Bembridge Sailing Club mid-September Keelboat Racing
by Robin Joy & Mike Samuelson 16 Sep 07:38 BST
12-13 September 2026
Saturday by Robin Joy
A stiff 20 knots from the SW meant that only four Redwing crews went afloat to race on Saturday, and there were no One-Design takers. A start at Footprint gave a direct beat to Pepe, followed by a run down to Janson, twice round, for the first of two races towards the Valsheda Trophy. A clean start was followed by Harlequin (Xander Shaw) and Gosling (Serena Gosling) remaining on starboard, Sophie (Chris Andreae) tacking to the right on port, and Prawn (Oliver Morgan) tacking up the middle of the course. Harlequin and Gosling led at Pepe, and Xander built his lead on the run down to Janson. Serena closed the gap somewhat on the next beat, but behind them both the Morgans in Prawn and Chris Andreae in a lightly crewed Sophie bowed out of the increasingly blustery conditions, and headed back to the moorings. After another run Serena was hunting down Xander on the final beat, but he held on to win by just 3 seconds after 50 minutes racing.
With just two boats racing, a three round short course between Footprint and Pepe was set for race two, with Xander again leading the way. Serena threw multiple tacks on each of the beats to try to break cover, but Xander responded in kind, couldn’t be caught, and won by 40 seconds.
Sunday by Mike Samuelson
With a more promising forecast for an afternoon race, four Redwings made their way to the start area off Fitzwilliam. As they were all there well before the scheduled start time, it was agreed with the Race Officer (Mike Samuelson) to start the first race five minutes early. A simple course from Fitz to Under Tyne twice with a finish at Janson was set so as to test the water for a second longer. No video of the start as Mike was on his own and trying to video at the same time as timekeeping, hooting and watching the line was a task too far! Gosling (Rosie Gosling) and Prawn (Oliver Morgan) got the best start; Tara (Mike Toogood) was shut out on the Committee Boat so had to circle round and Sophie (Chris Andreae) played safe and kept out of the fray. All remained on starbord tack as they headed towards the Bembridge shore. Gosling rounded Under Tyne ahead of Prawn with Tara third and Sophie fourth. Mike managed to close the gap on the run back to Fitz but after another beat back to Under Tyne and the run to Janson, Rosie finished three seconds ahead of Oliver; Mike was just under a minute latter and Chris a couple of minutes after that.
The second race started at Janson with Garland as the windward mark, then another loop before a run to Britten and a final beat to Pepe. Not a very brilliant video of the start, but I tried!!
Start of Race 2
Sophie was shut out by Gosling and Tara so again found themselves having to play catch-up. Gosling and Prawn crossed tacks as they fought for the lead. On rounding Garland for the second time, there was nothing in it. Having given room as they rounded to starboard, Prawn looked as if they would finish in second again, however they kept the pressure up and on the beat into Pepe chose a better route and finished twenty seconds ahead of Tara who had gone out on a limb and took advantage of the wind shifts coming out of the harbour. Gosling was a very close third and Sophie was fourth again.
There were no One-Designs. Mid-afternoon starts next weekend (19-20 September).