Bembridge Sailing Club July 2026 Keelboat Racing and Redwing Youth Nationals
by Mike Samuelson 20 Jul 14:31 BST
18-19 July 2026
Saturday
Saturday afternoon saw nineteen Redwings entered for the inaugural Redwing Youth Nationals. Two races, the first for the Chetwood Cup (under30 helm), the second for the Norman Phillips Trophy (under 19 helm). Five One-Designs also joined for a race, however it was the Redwings who stole the show.
Much to the relief of the Class Captain (Billy Clegg) and his Committee who had worked so hard to organise boats and 'young' crews, the bright sunshine and a reasonably stable F2 SSE breeze provided ideal conditions especially as it was the first time a number of the helms had ever been in a Redwing, let alone helm one!
A long line was set up in the vicinity of Footprint and the course of Tara, Janson, Footprint twice round was somewhat optimistically signalled, With the breeze veering more southerly during the run up to the start, the Committee Boat end of the line was favoured so it was quite noisy as boats pushed their luck with ten seconds to go to the start.
Although a few boats took the offshore route, the majority headed inshore in the hopes of getting out of the tide. Quail, helmed by Henry Cook was first round well ahead of Tara (Will Toogood), Toucan (Isabel Gilby) and Ibis (Henry Landon). While the reach to Janson and then onwards to Footprint was not very exciting, it did help minimise the risk of collisions, especially at the windward mark.
With time ticking by and a second race planned, the course was shortened to Under Tyne, a laid inflatable wing mark and back to Footprint.
Quail was not for catching and finished 40 seconds ahead of Tara. Toucan was third, 5 seconds ahead of Ibis. Lower down the fleet there were a number of close finishes - including those between Goose (Boo Cuddigan) & Avocet (Rose MacInnes); also Musicus (Amelia Montagu) & Ladybird (Chris Chetwood).
Although the Norman Phillips Trophy was for under 19 helms, all nineteen boats started the second race with cumulative scores for both races going towards being the Youth National Champion. The course was kept as the same marks as the final round of the previous race which worked quite well, although in hindsight it would have been better if it had been two and a half rounds with the finish closer to the moorings at Under Tyne.
Anyway, after a clean start, most again tacked inshore albeit with the breeze veering further to the south, only a couple of tacks were needed by most boats.
Plover (Will Fletcher) was the boat to beat, finishing ahead of Enigma (Alex Downer) by 12 seconds; Quail (Henry Cook) who was the first the under 19 helm was third, only 7 seconds behind. Tara (Will Toogood) was fourth, 12 seconds ahead of Paroquet (Poppy Morrison). As with the first race, there were a number of close finishes lower down the fleet. Ibis (Henry Landon was ninth 6 seconds ahead of Eddie Clegg in Lady Leatitia and in sixteenth place, Musicus (Amelia Montagu) finished 1 second ahead of Angus Bowman in Quintessence.
Congratulations to Henry and George Cook in Quail who were the overall winners and won both the Chetwood Cup and the Norman Phillips Trophy. Alice Clegg and Will Fletcher in Plover were second overall; Will Toogood in Tara was third overall; Alex Downer in Enigma fourth and Isabel Gilby in Toucan was fifth. An excellent day's sailing and a big thank you to Billy and his Committee for getting so many boats out racing.
Meanwhile once they discovered that an inflatable wing mark was part of their shortened first race, five One-Designs had some close racing over the same courses as the Redwings even though the change of course did lead to some confusion!
Both starts were clean, albeit nothing to write home about! As with the Redwings most followed the inshore route to Tara and subsequently to Under Tyne. The first race was won by No 1, the only non-single handed boat, helmed by Russ Fowler; Mark Hodgkinson in No 3 was second and Alexander Ross in No 8 was third.
With the second race slightly shortened and finishing at the wing mark so as to speed up getting back to the moorings, Mark Gregorczyk in No 9 got his own back and finished 12 seconds ahead of Richard Coleman in No 10. Mark H in No 3 was third, 12 seconds later
Sunday
Sunday afternoon's first Redwing race was for the Mercedes Trophy - a race for Lady helms. With Sea Breeze set up off Under Tyne and a pleasant 10 knot breeze from the North, things were looking promising for the eleven Redwings, eight of which had lady helms. However, whilst the direction remained reasonably steady (well if you ignore shifts of 20 degrees), the strength was very fickle varying from 10 knots down to 4 knots at times. Ever optimistic, the course was from Under Tyne to Janson (to starboard), Fitzwilliam, Tara and a laid leeward inflatable (all to starboard) finishing at Under Tyne to port after two rounds.
After a good start by most, the fleet soon split tacks with those going right appearing to do better than those keeping to the left of the course. By the time they reached Janson, Quail No 30 helmed by Vicks Wilson had established a commanding lead ahead of Toucan, helmed by Islay Gilby, and Lady Leatitia, helmed by Alice Clegg. The run/reach to Tara and onwards to the laid inflatable was uneventful and so with Quail nearly two minutes ahead it was decided to shorten the course after the first round so as fit a second race in. Toucan was second and Lady L was third just under a minute later.
Although the same course was considered, it was decided to move things more towards the harbour where most of the Redwings planned to go after the race. So it was Janson (port), Garland (starboard), Britten (port) and finishing at Garland (port). After a good start the breeze picked up slightly so the beat to Janson and run to Garland did not take as long as expected.
So with Derrick offering a longer second beat, the RO's signalled a course change - a bad move as within five minutes the breeze dropped again and although progress was made, it was very slow at times. By the time that the lead boats reached Derrick, Toucan (Colin Samuelson) has established a considerable lead and finished about a minute ahead of Quail (Jockey Wilson). Goose (Mike Orange) was third nearly two minutes later after a very close race with Enigma (Mark Downer). Quintessence and Musicus both retired.
In the meantime, only three One-Designs started their first race, and with Mark Hodgkinson in No 3 retiring after the first beat to Janson, Mark Grzegorczyk, single handed in No 9 and Richard Coleman in No 10 stuck with it. Indeed making better progress up the final beat to the line at Under Tyne than had been expected they agreed to finish slightly before the line with Mark in front so as to avoid the start of the Redwing's second race.
Keen to continue, their second race fell foul of the drop in the breeze after the start with Mark rounding Janson a long way ahead; despite spinnaker 'assistance', Richard rounded Garland still some distance behind. On the painfully slow beat to Britten, No 10 did catch up a bit but in the end with Britten still some was away, they agreed to call it quits with No 9 taking first place. Predictably ten minutes later the breeze came back in which at least made getting back to the moorings less of a struggle.
Morning tides next week so fingers crossed there is sufficient breeze to make for some fun racing.