RS800 fleet at the Soak Insure Tide Ride 2026 at Hayling Island Sailing Club

RS800 fleet at the Soak Insure Tide Ride © Laurie Callaghan

The Tide Ride is not like any other event. Short races, a winner-takes-all final, epic currents and a somewhat relaxed interpretation of certain unnecessary rules (Rule 42, for example) make this one of the most entertaining events on the calendar. For me, however, I had one simple objective for 2026: keep my crew on board for every race.

Saturday: tide, rapids and carnage

Saturday delivered light wind and a very heavy tide, with the RS800s racing just outside the harbour. Five races were sailed as the tide gradually increased against the wind.

Getting off the start line required a carefully executed downwind escape strategy: sail away from the line, get sufficiently far down-tide to avoid being pushed over, then head up at the last moment and allow the tide to carry you back over the line at speed.

With such short courses, there was little opportunity to stretch the fleet. Everyone seemed to arrive at the windward mark together, before heading back into the chaos at the bottom.

Race 2 provided a particularly good example. We were approaching on port with Hugh and Rob above us, and another boat - whose identity shall remain secret - between us. With the fleet rapidly approaching on starboard, the correct tactical solution would have been for me to call for room to tack. However, in the interests of boat, crew and general human survival, I decided instead to bear away and attempt to duck the fleet.

The unnamed boat, meanwhile, decided to embrace the full Tide Ride ethos and went for the tack. Rob was then forced into a desperate - and nearly successful - last-second avoidance manoeuvre, only to discover that I was still there. What followed was a brief tiller-extension Jedi sword fight as Rob attempted to fend me off. A useful lesson for everyone: tiller extensions are not effective weapons.

By race 3, the leeward mark was positioned firmly in the rapids and, with the tide pushing hard, was only realistically reachable with the kite up. The trick was to sail past the leeward mark, head up just enough to clear it, and then drop the spinnaker. The other fundamental ingredient was to be either well in front of the fleet or well behind it. Being in the middle when the pack arrived at the mark was not recommended.

Carnage was guaranteed.

By the end of Saturday, the fleet had already provided more than enough entertainment for the spectators - including an RS400 club sailor, who thought sailing 20m to leeward of a racing course should be safe and deep enough... The sand bank proved them very wrong, but provided a very firm spot to observe the racing up close.

Saturday evening: 800s for the 29ers

That evening, Blake and I took a few lucky 29er sailors out for a try-a-boat session.

The sailors seemed suitably impressed by the RS800 experience. The speed was described as phenomenal, while the spinnaker was apparently massive. There were plenty of smiles and a lot of enthusiasm for the boat.

Blake also went the extra mile with his final customer, giving them the complete RS800 experience by running aground. Customer service at its finest.

Sunday: more breeze, more carnage

Sunday brought significantly more wind, and the race committee made the very sensible decision to move the RS800s onto Pilsey Sands. This did, however, mean sailing downwind to the start.

Anna and I achieved this through a series of painful capsizes. When we eventually saw the rest of the fleet lining up for the start, with what appeared to be flags flying from the committee boat, we decided that we had done enough swimming for one morning. We came charging in on port, somehow threading the needle through the starboard fleet and making the start.

The racing itself was something of a blur though: lots of tacks, gybe-sets, subsequent gybes and increasingly desperate attempts to avoid other boats.

With the kinder tide, the challenge was no longer quite so much getting around the leeward mark. It was getting to the leeward mark in the first place. The club-racing windward mark was approximately 50 metres from our leeward mark, creating a perfect starboard-reach crossing immediately above our course. This produced some spectacularly close encounters.

The club sailors appeared to be thoroughly entertained. Their smiles suggested blissful ignorance of the fact that we were doing everything possible not to harpoon them, their boats or both. Fortunately, no club sailor was harmed in the making of Tide Ride memories.

As the day progressed, a number of crews made the entirely sensible decision to head back in... hopefully before breaking too much equipment (or crews). This left the winner-takes-all final as a somewhat self-selected fleet of the last six boats standing.

The Final: winner takes all

Rob Gullen and Hugh Shone went into the final as favourites after putting together an impressive 7/9 bullets during the qualifiers. Louis Johnson and Lucy Hewitson were close behind after a strong performance, especially on day 2. Completing the six-boat final were Blake Tudor and Tim Hall, Ben Palmer and Adrian Steel, Anna Ormond and myself, William Homewood and Frances Daubeny.

And then, as promised, everything that had happened before became largely irrelevant.

Louis and Lucy led off the start, with Rob and Hugh immediately behind. Anna and I decided to tack off first, with most of the fleet joining us. William and Frances opted to bang left. It clearly worked. They won the first beat to the windward mark, only to slow down at the mark and keep things interesting for Louis and Lucy, as well as Rob and Hugh.

Anna and I tactfully waited for the first group to go around, allowing us a slightly more relaxed downwind leg and an excellent view of the action unfolding ahead. (Not that Ben and Adrian made it particularly relaxing for us, as they remained hot on our heels.)

Louis and Lucy then produced one of the more impressive capsizes of the weekend. They nearly saved it three times as they bounced from gybe to gybe, before ultimately deciding that a quick cool-down was preferable.

I think we may have caught William and Frances by the bottom mark, but they then found the turbo button on the second beat and disappeared up the course, leaving us battling Ben and Adrian for third. Meanwhile, Blake and Tim were engaged in their own battle simply to keep the boat afloat as they slowly took on more and more water.

At the front, Rob and Hugh held on to take the win. Congratulations to them on an excellent weekend and, more importantly, on surviving the final and clinging on to first place while the rest of the finalists managed an almost perfect reversal of the standings from the qualification series.

That is exactly what a winner-takes-all final should be.

A huge Tide Ride thank you

The Soak Insure Tide Ride continues to be a brilliantly different event. The format, the venue, the tide and the short-course racing create something that is unlike almost anything else on the RS800 calendar.

Huge thanks to the race committee, organisers and volunteers at HISC for putting on such a fantastic event, and to the sponsors Soak Insure, Salcombe Gin and Rooster for supporting it.

And finally, thank you to all the competitors. The close racing, questionable decisions, spectacular manoeuvres and general willingness to throw yourselves into the Tide Ride chaos are what make the event so much fun.

And, most importantly, thank you Anna for bearing with me, and staying on board for the full duration of every race this year!

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