Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025

Joe Barton in his Topper during the Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025 © Steve Gray

Upwind leg during the Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025 © Steve Gray

Andy Provan & Harry Wilson's Flying Dutchman during the Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025 © Steve Gray

The annual WYC club championship was held over the August bank holiday weekend and could be described as a game of three halves! Three days of two races a day, three different courses, three different wind strengths and sea states all under brilliant sunshine throughout.

Saturday's forecast was for a light to moderate easterly but turned out to be much breezier than expected with waves big enough to surf on the downwind legs of the triangle course. Both races were won by defending champions Robert Govier and David Figgis in their Tornado with Joe Barton scoring two 2nds in his Topper. The first race saw the Dart of Richard Ledger and Sarah Oliver finish 3rd whilst the podium was completed by the Merlin Rocket of Phil Emery and Julie Nuttall in the second.

Sunday saw much lighter conditions with a weak easterly and strong tides as the afternoon wore on. Racing used a trapezoidal course and in race three the Merlins were able to carry their spinnakers on all three downwind legs and filled the first two places with Phil and Julie taking the win from Jon and Philippa Bloice. Harry and Max Morrison made the best of the dying breeze in their 29er to take 3rd place.

Race four proved tricky for race team and competitors alike - the strong outgoing tide and fragile breeze led to a general recall and subsequent black flag start which took out the Merlin of Phil and Julie amongst others. The leaders managed legs one and two of the trapezoid well enough but struggled on the run against the tide with the wind dropping out which leading to the fleet bunching on their drift to mark three. The RO, Mark Barnes spotted wind incoming which further shuffled the pack and decided to finish the race at mark four. The results proved something of a Laserfest with a win for Charles, 2nd for Harry Newton and 3rd for Andrew Provan.

Going into the last day things were tight at the top between the Merlin of Phil/Julie, Joe's Topper and Charlie's Laser, but the Merlin had a BFD to discard so no pressure!

Stephen Nation & Theresa Page's Tasar during the Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025 - photo © Steve Gray

Monday saw a very shifty and gusty offshore wind and a windward/leeward course to make things interesting, with both races won by Rick and Sarah Perkins who didn't compete on Sunday (happy birthday Sarah!). Charles took 2nd in race five with Joe 3rd and Phil/Julie only 5th so things tightened up further!

The final race saw a wind shift on the start favouring the pin but most of the fleet were stranded by the committee boat. Rick/Sarah and Phil/Julie were close to the pin, tacked onto port and led the race throughout with Phil/Julie taking 3rd on handicap. Charles had a battle with two other Lasers and could do no better than 6th equal, whilst Joe had a steady race and took 2nd.

ILCA batttle during Race 5 of the Whitstable Yacht Club Club Championship 2025 - photo © Steve Gray

When the results were calculated Phil/Julie and Joe were both on 16 points, the tie being split by the Merlin's win in race three - next year Joe! Charles finished with 17.5 points and completed the podium.

Three days of tight competition saw the 56 competitors experience the best WYC has to offer which included a fabulous acoustic session on the deck by club member Jeremy Scott on Saturday as the sun set. As usual it was all down to the volunteer support teams on the committee boat, the safety boats and onshore - another fabulous event to add to a successful season.

Overall Results: