Contender open meeting at Shoreham Sailing Club
by Peter Snowdon 11 Aug 15:12 BST
8-9 August 2026
The weekend forecast was pretty much as expected for the South coast these days, very hot, light breezes and wall to wall sunshine. And that's exactly what we got.
Twelve boats came to the start in a south easterly force two with the temperature in the high twenties. Boatspeed was all important in the somewhat bumpy conditions, and while some had it upwind and others off the breeze, the racing was very close.
Peter Snowdon showed good upwind speed to take the win while Adrian Smith and Ed Presley were much faster offwind, finishing in that order.
Race two and the top two showed the same good form with Gary Langdown coming through to grab third spot.
A change at the top in race three saw Gary take top spot with Simon Mussell second and Ed third.
A BBQ and beers with some musical entertainment finished off an excellent days sailing.
Sunday morning and the wind forecast was spot on. There wasn't any...
By 10am it gradually began to pick up and the race officer decided, rightly, to postpone with the fleet on the water. After roughly 20 minutes delay the breeze had filled in enough to get race four away.
Adrian took his first win of the weekend with Tom Hooton in second and Ed taking third again. Unlucky for Tom, his kicker decided to part company shortly before the finish and he would take no further part.
Race five and now the breeze was coming in. The race started in 10-12 knots from the South. Gary sailed off into a huge lead, loving the extra breeze, while Mr Consistency Adrian claimed his third second place of the series and his brother Rob, improving all the time, taking third.
The last race of the series was sailed in a failing breeze However, it was Adrian taking the win and the series, with Gary second and Rob third.
All in all a great weekend of sailing. Massive thanks to the race team for making some good calls, setting some excellent courses and quite possibly the longest start lines I've ever sailed off (I still seemed to get stuck in traffic though).
Thank you to Tyler Harmsworth for the organisation that goes on behind the scenes (back next year) and all the volunteers at Shoreham who made the weekend special.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Class | Sail No | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Contender | 2730 | Adrian Smith | 2 | 2 | ‑4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 2nd | Contender | 2484 | Gary Langdown | ‑7 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
| 3rd | Contender | 2826 | Ed Presley | 3 | ‑8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 18 |
| 4th | Contender | 2725 | Peter Snowdon | 1 | 1 | 5 | ‑9 | 7 | 6 | 20 |
| 5th | Contender | 2449 | Rob Smith | 5 | 5 | ‑8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| 6th | Contender | 2420 | Simon Mussell | ‑10 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 26 |
| 7th | Contender | 2783 | Chris Boshier | 4 | 6 | ‑9 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 27 |
| 8th | Contender | 678 | Tom Hooton | 8 | 9 | 6 | 2 | (DNS) | DNS | 38 |
| 9th | Contender | 666 | Bill Hooton | 6 | 4 | 7 | 10 | (DNS) | DNS | 40 |
| 10th | Contender | 2661 | Nick Curry | ‑11 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 46 |
| 11th | Contender | 2714 | Martin Jones | 9 | 10 | 10 | (DNS) | DNS | DNS | 55 |
| 12th | Contender | 672 | Graham Cooper | (DNS) | DNS | DNS | 11 | 9 | RET | 59 |