Wayfarer "Westerns" at Parkstone Yacht Club

The Wayfarer Westerns Championships © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

The Wayfarer Westerns Championships © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

Most of the top Wayfarer helms gathered at Parkstone YC early on a hot and sunny Saturday morning, the 26th June, for the “Westerns” Championships, the 3rd National Circuit Event and the last competitive open meeting before the big international meeting, three weeks hence, due to start on the Saturday 17th July at the WPNSA, Weymouth.

The Class welcomed back to Wayfarer racing a past international champion, Stu Rix with his crew Mike Claxton. Having entered the “international” meeting at Weymouth as a member of Cannes YC they were using the Parkstone Open as work-up training. In the event they didn’t need much training because, in race one, they ended up in a ding-dong battle with Michael McNamara at the front of the fleet and finally secured a race win in their first Wayfarer event since the 1990s.

The racing took place in what is known as the top triangle in Poole Harbour. Six races were planned for the two day, weekend meeting; three races on the Saturday and three on the Sunday. The wind varied a great deal in strength (force 1 to 3) and also direction which gave the race officer, Steve Randle, a very difficult task. In general the wind came from a south-easterly direction which meant that Brownsea Island was in the way!

It was interesting that sometimes the pressure and wind-seams were funnelling down the left of the course and then, in the afternoons, as the sea-breeze turned south with the sun, the greater wind pressure was on the right of the course. In the event it all produced some very interesting racing and, rather than give a race by race blow by blow report, I will simply describe the racing in general and include photographs and the results.

Much depended on the starts and the side of the course selected. Those who managed to position themselves well at the start and get into a good wind seam early were able to capitalize on the situation and get to the first windward mark in the leading group. The other motto to follow was “stay out of trouble” which yours truly did not manage to do on a couple of occasions when trying to make up ground after poor starts!

Michael McNamara, however, demonstrated a cool head in the hot conditions because, on a number of occasions he did not have a particularly brilliant start and yet, by race end, he had managed to work his way through the fleet to the front. Richard Stone and Phil Stacey from Medway YC were also going very well over the weekend and managed one race win, a second and a third to put them in second place overall.

Bill and Lisa Whitney, from Shoreham SC, also had a cracking weekend to follow their Shoreham Open Meeting successes six weeks earlier. They had a second, a third and two fifths to put them in third place overall with a net score of 21.

Also finishing on a nett 21, but in fourth place and edged out of the third spot overall after count-back, was Martin Collen and Tom Preston in their famous boat number 88, Pieces of Eight. Fifth place overall was achieved by Gordon Harris, crewed by Beth Condie. They were always at or near the front of the fleet by dint of clever reading of the conditions in their new Hartley Wayfarer, “Billy Ruffian”.

Another famous boat that was performing consistently well in the predominantly light airs conditions, finishing sixth overall, was boat number 8888, Doubloons, crewed by Graham Barker with his son Robin. It was a very successful race meeting, well supported by 12 local boats, and particularly well organized by Parkstone YC’s Wayfarer Class Captain, Glynn Marples.

Overall Results: