Bosham Regatta at Bosham Sailing Club
by Dick Pratt 31 Aug 2010 12:55 BST
29 August 2010
The 2010 Bosham Sailing Club Regatta served up challenging conditions for the 113 entrants.
The Optimist fleet had some great racing in extremely windy conditions to the north of Bosham Quay. Race one turned into a race of who could get the boat bailed out the quickest with everybody either capsized or swamped at the gybe mark. Joe Stirrup won the battle and went on to win the first race. Race 2 saw the wind drop to a steady Force 4 to 5 with Sophie Hempsell coming home first. Joe Stirrup was the overall winner with all sailors doing extremely well to finish two races in such testing conditions.
The main fleets started from a committee boat in Chichester Channel south of Cobnor and their courses ranged south and west to East Head, the Winner Bank and Emsworth Channel. The untimely death of Harbour Master John Davis the day before caused many sailors to reflect on this occasion: flags were at half mast and the Itchenor-based fleet of Sunbeam sailors of which John was a part, decided not to race as a mark of respect.
With 20-23 knots of wind at the Committee Boat and 30 knots in the Harbour Mouth, the various classes were set audacious courses. But despite the strengthening breeze and the long courses, most made it back to the finish lines at Deep End and Bosham Quay well within two hours, returning with either huge smiles or battered boats and bodies. The Swallows, X One-Design, Fast Classic Dayboats, Lasers and Laser Radials and the International Finns displayed text-book starting techniques all hitting the line at top-speed and in perfect formation. Coming home the Finns had some crazy down-wind legs with even a couple of seasoned helms taking a quick swim, whilst the Swallows and X One-Designs took the chance of bumping across Stocker Sands on the rising tide using their kites to induce extra heel and slide over the shallower water and on to the next mark.
Teas were served at the club house from 2.00pm and prize-giving saw helms and crews crowded on to the terrace for the awards, before the visiting boats sailed back to their own clubs on the ebb tide.
Overall Results:
National Swallow
1st Langhorne and two Fishers
2nd Paul Ward, Tom Ward and Paddy Boughton
3rd Peter Snell, Rustin and George Storton
Solent Sunbeams
Not Raced
X One-Design
1st Steve Lawrence, A Jones and Clive Wallace
2nd Tom Tait, C Tait and R Smyth
3rd John Lowe, Tina Scott and M Greig
Fast Handicap
1st Simon and Jackie Lytton
2nd Oli and Barney Woods
Laser Radial
1st Tobias Hamer
2nd Henry Nelson
3rd Phil Weake
RS200
1st Edward and Isabel Fitzgerald
2nd Andy and Charlotte Fitzgerald
3rd Jason Merron and Andrea Barrass
International Finn
1st John Tremlett
2nd Mike de Courcy
3rd George Cooper
Laser
1st Simon Radford
2nd Karen Thomas
3rd Ken Harper
Wayfarer
1st Chris and T Ames
Medium Handicap
1st Henry Russell and Al Grant
Chichester Scow
1st Martin Windebank
2nd Judy Roberts
3rd Stephen Smyth
Classic Day Boat Fast Division
1st Brian Hoolahan and Tom Reid
2nd Mark and Shirley Stanton
3rd David and Fiona Macfarlane
4th Chris Macrae and Jerry Bottrill
Classic Dayboat Slow Division
1st Peter Shaw
2nd Andrew Francis
Topper
1st Hugo Moss
Mirror
1st William Moss and Ben Webb
2nd Ben Stirrup and Katie Hall
Optimist
1st Joe Stirrup
2nd Sophie Hempsell
3rd Harry Hoolahan
Full results on the Bosham Sailing Club website.