Whitstable Week 2025 at Whitstable Yacht Club
by Steve Gray 12 Aug 19:05 BST
6-10 August 2025
Start of race 3 - Whitstable Week 2025 © Ayhan Betez
Whitstable Yacht Club held its annual Whitstable Week regatta on August 6th-10th with the five days being blessed with glorious sunshine but mostly light breezes. The good weather certainly brought out the crowds with 61 boats competing and all ten races completed for the first time in a Whitstable Week!
The racing takes the form of an all-in-handicap with one start for all classes with largely trapezoidal courses making clear wind, particularly for the slower boats a priority. WYC has a large fleet of Lasers (or ILCAs), so the 29 starters were no surprise, but the excellent Tasar turnout of eleven is a reflection of the recent nationals held at WYC. It was also great to see visitors from six other clubs, several returning after previous visits this year.
The first two races on Wednesday set the precedent for the week (WYC uses a Wed-Sunday format to encourage weekend participation) with a swinging F2/3 breeze calling for patient mark moving from the race team and there was a general recall and subsequent black flag start with a few casualties. Rick and Sarah Perkins in their Tasar won both races with the Tera of Max Morrison second and Charles Campion Laser third in race 1 and Mark Barnes and Joe Barton second in their Tasar and Nick Stephens Laser third in race 2.
Day 2 saw a little more wind and a win from Harry Newton in his Laser with Rick and Sarah second equal with Richard Maltby and Adam Wickenden in a Wanderer in race 3, with Rick and Sarah back to winning ways in race 4 followed by Mark and Joe and the Laser of Simon Hadley.
Friday was a real tester for both race team and competitors - the sun shone but the sea breeze was weak and unstable which made the downwinds against the tide a test of patience. Race 5 was off cleanly and saw a win for Mark and Joe closely followed by Rick and Sarah with Nick Stephens third.
Rick and Sarah were back in front at the end of a very light race 6 but followed by Richard and Adam (who should be commended for some excellent spinnaker work in the fragile conditions), Nick Stephens with another third and perhaps surprisingly the Nacra 16 of Dickie Ledger and Sarah Oliver fourth showing what can be achieved with clear wind in what wasn't really cat weather.
With two days to go it was hard to see anyone beating the leading two leading Tasers, but which would prevail? There was a very close battle for third overall between the leading three Lasers and a close tussle amongst the leading Dart 18s.
Saturday was back to a westerly breeze about F2-3 with Rick/Sarah and Mark/Joe taking a race each. It was a Tasar podium in race 7 with Hythe visitors Andrew Thompson and Charlotte Harris finishing third, whilst Charles Campion picked up another third to go into the last day third overall (just!).
There was very little wind when competitors arrived for the final day's racing, but a NE F2 was forecast so there was the chance of a building sea breeze. The ninth race was bang on forecast under unbroken sun with a win for Mark/Joe, second for Rick/Sarah and third for Andrew/Charlotte who were getting the hang of Whitstable to make another all Tasar podium.
The start of the last race was tense, the breeze had built to a nice F3/4, the race team set a tighter course to keep back markers happy and stood by with the recall flags... Start 1 was a general recall largely due to the huge genoa of the Flying Dutchman obscuring the line!
Reluctantly the race team took out the black flag expecting better behaviour from the fleet - no such luck! Sadly a few boats strayed over well before the start and suffered accordingly before the fleet obscured the many OCS boats for another general recall.
It was away third time lucky for the best race of the series with Mark/Joe winning from Rick/Sarah and Stephen Nation and Julie Nuttall in a Tasar in third - another Tasar podium!
Overall winners were Rick and Sarah Perkins in a Tasar, Mark Barnes and Joe Barton in a Tasar took second and Charles Campion in a Laser third - in fact there were five Tasars in the top ten, four Lasers and a single Wanderer. Amongst the commendable performances were those of the seven 'Transition to Racing 2025' course graduates who raced the series and were headed by Sian Rose Sargaison in 17th overall, but there were many others throughout the fleet.
Whitstable week also saw some lively socials which may have dampened the odd performance the following day. An intellectual start with Phil Emery and Ian Hender's quiz night on Wednesday was followed by the club band on Thursday (Stairway to Heaven was both ambitious and amazing!).
Commodore's cocktails was a great success on Friday thanks to sponsor's Holidaycottages.co.uk and the backdrop of Thames barges arriving for Whitstable Harbour day. The final night party saw another beautiful Whitstable sunset and dancing to live band 'Total Recall'.
The prize-giving saw the 'Spirit of Whitstable Week' trophy awarded to Matt Young the WYC safety boat co-ordinator and chief mover of windward marks - the success of the event relied on Matt and his team. It was also down to the committee boat team of drivers, recorders and ARO's who collectively kept RO Steve Gray the right side of sanity. Onshore the bridge crew, social team and bar staff ensured safety, lots of fun and a ready supply of drinks - thanks to them all.
Only snag is how to top such a great event? Come along next year July 29-August 2nd, 2026, and find out - you'll be most welcome!
Full results: www.wyc.org.uk/latest-results