British Keelboat League Qualifier 4 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

British Keelboat League Qualifier 4 at Hayling Island © Peter Hickson

What a weekend! The most fantastic venue, glorious sunshine, best racing format on the planet, twelve highly competitive club crews represented by competitors from all four corners of the UK, and all we needed was some wind.

HISC provided four teams, introducing some younger members into keelboat racing with a couple and the rest of the field was made up by strong teams from West Hoe, Queen Mary, Dorchester, Swansea Alumni, Middle Nene, Royal Thames, Felpham and London Corinthian sailing clubs.

Saturday morning looked a little bleak. 2-4 knots and competing wind directions meant that racing was postponed for a while as we all waited for something to settle. Just before lunch it arrived and off we went with a 5-7 knot sea-breeze providing absolute champagne sailing conditions. A forgiving wind strength combined with negotiating the tide and shallow shifts made it super-interesting on the racecourse and delivered hope and heartache in equal measure within each race.

13 races were sailed on the Saturday and the Race Officer and team did a great job in getting them in the bank. Hayling Island was absolutely glorious - turquoise sea, white sandy beaches, lovely breeze and great racing - we could have been in Freemantle or the Bahamas.

Day 2 threatened to start in the same way as day 1 but the sky was clearer and the sun stronger and the breeze arrived early at about 7 knots and pretty steady. Racing was tight and competitive and aside from the odd gear failure, everyone was buzzing.

Cracking conditions and lots of sunscreen enabled us to get 17 races in on the Sunday to bring the final tally up to 30 for the event.

The end results saw the HISC boat sailed by Frances Partington, Tristan Jaques, Paul Childs and Chris Oneill triumphant with a very deserving victory from a fantastic and consistent set of results (7 bullets, 5 seconds, 2 thirds and 1 forth).

Second was Royal Thames - Scott Wallis; Jemima Lawson; Matt Wallis; Dave Robertson, third was Middle Nene - Simon Childs; Kate Greer; Mark Greer; Phoebe Connellan, fourth for Queen Mary, fifth and sixth were HISC, the very talented and good-looking West Hoe were seventh, eighth Swansea Alumni, ninth was HISC, tenth was Royal Corinthian, eleventh was Felpham and twelfth was Dorchester.

Congratulations to all the crews, some of which were in keelboats and RS21s for the first time and also a massive thank you to the race committee, HISC and of course the Umpires. Anecdotal feedback from the latter indicated that we were a pretty forgiving fleet and many infringements were either not noticed or just not protested.

This event, programme and format is what sailing is all about. Superb venue and conditions, competitive racing, teams of all ages, great boats and lots and lots of smiling people.

www.britishkeelboatleague.co.uk

Overall Results: