Appleby RS Feva Regatta at Isle of Man Yacht Club

Appleby RS Feva Regatta at the Isle of Man © Cathy Rastrick

Appleby RS Feva Regatta at the Isle of Man © Cathy Rastrick

The Appleby and Neil Pryde sponsored RS Feva Open Regatta was held at the IOM Yacht Club over the weekend of Saturday & Sunday, 9th & 10th July, and it was great to have 3 boats from the UK travel to the Island for the event, with much appreciated help from the IOM Steam Packet.

The forecast of strong south westerly winds on Saturday was bang on the money and left Race Officer, Russ Collister with little option but to abandon the racing scheduled for that afternoon. With the prospect of more favourable conditions 4 races were instead planned for Sunday morning. By then the wind, although still strong had moved around to the West and the sea state was much more manageable for dinghy racing.

The Race Officer set a large 'X' course for the 1st race where Ben Batchelor & his regular crew Roscoe Martin took an early and commanding lead. Tom Storey & Maddie Wylie from Ripon SC chased hard along with Henry & Jamie Rastrick from Yorkshire Dales SC, but they couldn't close the gap to Ben & Roscoe, finishing 2nd & 3rd respectively. The Cope brothers Patrick & Alec along with Caitlyn Webster and Emily Batchelor both had capsizes along the way leaving them a lap down and in 4th & 6th places.

The change to an 'S' course for the 2nd race threw the placings wide open, when Ben & Roscoe (despite having checked twice) led half the fleet to the wrong mark. James Arnold and James Humphrey, having paid attention to the course change, took full advantage of this error and rounded the correct mark in 1st smiling from ear to ear. The Arnold twins of Ross & Stephen had also missed the course change and despite the rest of the fleet realising the error and heading back up towards them, they carried on regardless to the 'X' leeward mark - doh!

The drama wasn't however over as James & James found that their spinnaker had jammed and wouldn't fly, leaving the downwind rockets of Tom & Maddie just enough time to take 1st place by a bowsprit. Henry & Jamie also weren't far behind to take 3rd, but Ben & Roscoe couldn't make up the ground from the course error and finished a lap down in 4th. Ross & Stephen were also adrift of the fleet in 5th. Unfortunately Caitlyn & Emily had more spinnaker problems whilst Partrick & Alec and Matt Perry & Fraser Brown had capsizes and had to retire.

The pressure was now on for Ben & Roscoe with 2 races left and wins needed in both to secure overall victory. Tom & Maddie & Henry & Jamie certainly weren't going to make it easy for them and Tom & Maddie had a blistering 1st lap on race 3 to lead into the leeward mark, only to be side-swiped by a big wave into a capsize on the mark.

Henry & Jamie avoided the upturned boat, but this allowed Ben & Roscoe to close the gap. James & James were in the mix, but were losing ground downwind each leg without their kite. Ben & Roscoe pressed on and managed to squeeze ahead to take the win from Henry & Jamie in 2nd & James & James in 3rd. Matt & Fraser had 1 capsize too many and decided to retire for the day.

By the 4th and final race the sea state could only be described as 'big', but these young sailors all deserve a huge amount of credit for their gutsy attitudes and some excellent boat handling skills. There were some spectacular capsizes and some great recoveries, not least of which were Henry & Jamie who stated a gybe, almost pitch-poled, re-grouped and then started the gybe again on the last lap of the race, holding on to their 2nd place behind Ben & Roscoe in 1st, and again closely followed by James & James in 3rd.

The overall win went to Ben & Roscoe. 2nd to Henry & Jamie & 3rd to James & James. A big thank you to Appleby and Neil Pryde for sponsoring the event & to the Safety Boat crews who did an excellent job throughout the weekend, certainly one of their busier ones, and to all the Yacht Club volunteers.

Overall Results: