Sonata Southern Championships at Brixham Yacht Club

Sonata Southern Championships at Brixham © Chris Coote

Sonata Southern Championships at Brixham © Chris Coote

Sonata Southern Championships at Brixham © Chris Coote

Brixham Yacht Club hosted its 3rd championship event of 2013 by running the Southern Area Championships for the Sonata one design keel boat class on the last weekend in July. Although these small 22ft racing yachts are now mostly over 30 years old, the design is still popular with racing fleets all around the UK including Brixham. Visitors this time came from Poole and even one all the way down from Argyll in Scotland. Visitors were efficiently craned into Brixham's inner harbour on Friday night by local man Paul Sheppard using his large Hyab truck, and similarly recovered in little over an hour after racing on Sunday evening when the tide allowed.

Race Officer Seam Semmens and his crew of volunteers started promptly on Saturday in bright but virtually windless conditions. None the less the scheduled 4 races were run, although at one point all boats were becalmed for over an hour and a long wait for any sort of breeze was made for the last race. The first day was dominated by the young Poole YC crew of "Presto" who won all 4 races by comfortable margins. Organiser and local Sonata Class captain Dave Woolcock was pleased with his first race position of 4th as top Brixham boat behind the visitors.

Day 2 on Sunday was altogether different with a steady strong SW wind with gusts up to 25knots at times. Windward / Leeward courses were the order of the day since it was judged that triangular courses with spinnaker reaches would result in too many risky broaches and potential for damage to boats and rigs. Fast and furious racing ensued with the previously dominant "Presto" being ousted from winning by visiting "Gallus" from Scotland. The heavy weather saw lots of rolling downwind and several broaches including one for "Gallus" and no less than 3 for the local class captain in "G String".

The visitors dominated the results with the Cross family in both "Presto" and "Seline" in first and second place respectively. Joe Cross and his young crew in "Presto" have now won all the Sonata championships and nationals in the last year including the Northerns and Nationals at Medway in 2012. 3rd place went to the dry sailed boat of Scottish skipper Murray Jamieson in "Gallus" whilst top Brixham boat in 4th was "Sooty" with a new crew consisting of co-owner Chris Turner and Impala owner Alan Bancroft on the helm with Jim Mitchell on the foredeck.

A particularly popular feature of the event was the social aspect hosted by the staff and volunteer lady cooks with a "free" barrel of beer and sailing suppers on the Saturday night and a BBQ on Sunday served as soon as the hungry sailors came off the water. The prize giving on Sunday afternoon allowed everyone to relax after a particularly vigorous days sailing and an opportunity to thank both Dave Woolcock and Sean Semmens with all his volunteers for providing such a well run and enjoyable event.

Overall Results: (ten races, 2 discards)

1. Presto (Poole YC)
2. Seline (Poole YC)
3. Gallus (Cove SC)
4. Sooty (Brixham YC)
5. Apiano (Brixham YC)
6. Splash (Brixham YC)
7. G String (Brixham YC)
8. Spellbound (Poole YC)
9. Argo (Brixham YC)
10. Simply Alto (Brixham YC)