Wetsuit Outlet Hurricane 5.9 SX European Championship at Yacht Club de Carnac, France

by Howard Warrington 7 May 11:53 BST 1-3 May 2026

Eight Hurricane 5.9 SX's made the crossing over to Brittany to join the YC Carnac's famous Eurocat Event. They very kindly ran a separate series for the Hurricanes to race our European Championship. This year we were supported by Wetsuit Outlet incorporating: Narva Clothing and Optimum Time.

The event is run over three days. Day 2 is the famous "Raide" - a long distance race of around 35 kms from Carnac, along the Quiberon peninsula and round the Isle D'Houat and back again.

Having made a good crossing on the ferry to St Malo, rigged up and ready to go. The boats from Starcross SC, Thorpe Bay YC, Stokes Bay SC and Warsash SC hit the race course. The day was sunny with light winds but enough to get moving nicely.

The Race Committee were very good and quickly set a trapezoid course which was long and true. We were among the F18's Nacra 20, and F16's, with the cracking youth boat of the Nacra 15 on the inner course.

Race 1 - Paul & Vicky from Starcross got off to a great start. They're very quick in the light stuff and led at the 1st mark. Ben and Tom from Warsash were close behind and Thorpe Bay crews of Julian & Jeremy well in the race. Last time Champions, Thorpe Bay YC pair Alex & Alex were chasing them down. With some downwind shifts making the calls tricky, Alex & Alex pulled through to win, Julian & Jeremy 2nd with Thorpe Bay's Mark & Sophie flying through the fleet to take 3rd.

Race 2 - Much the same with the wind but all Hurricanes got a great start and all very close together on the line. Ben & Tom found the groove and were nicely ahead, Paul & Vicky were up there again with the two Thorpe Bay boats chasing hard. Ben & Tom held the lead and took the win, Alex & Alex 2nd and Julian & Jeremy 3rd.

Race 3 - The Carnac evening breeze was starting to settle, meaning there was a big right shift and then gently, it started to build in strength. The tide had also started to push, which meant the top reach was tricky to nail as you had to come up high from the windward mark and get to windward of the others so as not to get rolled. Alex & Alex got it spot on and got into a nice lead. The first leeward mark became an F18 bundle. One boat straddled the buoy and others kept on coming. There was some interesting "pardon my French" but unusually, coming from the French! I've never seen F18's jousting before but spinnaker poles are good weapons it seems. Us wiser old owls went round the outside and stayed out of trouble. Alex & Alex took the win, Julian & Jeremy 2nd, Ben and Tom 3rd. Notably, new father and son team of Johnno and Jojo Gillies sailed a great race and came home 5th just behind Stokes Bay's Adam & Richard.

That was it for the day, now getting late and a good meal out, after a few beers of course, was beckoning.

Wind was expected for the Raide and maybe a little rain. However, during the night, thunder and lightning started and a biblical downpour which continued into the morning. The wind was good but soon killed by the rain. Having got soaked, we all decided to hide out in the club. AP up to hold us ashore. The French RO knew his local weather systems and said we'd be going within the hour. True enough the rain stopped and we all put our boats on the harbour sands ready for the AP to drop. It didn't and nor did the wind which built and built so much so, that we had to sit on our boats to stop them from taking off. Eventually, we were released. Three of the Hurricanes decided to abort and the 5 remaining idiots gave it a crack. On the way to the start we managed to get fully airborne on a couple of occasions. It was pretty fruity!

After a long wait, we were on our way. A long beat all the way to the Isle D'Houat. "Make sure you pass through the gate" we were told. Most saw it just in time with a few having to bear off a bit to get to it. All Hurricanes were doing OK and fairly close to each other. With the tide having a big effect, you could get back in amongst it if you missed on a previous tack. This is where it went wrong for George & me. We hadn't spotted there was a 2nd gate... or rather this was the actual gate to go through with the first gate being a French red herring! We had to put up the kite to get back down to it, thereby putting us back among the rear of the Nacra 15 fleet.

If things weren't bad enough the wind then dropped. Trying to fight the tidal race between the small rocky islands in the light stuff was tricky. Coming round the bottom if the Isle D'H... the wind returned and we had the most epic twin wiring tight kite reach. Through the gap in the islands and back onto the tight kite leg all the way up to the gate - now the only one on the course! The wind had built again meaning the kit needed to find its chute. The last stretch again was a powerful twin wire screamer all the way to the finish. Despite the error, we thoroughly enjoyed the race and very pleased we braved the breeze. Alex & Alex won out of the Hurricanes, Julian & Jeremy 2nd, Adam & Richard 3rd, Ben & Tom 4th and George and Howard 5th. A large beer was certainly required after that one!

So onto the final day and the wind was lighter than anticipated but not bad at all. Same course as Day 1.

Race 5 - Paul & Vicky had a fabulous race and led from start to finish. The light air Devon demons! Alex & Alex were 2nd and by now, just about sown up the event and George & Howard redeeming themselves with a 3rd.

Race 6 - By now everyone had a shocker somewhere and the results numbers were varied with the exception of Alex & Alex who won the race by some way. With Ben & Tom in 2nd and Julian & Jeremy 3rd.

Race 7 - The wind was building into a very decent racing day, even the sun showed up. It was though, quite shifty and difficult to decide which way up the beat to go. The master class from Alex & Alex delivered another win with Julian & Jeremy 2nd and Adam & Richard 3rd.

Race 8 - the final of the event. Much the same as above with Alex & Alex just sailing so well. No schoolboy errors from this pair! Ben & Tom in 2nd and again Adam & Richard in 3rd.

The prize-giving followed and we awarded the President of the YC de Carnac with one of our event shirts which he seemed very pleased with! We gave our thanks and congratulated Thorpe Bay YC's Alex Farrall & Alex Warrington on a faultless regatta. Discarding a 2nd they couldn't have done much better. 2nd were Julian Reichert & Jeremy Sandford and 3rd Ben Harris & Tom Parkhurst.

YC de Carnac put on an excellent event as always and we thoroughly enjoyed the regatta. We did miss more of our Hurricane friends from Starcross, Bridlington and Stone and we hope to encourage them to travel to Carnac for the next time.

Thank you also to Scott Weller and Phil Carr who towed a rib all the way over to support us. You can see them sporting the new Narva Offshore jackets from Wetsuit Outlet. Thanks to our friend David Maynard who came along to take the excellent photos you can see in this report.

The great thing about the Hurricane fleet is the camaraderie among the sailors, who all had a great time enjoying the company of a wide range in ages, but with a common goal to spank each other on the race course!

Finally, a huge thank you to Wetsuit Outlet for their support of the event and we will see more of them at the other events in the year.

Next stop: The first of the Allen Travellers Series at Rutland SC 16/17 May which will also be our Inland Championship.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm and Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts
1	GBR 420	FARRALL Alex (H) WARRINGTON Alex	1	‑2	1	1	2	1	1	1	8
2	GBR 455	REICHERT Julian (H) SANDFORD Jeremy	2	3	2	2	‑8	3	2	5	19
3	GBR 409	HARRIS Ben (H) PARKHURST Tom (H)	‑5	1	3	4	4	2	5	2	21
4	GBR 431	CHARLESWORTH ROBINSON Richard	‑8	7	4	3	5	4	3	3	29
5	GBR 487	WARRINGTON WARRINGTON	‑6	4	6	5	3	6	6	4	34
6	GBR 173	RAVEN Paul (H) RAVEN Vicky (F)	4	5	7	DNC (9)	1	5	RET 9	7	38
7	GBR 436	MAWDITT Mark (H) BOYGLE Sophie (F)	3	8	8	DNC (9)	7	7	4	6	43
8	GBR 428	GILLIES Jonathon GILLIES John	7	6	5	DNC (9)	6	8	7	8	47