Mailspeed Sportsboat Regatta at Pwllheli Sailing Club

3rd-5th May

The Mailspeed Sportsboat Regatta, hosted by Pwllheli Sailing Club on the first May bank holiday of the year, has already established itself as a firm favourite in the calendar and is one of the premier annual events in the north of Britain. In spite of the inclement weather, this year’s regatta was once again a huge success. As well as a strong fleet of 1720s, most of which are based in Pwllheli, a number of other classes were represented, including the Projection, H-22, Laser SB3 and Mumm 30. The racing was of a high standard and extremely competitive and the 1720s in particular enjoyed excellent one-design racing. The sponsor’s own well-known 1720 ‘Mailspeed Marine’ was not on the water this year and is in fact for sale. Simon Relph is himself otherwise engaged in Burnham-on-Crouch, setting up another store in the mould of his already highly successful Warrington based store and mail order business, while co-owner of the 1720, Dave Eddows, was out in his new Mumm 30 ‘Panther’.

The regatta was to be held over 3 days with 8 races scheduled, 7 to count: 3 on Saturday and Sunday and 2 on the Monday. The courses were all windward/leewards and sailed back to back, but unfortunately, due to poor weather conditions, only 6 races could in fact be held with no discard to apply. Saturday’s racing kicked off in rain, strong southerly winds of around force 5 /6 and a big sea; not the ideal conditions we had all hoped for in what was for most of the boats the first race of the season! Race 1 went to ‘Gul’, owned by Mike Budd and Alan Woosey. Mike is currently recovering from an arm injury and so handed over the helm to Mark Greaves, who clearly did an excellent job! Second place went to Adrian Long’s Projection ‘Longshot’ with another 1720, ‘Barbarian’, owned by Callum Edge in third. By the time the second race was underway, the wind had increased and continued to do so, with gusts of 50mph. The sea was also building and half of the fleet in fact decided to retire, fearing that the worst of the weather was yet to come. Those who finished did so in very challenging conditions, but at least had the satisfaction of not having to count a DNF in the final results. ‘Regent’, owned by Sian Evans and helmed by Rob Smith, won Race 2 with ‘Gul’ hot on their heels to take second place and the lead overall. The little Laser SB3 performed impressively in the big seas and high winds and was well sailed into 3rd place by Gary Howland and his team from Rutland Sailing Club. There was no question of running the 3rd race of the day and both competitors and race organisers were glad to head for home!

By Sunday the wind had abated slightly, but there was still a very big sea running in the aftermath of Saturday’s southerly gale. The race committee postponed racing for an hour, then made the difficult but inevitable decision to abandon the 3 races of the day.

Monday brought more favourable conditions with the wind swinging round to the west and flattening the waters in the Bay thanks to the protection of Llanbedrog head. The race committee had decided to run 4 races on the final day so that in the end only 2 out of the 8 races were lost. All 4 races were sailed in near perfect conditions with a good steady breeze and almost flat seas. Race 3 was won by ‘Regent’, with the SB3 in second place, less than a minute behind them on corrected time. Gary Howland and his team continued their upward trend, going on to win Race 4 with ‘Longshot’ in second place and ‘Regent’, now established as overall leaders, in third. The racing continued to be very close and highly competitive with less than 2 minutes separating the first 9 places. Races 5 and 6 were again won by ‘Regent’, whose consistency throughout the regatta was impressive. They took 1st place overall, finishing 10 points clear ahead of ‘Gul’ in 2nd place. ‘Longshot’ finished 2nd in Race 5, but after top 5 results in every other race, a 10th in the final race dropped them to 3rd overall.

This event was a very well attended open regatta, with crews travelling from all over the country and the racing was efficiently and professionally run by Richard Tudor and his race committee. Club member Tim Robinson braved even the worst weather conditions in a rib to video the racing. His efforts were greatly appreciated by all competitors, who were able to relive the day’s racing on the big screen in the bar afterwards (unfortunately for some, the camera never lies!). Finally, a big thank you goes once again to the event’s sponsor Mailspeed Marine, who provided very generous prizes for each day’s racing as well as for the overall results.

Overall Results:

More Information:

• Pwllheli Sailing Club website