the Solo fleet of Gareth Jones, Richard Coleman, Peter Hudson and Chris Wilkinson finishing in this order. The handicap result however was upset by Jones whose new sail provided a little extra to push Herbert off the winning podium to take the bronze slot.
Due to the challenging conditions, the second race back to the harbour was kept short by race officer Martyn Davies, which should have made it more difficult in terms of handicap. However, this did not deter Jones, who shadowed Cooper all the way to take both the second gun and the silver position on handicap, beating Bates by 17 seconds.
The slow fleet saw a poor turnout with only the Scows of Anne Barlow and Graham Sutton taking to the line, with Barlow having something of a deja vu moment of her last summer series race, when her opponent was Barry Dyer.
With some close racing between the two, Barlow took the first race but had to concede to the better tactics of Sutton in the second.