Abersoch Keelboat Week 2014 at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club
by Paul Proctor & Andy Teague 1 Sep 2014 12:37 BST
18-22 August 2014
Imposter, Corby 33, on her way to winning overall at Abersoch Keelboat Week 2014 © Andy Green /
www.greenseaphotography.co.uk
Five fleets competed in this annual event sailed under the burgee of the South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club on 18th – 22nd August in Abersoch, North Wales. The Regatta experienced Champagne Sailing Conditions all week, with beautiful sunshine, a good fresh breeze and even gusts that reached 36 knots at times. This resulted in very Competitive sailing each day in all the fleets racing on either windward/leeward, triangle, or coastal courses, and it was on the Thursday that sailors experiencing some testing conditions with many a broach to be talked about in the bar after racing – with IRC1 experiencing gusts of 36 knots and one or two 'hairy' moments on their long coastal race and one Sigma 33 suffered an 'exciting' broach where it was noted he was going sideways quicker than forwards for a while.
The IRC Class yachts always produce closely fought racing and this year was no exception. Overall in IRC 1 Richard Fildes in his new Corby 33 'Imposter' took line honours with his slick crew and was followed home by Pete Hawkins (Commodore of SCYC) in 'Mr Maestro', X43, with Guy Cowper, from Royal Dee, hot on their heels in 'Stratisfear', Corby 36, taking third place and in particular in one race when an interesting finish by Statisfear and Mr Maestro resulted in Statisfear managing to beautifully wrap their spinnaker around the committee boat on crossing the line. There was also some very competitive sailing further down the fleet where a close fought battle ensued between the J109 'Jeepster' of David Lean and the Dehler 36 'Wombat' of John Batson with both boats taking line honours in different races.
Overall in IRC 2 'Injenious', J97, sailed by the dream team of Graham Hallworth and Mike Crompton had a battle with 'Molissa', Projection 920, sailed by Paddy Atkinson which resulted in a referral to the RRS appendix A 8.2 which led to count back and the result from the last race to decide the overall winner which crowned 'Injenious' as the overall winners. David Fawcett's 'She Too',a beautifully restored She 31B took third place. Again some great performances were noted by all the fleet with some great tales told in the bar after racing.
This year the smallest fleet was the Sigma 33's, however it saw some extremely close racing with all four boats finishing within a minute of each other. The coastal race which lasted three and a half hours saw places change in the last 100 yards and all four boats finish within seconds of each other. All boats took line honours in a least one of the races which goes to show what great racing can be had in a one design class. Honours went to 'Marauder' sailed by the P Milner and T Saunders contingent, second place was 'Fandango' crewed by the Cope/Price/Lee team.
The Cruisers sailing under the NHC handicap again had a great week's sailing and proved to be very competitive throughout the week. The leader board was very close at the end of their 5 races with Roy & Tilly Dearden's 'Aunt Jessie',First 325, taking a well-deserved 1st place overall from Wim Batist's First 30 'Perseverance' in 2nd and Charles and Sarah Downes' First 211 'Jester' in 3rd place.
In the Gentlemen's White Sail Division, also sailed under NHC, close racing also ensued with David Jackson's 'Skybird', Maxi 100, eventually taking line honours from Arthur Stephenson's 'Wilde Thyme', Elan 38.
All the fleets experienced close racing making this event a huge success again in 2014. Off the water the evenings were well supported with themed food evenings in the Cove Restaurant, Quiz night and live music in the bar, plus eventful daily prize giving with 'in it to win it' prize draws and a final night to remember.
The Abersoch Keelboat Week prize giving ceremony took place at SCYC where the overall Trophy for the week, the Kearns Trophy, was presented to Richard Fildes, Corby 33 'Imposter', who celebrated in style and in true traditional spirit filled the cup with bubbles! The Hardcastle Trophy, for the visiting boat who has achieved the best performance overall was won by Guy Cowper, from Royal Dee, in 'Stratisfear', Corby 36.
Paul Proctor, the Event Manager who has been at the helm running the Event for the last 8 years and is now looking forward to a new hand on the helm so that he can go out on the water next year, said, "This year's event had been a huge success again and was probably one of the best I've known. The weather was more than kind and the good wind we experienced all week produced exciting and competitive sailing involving many families as well as competitive crews. All the competitors were in good spirit with plenty of happy smiling faces and it was great not to lose any races to bad weather".
This year the event was sponsored by SLAM Clothing, JKA Sails, Partington Marine, Hafan Pwllheli, greenseaphotography and Arris.
For full results and details of the event please go to either www.scyc.co.uk or www.abersochkeelboatweek.org.
More photographs of the event are available at www.greenseaphotography.co.uk
Diary date: Abersoch Keelboat Week 2015, 24–28 August 2015.