GP14 Bell Trophy Weekend at Poole Yacht Club
by James Stafford, PYC GP14 Class Captain 23 Jul 2025 15:06 BST
19-20 July 2025
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 attended by eleven GP14s including six visiting boats and additional Dayboats with whom we share the event.
The weather started off with light winds on Saturday morning which became moderate on Saturday afternoon and more challenging on Sunday with gusts up to 28 knots.
After the Saturday racing events, we celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the GP14 class with afternoon tea and a magnificent anniversary cake hand made and decorated by Sue Southam.
Late that evening we had a sumptuous dinner provided by the Poole Yacht Club Catering team followed by a quiz and three exciting marble races for which table and individual prizes were awarded.
Competing on Sunday for the Bell Trophy in strong winds became a war of attrition. Peter Kent the race officer was determined to give us four good races and was successful in this despite the conditions.
Only seven boats were brave enough to start the first race and a combination of gear failure and capsizes meant that only for boats competed by race four.
In truth they were all winners, but Paul Trubridge and Matt Hall from Frensham won the Bell Trophy, with a lead of just on point ahead of Steve Cooper and Simon Hazell from the Welsh Harp in London.
Colin Rainback and Barry Southam from Poole were third despite unfortunately having to retire after winning the first two races.
It would be churlish not to mention Sue Tomkins and Richard Eastmond from the Welsh Harp who, despite being a lightweight team, survived all four races and finished in fourth place.
Paul Trubridge thanked all the organisers and payed particular tribute to the safety boat teams that got some of us out of trouble. On examining the trophy he found that he had last won it in 1998, so his personal challenge is to not wait 17 years before winning it again!