Swallow National Championships at Bembridge Sailing Club

Athough numbers were somewhat lower than in previous years, the ten boats that entered still had some close and very competitive racing despite quite extraordinary weather and wind conditions.  Indeed on Saturday the breeze was all over the place and certainly kept the PRO - Jonathan Peel - and mark layers on their toes.

Race 1 was set up for a North Westerly - Andrew Reid in S67 Solitude emerged the winner, ahead of Carolyn Brigg in S82 Marengo, with Malcolm Green in S74 Archon in third place.  Race 2 after a general recall was abandoned half way up the first beat as a South South Easterly breeze kicked in.  Harry Roome in S3 Skua found the breeze offshore and came in ahead of Carolyn in Marengo, with Tom Clarence-Smith in S80 Blue Tit in third.

No sooner had most finished, then the classic South Westerly filled in and all - bar Carolyn who did not start after a port & starboard incident with Archon after the finish - had a cracking good final race of the day.  Harry Roome in Skua scored his second win of the day ahead of passage race winners on Friday Gwaihir (S93) helmed by Mark Strucket.  Simon Slater in S70 Curlew was third.

On Sunday the wind was considerably stronger for races 4 & 5 and it was very much a matter of survival of the fitest. Three boats decided better of it and two of them headed back to Chichester before the start of Race 4 and by the end of Race 5 there were only 5 boats still competing!  Mark Strukett and his crew in Gwaihir were clearly in their element and won both races ahead of Harry Roome in Skua and Simon Slater in Curlew.

Well done to Harry Roome & his crew in S3 Skua who emerged as this year's winner with 2 firsts, 2 seconds & a fifth.  Some photos can be found on flickr.

A couple of extracts from e-mails received since Sunday...
"The reason for us not putting the spinnaker up in the last race was that the boat was filling up with water and slowly sinking. We had to do a lot of pumping. The boat started to nose dive... by the time Stewart reached Itchenor the bow was nearly under water!" and "As you may have heard we had an adventurous trip home: the Chichester Bar lived up to its fearsome reputation in a southerly blow with huge 10ft waves breaking all around (and sometimes over) us. Still we all made it and will have bar stories for years to come...!"

Overall Results: