Bembridge Sailing Club Redwing & One-Design Weekend

Racing for the Princessa and Zanen trophies at Bembridge © Mike Samuelson

A challenging weekend with no wind on Saturday - so racing never started - and a gentle F3 SSE'erly on Sunday that veered to the SW and decreased towards the end of the longest race so far this season.

Saturday was scheduled to be the annual Zanen Long Distance handicap race, however having postponed for nearly 40 minutes to see if the sea breeze would kick in, the decision was made to abandon racing for the day. Inevitably a breeze of sorts did materialise, however by then everyone had derigged and headed back to the Club.

Sunday was scheduled for the Redwing's Princessa Trophy so with a gentle F3 SSE'erly and hardly a cloud in the sky it was agreed to make the race for the Zanen Trophy as well for the twelve Redwings and three One-Designs wanting to race. The start line was at Janson with the first mark as Cochrane to starboard in an attempt to encourage boats to keep off the Ledge on their way to the West Princessa. No issues at the start, indeed no one was that actually that close to the line; the three One-Designs were all close to the Committee Boat and with their genoas rigged kept up well with the mid-fleet Redwings.

Split tacks to Cochrane where most then risked going inshore to try to dodge the tide. Fortunately they all got away with it and at the West Princessa, it was Joe Robertson in Red Gauntlet II who was in the lead just ahead of Tom Scott in Siskin and Colin Samuelson in Toucan. Quite a tricky rounding with a two or three knot tide that required a bit of luck to judge the best lay line.

There was then a long run with the tide to Warner via Cochrane. Toucan was first round by a country mile with Red Gauntlet II & Siskin within seconds of each other and Avocet a minute or so later. The leaders headed in towards Seagrove Bay only to caught out by a significant wind change that allowed the rest of the fleet to catch up.

Having looked invincible and the obvious winner, Colin Samuelson in Toucan ended up crossing the line fourth behind Robin Ebsworth in Quintessence, Andrew Eddy in Plover and Rupert MacInnes in Avocet, who therefore won the Princessa Trophy.

Racing for the Princessa and Zanen trophies at Bembridge - photo © Mike Samuelson

Never the last in the combined fleet, the three One-Designs, all being sailed single handed, not only had a very close race amongst themselves, but with genoas and able to take full advantage of the change in the wind direction on the last leg, finished only 15 minutes behind the leading Redwing after the two and a half hour plus race.

This meant that on handicap Jos Coad in No 12 who managed to hold off Hugh Doherty in No 10 and James Row in No 8 won the Zanen Trophy by nearly 15 minutes.

More photos at flic.kr/s/aHskZRZ6ku

Overall Results:

Racing for the Princessa and Zanen trophies at Bembridge - photo © Mike Samuelson