XOD class at the Taittinger Regatta 2026 at Royal Solent Yacht Club
by Mark Lacey 29 Jul 08:39 BST
25-26 July 2026
Taittinger Royal Solent YC Regatta © Tim Jeffreys Photography
The Taittinger regatta at The Royal Solent Yacht Club Yarmouth once again served up some champagne sailing and a fantastic social event including the champagne reception Friday evening and the legendary Towers Party Saturday evening featuring Herman's Hermits.
177 yachts enjoyed sunshine and a strong breeze, gusting mid twenties, on Saturday with all fleets completing two races that day.
Race one for the XODs started just west of Lymington river and finished around two hours later off Yarmouth, with X156 Gleam sailed by James Meaning winning from X117 X-Ray in second sailed by David Bedford in James Markby's absence. Close behind the first two boats, four boats finished within 15 seconds of each other.
Race two in the stronger breeze was shortened after one hour with six of the fourteen boats retiring. David Bedford in X117 won ahead of X156 in second leaving the two boats tied on three points over night.
Immediately before Sunday's race with the Yarmouth boats still on their moorings but the Lymington boats mid-Solent a squall of 30 knots and heavy rain swept down the Solent from the west resulting in a brief AP.
Once the squall had past a breeze of around 20 knots from the SW settled in and provided some fantastic sailing conditions in Boulder Bay and off Yarmouth with a great beat up to Black Rock with plenty of close quarter action.
David Bedford and James Meaning battled each other the entire race exchanging positions several times before David took the lead just before the finish beating James by just 16 seconds to take the overall victory with X156 Gleam in second and X165 Tortoise sailed by Barry Dunning in third, congratulations to all onboard X117 X-Ray.
The date for next year's Taittinger regatta is the 16th to the 18th of July, two weeks before Cowes Week.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Boat name | Sail No | Owner | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | X‑Ray | X117 | James Markby | James Markby | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Gleam | X156 | James Meaning | James meaning | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Tortoise | 165 | Carol Dunning | Barry Dunning | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| 4 | Waxwing | X98 | Dominic Breen‑Turner | Dominic Breen‑Turner | 6 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
| 5 | Mix | X115 | Nick Dorley‑Brown | Mark Lacey | 5 | 6 | 8 | 19 |
| 6 | Nefertiti | 18 | Michael Hobby | Mike Hobby | 7 | 7 | 5 | 19 |
| 7 | Xenon | 175 | Henry Murray‑Smith | Henry Murray‑Smith | 10 | 3 | 7 | 20 |
| 8 | Arrow | X125 | George Alford | George Alford | 3 | RET | 3 | 23 |
| 9 | Sirius | X148 | Kevin Norton | Kev Norton | 13 | 8 | 9 | 30 |
| 10 | Mersa | X34 | Timothy Blackwell | Timothy Blackwell | 8 | RET | DNC | 42 |
| 11 | Sandpiper | X106 | Geoff Downer | Geoff Downer | 9 | RET | DNC | 43 |
| 12 | Xoana | X84 | William Mills | William Mills | 11 | DNC | DNS | 45 |
| 13 | Mollymawk | X135 | Peter Crowhurst | Peter Crowhurst & Richard Palmer | 12 | RET | RET | 46 |
| 14 | Miss T | X163 | Stephen Willy | Stephen Willy | 14 | DNC | DNC | 48 |