SVYC Regatta Day 2 roundup

Published 14:39 on 18 Aug 2023

After a glorious first day of the regatta, day two brought some rather tricky conditions. An inaccurate forecast meant the race committee was greeted with light SE breeze early on Monday morning. Rather a shock from the 15kn SW forecast!

The  SVOD Cadet  race involved a close tussle between Benjy Edwards, George Cecil, and Felix Ives. Down somewhat from its peak of 7 boats last year, George Cecil  won, after an incident required arbitration and Benjy unfortunately retiring.

The  Cruisers  took the scenic route around the eastern Solent, beating into Jonah, and then into Under Tyne next to the lifeboat station. This time  Tiaki, helmed by  Barnaby Cotterell , kept is lead on handicap.  The  Mermaids  and  Squibs  both required a change of course to stay on the SE breeze, and after a lengthy 1hr 15 race  Jack Sandiford-Haigh  took line honours from  Tom Stuart.  Chris Gear  won in the squib race after a close tussle, from Phil Russell.

Cadet Squad  had a sausage course off Seagrove, and again after a decent 1hr 10 race, Dougie Hogg took first regatta victory.  Richard White  took victory in the luggers race from  Crispin Neiboer, after a quick course to bunny and back. A somewhat disappointing turnout of 17  Lasers  were very well behaved on their down tide start, and had some interesting gybe marks and reaching legs as the wind got up.  Tom Griffiths  took his third win of the regatta, ending up a minute ahead from Alex Downer who took line honours. The  Slow Handicap  had a more novel course, involving three laps of a sausage down off the Duver.  Billy Clegg  won in his Scow by just over 30 seconds from Sue and Bertie Thomas, with 4 out of the first 6 boats across the line being OCS.

Seaview was the only remaining place in the Solent where the wind was still stubbornly holding in the south-east as the  Mermaids got away for Race 2. Using (nearly) every mark on the patch  Jack Sandiford-Haigh  took his second cup home in as many races, this time with Noel Dobbs and William Edwards behind him. 7  Redwings  and 3  BODs  joined us from Bembridge, and again were treated to amazing racing conditions. The Redwings had a lapped course, including three visits to Outer Mark, before finishing downwind from the bay, whereas the BODs had more of a tour.  Mark Downer  took another victory in the Redwings, while  Charles Abel-Smith won in the BODs.

The flight of afternoon starts started exciting with a  Foiling  race, with 2 wasps on course. Frustratingly a 25kn squall blew through shortly afterwards forcing both boats to retire, but it is undoubtedly a first for the SVYC regatta. The  Fevas  and  Fast Handicap  both had a relatively inshore race out of the gusts, but nevertheless exciting. The Fevas had a great course resulting in the spinnaker being up on 6/8 legs. Here Jo Stobart-Hook  took an enormous lead over the line from Henry Landon, and Alex Downer  beat Mike Acton on Handicap to take home the trophy in the fast race. 

The  Mermaid fleet remained competitive into Race 3, with 14 or 15 starters in every race so far, a feat that has not been done in many years. A general recall was only narrowly avoided here, with 8/14 boats being identified as over, and a handful of OCS penalties being scored. Jimbo Mitchell recovered from his UFD to take home the Diamond Jubilee Tankard from Ben Few Brown. In the  Squibs ,  Charlie White  recovered from a blip this morning to take the victory and seal the Squib points trophy (6 races across Seaview and Bembridge regattas).

Finally in the afternoon the Mermaids went on time, recovering well from the half hour delays earlier in the day. On an odd southerly wind, Jimbo Mitchell  took his second win, this time  from Julian Bowden and Noel Dobbs once the course had been suitably changed. In the  Victory  fleet, James Charlton won from  Nigel Prescot  following an inshore round the cans race. Finally the  Amber race ran from a committee boat because of the odd wind direction, after two short W/L laps, the fleet were faced with a long beat back into Gordon, showing a wide display of tactics. In the end it paid to stay right and get on top of Ryde Sands, with  Robert Holbrook  winning and Colin Simonds in second out of 25 starters.

And with that, the 2023 SVYC Regatta drew to a close, and very many congratulations to the winners. The race committee have been delighted with strong turnouts in every class, and this has resulted in around 430 boats started one of the 38 races over the two  days, with around 390 finishers. A massive thank you to all the boatmen, race deck assistants, safety boat drivers and everyone who helped to make it a record-breaking regatta. 

The SVYC Regatta next year will run on the 11th and 12th August 2024.