Taittinger Royal Solent Yacht Club Regatta 2025
by Oliver Dewar 7 Jul 2025 06:19 BST
4-6 July 2025
The 17th edition of the Taittinger Royal Solent Yacht Club Regatta held in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, over the past weekend (Friday 4 - Sunday 6 July), gave the fleet of 198 competing boats a showcase in how tricky the Western Solent can be.
Both Black and White Groups started Race 1 of the regatta on Saturday off the Mainland shore; White Group just to the west of the Lymington River, Black Group slightly to the east. A WSW breeze twitching between 19-23 knots and a deep swell with a horribly uncomfortable pattern from the final two hours of the ebb tide made the start line for both groups a severe challenge. Many in both racing fleets were carrying reefs, although the 20 boats in IRC 1 appeared not to be on the taking-a-reef mailing list.
As the wind continued to build through Saturday morning, White Group's course took the boats across towards the flatter water off the Island shore. Meanwhile, Black Group hammered it out in mid-Solent with the Race 1 downwind leg producing broaches, spinouts and spinnaker dramas forcing around eight boats to retire across the group's seven classes. As gusts peaked at 30+ knots at midday, the decision was made to cancel Race 2 for Black Group. Under one mile to the south, the 30-knot gusts arrived later in the afternoon and the six classes in White Group completed two races.
On Sunday morning, the Western Solent was a far calmer and less chaotic stretch of water for the second day of racing with the westerly breeze building swiftly from nine knots to gusts in the 20s towards noon. These conditions enabled the Taittinger RSYC Race Committee to slot-in Black Group's missing race from Saturday while White Group completed their scheduled, single race for Day 2.
At the prize-giving on Sunday, there were a number of repeat winners from last year's regatta: David Richards's J109 Jumping Jellyfish was back collecting silverware again with 1-1-1 victory; Tony Mack and crew of J111 McFly returned to the prize-giving table with a 1-2-2 scorecard and Peter Lloyd's Spirit C72 Gwenhyfar II triumphed for a second year in the IRC Classic Cruiser Class.
Complete results for the 2025 Taittinger RSYC Regatta can be found here.
A full Taittinger RSYC Regatta 2025 racing and social report follows.