GP14 Bell Trophy at Poole Yacht Club

Tom Cluett and Oli Hale win the GP14 Bell Trophy at Poole © Sarah Agnew

This event is unique to Poole Yacht Club consisting of two races around the harbour islands on Saturday and a conventional open meeting on the Sunday with four races around the cans. It was well attended with 19 GP14s including 12 visitors, and ultimately 15 Dayboats with whom we share the event, so the top triangle in Poole Harbour was well used on Sunday.

This report is written from my perspective as GP14 Class Captain but Steve Wilson has already written a report about the Day Boats that can also be read by those interested.

The Poole weather gods appeared keen to show off their powers by treating the visitors to everything from hot sun on Friday when many arrived, to torrential rain on Saturday afternoon then back to cloud and sun on Sunday.

Normally it would be pure hyperbole to say Oli Hale was so far ahead he was out of sight, but in the mist and rain on Saturday afternoon it was sometimes true!

The RTI racing is unique to Poole and to make this even more special the GP14's create teams of 3 boats trying to mix clubs and abilities, the winner being the team with the best overall score. As well as encouraging new friendships this avoids the races being always being won by the usual suspects and gives everyone a better chance of being on the Winners podium.

As proof this works, myself and my crew Dante Dunbabin ended up in the winning team thanks mainly to the efforts of other boats helmed by Steve Cooper and Tom Goddard plus other keen racers in competitive teams being OCS at the start. Allegations of race fixing remain unjustified!

Another highlight was that some of the PYC pairings were formed just for this event, by people who are not regular GP sailors including Sarah Collingwood with Sarah Agnew, Marks Titterington with Jackie Hale and Simon Redhead with Nikki Brown some of whom were lent boats by other GP sailors.

All this demonstrates that a GP14 can be sailed competitively even by sailors more familiar with other craft and how keen we are to let people experience this.

On Saturday evening we had an excellent dinner in the clubhouse attended by around 50 people including members of the additional ten GP14 cruising boats that had been with us all week exploring the harbour and Studland Bay. They also joined in the social sailing on Friday and Sunday.

The club pre booking system worked well and everyone was impressed by the quality of the food and the professionalism of the staff who not only knew people's names but even what they had ordered. Facts which escaped many participants after rehydrating themselves in the bar!

On Sunday in the serious racing for the Bell Trophy, the honour of Poole Yacht Club was upheld by Oli Hale and Tom Cluett taking first place with three wins out of four races after discarding a mere second in race two.

In second place was Maurice Cleal and Romek Kowalewski and in third Steve Cooper and Liz Guest, all visitors from the Welsh Harp Sailing Club in London.

Everyone was complimentary about the way the event was organised and much thanks goes out to all the volunteers gave up their time to make this happen. John Yonwin as Race Officer kept us moving with minimal delays between races, black flagging us when we became over excited, and Aaron Agnew and the rib teams kept us safe. Simon Robinson provided the committee boat and we must not forget the mark layers and cake makers whose help made all this happen.

This event is the highlight of the PYC GP14 calendar and we are always keen to show off our beautiful harbour, great clubhouse and wonderful staff. In this we have definitely been successful, as since the event we have received many compliments from visitors from all over the country who seem keen to come again next year. Well done everyone!

Overall Results: