Byte CII National Championship at Weston Sailing Club - Preview

Byte sailing at Combs © John Saunders

Here we are again! It seems less than a year since the Bytes did battle at Calshot last year but they will be gathering at Weston Sailing Club this coming weekend for two days of intense racing on Southampton Water. The usual front runners will be present with young pretenders snapping at their heels. Four boats will be travelling from Combs Sailing Club in Derbyshire, Combs could be considered the spiritual heart of Byte racing with Rick Whitehouse and Louis Saunders from the club dominating over the last number of years but young southerner Ryan Bush has been very successful recently taking races from both of them, could this be his year?

There will also be at least four new Hartley built boats present so this will be a good comparative performance test. Not that Byte racing is ever an arms race with most boats still being old hulls built for original classic rigs but converted to CII's.

Recently turnouts have been poor but we hope that this 2015 National's will turn the corner, after all why not? It is a multi-age class for men and women the only limit on performance being lightish weight! Secondhand boats are fairly cheap and the builders Hartley Boats, have very reasonable offers on new boats.

One thing is certain, irrespective of turnout racing will be as fierce as usual and all the most competitive helms will be present. However they will not have it all their own way with lots of fast helms both male and female trying hard to overturn the status quo.