Weston Sailing Club Easter Grand Slam

After two years of a raging pandemic and closed doors sailing, Weston Sailing Club had the pleasure to once again host its annual Easter Grand Slam Regatta.

Andark Diving and Watersports, our proud event sponsors once again brought forward their support and gave Weston Sailing Club and all their sailors amazing prizes for this event.

Easter didn't disappoint and brought forward some of the best sailing conditions we have had for an open event for a long time.

A perfect South - South East breeze blew up southampton water on Saturday the 16th April, and as all the competitors started to rigg their boats and prepare for the weekends racing, Westons best race team led by Paul Howard started to get the race courses laid and ready to host a multiple array of different boat classes that were entered into this historic event at weston.

After a short briefing, racing got under way with 3 Fleets divided into Fast handicaps/Asymmetrical, Medium Handicaps and Slow Handicaps racing each other around a variety of different courses - from windward/leeward courses for the fast fleet/asymmetrical boats to Trapezoid courses for the medium fleet boats and lastly, triangle courses for the slow fleet boats.

Weston Grand Slam 2022 - photo © Nathan Steffenoni and & Wilcox

In the Fast fleet, Grant Piggot in his Nacra 20 had a strong start, but was followed very closely by Tim Neale and Simon Farren in their Formula 18 Cat, after 4 laps of high speed racing, the Formula 18 edged the Nacra 20 out of the win by putting in some very good downwind laps.

Further Down the fleet, Rob Forrester in his Shadow X proved that he was in his own league and had put himself far in front of the following 4000 and RS700.

Following the disappointment of R1, Grant put his foot down and followed up the next two races of the day with a solid 1 and 1 and gave Tim and Simon no chance of catching him on the scoreboard. This battle of titans separated the fleet and even with some impressive sailing from taltents like William and Megan Smith in their Formula 18 and veteran sailors like Simaon Dean and Phil Goddard in their Tornado, there was a clear sign that the podium was going to feature almost only Fast Cats.

Sunday brought forward a bit more breeze and Tony Stokes and Jeremy Bosch bit down hard in their Nacra 20 to put the pressure on the race leaders Grant Piggot. It proved futile, Grant had all his sailing maneuvers dialed in and his focus was only on getting his strategy right which ultimately being the local chap, proved too much for visiting teams and he followed his Saturday results with another 3 wins.

Weston Grand Slam 2022 - photo © Nathan Steffenoni and & Wilcox

Clare and Howard joined in for the amazing conditions with their RS800 and did their best to hold off the 4000 helmed by John Reynolds and crewed by Fran Howell, but John and Fran were well tempered by sailing the winter in Grafham and made sure that they didn't allow the RS800 anywhere near their perfect laps.

The medium fleet was essentially a local Contender fleet battle, the usual close boat on boat racing.

Day 1 and the first light race saw Ralph Drew fast out of the blocks to lead up the first half of the beat. The race then evolved to begin what was to become a race after race match-race between Mike Murley and Mark Watts for the bragging rights. Mike took Race 1, Mark took race 2 in increasing breeze - setting up an end of day decider. Mark led out the blocks in race 3 and took a solid lead on the first beat. Mike then worked his magic down the run to eventually overhaul Mark for the win by a whisker.

Day 2 and with the same course it was a split on the line as to which end was favoured. Mike and Ralph called it correct from the port end for Mike to lead out race 1, Simon Forbes joining the champagne sailing in 2nd for 2 laps before a swim on the run trying to defend from a recovering Mark. Race 2 and Mark led out of the blocks, only to be caught by Mike downwind, the 2 separated by very little over the next lap. A brief moment of Mike backing himself a bit too hard down the run saw him let Mark get away for the win. The final race and event decider saw Mark lead round the top mark by a length after some outrageous arm above the head trapezing to win the drag race off the line. The usual close quarters racing down the run saw Mark hold off Mike only to fall foul of a hole on the reach for Mike to somehow sail past flat wiring, a gap which proved unassailable giving Mike a well deserved overall win.

Weston Grand Slam 2022 - photo © Nathan Steffenoni and & Wilcox

The slow feet were a great mix of boats from Aeros to Europes, on the water there was a boat-on-boat battle for line honours between the Aeros followed by some very tight racing between the Lasers, Streaker, Laser Radial, Supernova and Europe. With the wind gaining strength throughout each day, along with short races and small handicap differences across the fleet, every small mistake counted along with some bigger ones including mainsheet-dropping capsizes and going to the wrong mark! After day one Andrew Rawson in the Aero 7 led after dominating the day's racing, followed by 3 boats tied on points for 2nd. The day finished with a bring-your-own BBQ on the Commodore's Lawn (an area of the club grounds, not actually on his lawn!).

Day 2 started with a good breeze and the tight racing continued with boats making gains and losses on every leg. Some gorgeous downwind surfing added to the day's enjoyment with the last race as tight as the first. Andrew Rawson (Aero 7) sailed to an impressive victory over Alan Davis (Aero 9) and Kathy Sherratt (Europe).

Weston Grand Slam 2022 - photo © Nathan Steffenoni and & Wilcox

Weston would like to thank all its volunteers and race team for all the effort they went to deliver great racing and once again our thanks to the weather gods for creating an Easter to remember as we all try to gain confidence in welcoming social interaction and sailing after this hard pandemic. Also, Andark Diving and Watersports have been one of the most amazing sponsors we could have asked for in recent years, supporting all our sailing events with great prizes and amazing freebie goodies.

We look forward to once again welcoming all guests and sailors at Weston in 2023 for the next Easter Grand Slam.

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