Pwllheli Sailing Club's season is underway - Easter 2026
by Vicky Cox 10 Apr 12:41 BST
3-6 April 2026
Pata Negra viewed from Jac y Dô - Easter 2026 at Pwllheli © Gerallt Williams
Pwllheli racing started at the Easter weekend but thanks to storm Dave, not exactly as planned.
Increasing winds on Friday deterred some from launching, especially Pwllheli's J70 fleet. Only Paul&Sam Kitteringham's Elan 350, Finally and Geoff Dufton-Kelly's Beneteau 40.7, Crackerjack ventured out, both completing the Tremadog Triangle challenge and Finally winning the day.
Saturday was supposed to have been the first ISORA coastal race but after a risk assessment it was postponed till the Sunday when winds were due to reduce. However, on waking Saturday morning the storm hadn't quite arrived, tempting both Finally and Andrew&Sam Hall's Lombard 46 out to play. From ashore it looked pretty grim as the boats quickly disappeared into the mist, this time heading around the St. Tudwall islands on the Commodores Challenge Cup course. Pata Negra won the challenge and as Storm David arrived, everyone returned to the safe harbour to take shelter.
A cold wind and early showers at high levels on Sunday, left a white top to Snowdon as the fleet gathered at Gimblet Rock for the start of the coastal race in glorious sunshine.
As some boats were still away from home as a result of recent adventures in the Caribbean, crew members were welcomed onboard the rest of the fleet.
The course gave spectators along the beach a ring side view of the first leg of the course, which headed west to Sponsorship available mark 2 and then through the St. Tudwall sound. From there the fleet headed east for 15nm to Porthmadog's fairway buoy and returned along Abererch beach to the finish line at the Pwllheli fairway buoy.
All started cleanly and followed closely along the beach with Pata Negra taking the lead which they extended by the time they got to the sound. Once round the islands, kites went up and Pata Negra capitalised on downwind speed to pull out a strong lead on Nigel Ingram's XP33 Darling xx and rounding the mark half an hour in front of the fleet.
With strong winds and choppy seas still left from storm Dave the upwind course back to Pwllheli was tough, with some of the smaller boats stopped by the occasional wave. Many tacks to the finish were thwarted by the tide, resulting in additional tacks and a prolonged race.
Pata Negra got line honours, winning the race outright. Next to finish was class 2 winner Darling xx, building a comfortable lead over the remaining fleet. Class 1 winner, Finally were 3rd to finish on elapsed time but lost out on the IRC overall positions to Jac-y-Dô on corrected.
Although many were recovering from the racing and heavy winds over the weekend, there was still appetite for sailing on Crackerjack on Easter Monday, finishing the weekend with an attempt at the commodore's challenge.
Overall winners of the Easter Series 2026 were Crackerjack. However Pata Negra are currently leading the coastal series as well as the commodores challenge table with their record breaking time.
Despite the wet and windy weather, all enjoyed the weekend and are looking forward to the next racing on 18th&19th April - a coastal race on the Saturday and round the cans racing on Sunday, weather permitting.
All information and results are on the pwllhelisailingclub.co.uk website.