As July heralds the start of the ‘summer’ season, the weather has certainly perked up, although for how long is any bodies guess! The EWCC events so far have all been very successful even if numbers, particularly for the MOCRA National Championships, were on the low side. That said, the WASZP GP Open hosted by RVYC was extremely well supported.
MOCRA Series
The five race MOCRA Series, hosted by RVYC has completed the first hree race days (12 May, 23 June & 7 July). Seven boats, including a visitor, were entered for the first race, four for the second race and two for the third. The fourth race is on 21st July. Results - https://rvyc.iws8.co.uk/race-results-228_MOCRA-Open-Series.php
The start for Race 1 was a slightly odd one as it was a very biased line that boats had to gybe at the pin to get through. It was then a beat up the Island shore to Ryde Pier then across to North Sturbridge. Sanity was very close to Strider and Uno with Milly Mo and Nice Tri well behind and chasing Strider. After Browndown, Sanity caught up Strider but after a messy spinnaker drop Strider drew level and just overtook before the line to take line honours.
In Race 2, Strider came in first and Milly Mo second. The wind dropped after the start, and after struggling for 30 minutes 3D and Orca retired. Strider made the line in a shifting breeze just before the wind dropped again and it took a further 20 minutes for Milly Mo to finish.
For Race 3, conditions were challenging (windy) so there were only starters for Race 3; Milly Mo and Nice Tri. The former finished well ahead.
WASZP GP Open (25 - 26 May)
On 25th & 26th May, the WASZP UK Swarm returned to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club on the glorious Isle of Wight for the second edition of the Isle of Wight GP.
In what is now becoming tradition, WASZP sailors from the mainland met across the water at Stokes Bay on Friday evening to enjoy a sunset sail across the Solent to kick off the weekend! They were joined by local boats and several junior sailors that came over by Wightlink ferry to make a holiday of the event during the half term week.
The fabulous volunteers of RVYC gave up their bank holiday weekends to facilitate a truly stunning event on the water and on the shore. RVYC is blessed with a unique and beautiful location and the competitors certainly made the most of it in the sunshine.
To read the full report click on: https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/275373/WASZP-UK-Swarm-Isle-of-Wight-GP
MOCRA Nationals 2024 (11 - 13 June)
After a very successful 2023 Championships hosted by the Royal Victoria YC and Bembridge SC held off Wootton Creak and Bembridge during the week prior to the RTIR 2023, a repeat for the 2024 Championships was programmed. Although fewer entries (10) than the previous year (19), which was a bit disappointing, it was still a very enjoyable event with plenty of close racing.
Programmed for three races on the Tuesday morning, the light breeze was not particularly helpful and in the end it was only possible to get two races completed before it died away completely and the fleet headed back under power to the RVYC pontoon. The breeze on Wednesday morning was no better and so it was decided to motor down on the tide towards Bembridge in the hopes of it improving as the day wore on. On reaching No Man’s Land Fort, a workable F 3 breeze arrived and it was then possible to get three races completed. By Thursday morning, the breeze had increased to F4 occasionally F5 - perfect multi-hull conditions.
With all eight races completed, it came as no surprise that Nick Wood and his crew in Origami were the overall Champions with 8 wins (6 to count); with the next two boats both on 15 points, on a very close count back Alini helmed by Mark Upton-Brown was second and Nigel Talbot in Sanity was third. Fifth overall was the father and daughter combo of Andrew and Milly (who helmed throughout) Smith in Dragon Boy. While they sensibly did not attempt to fly their asymmetric during the final three races, it was still a great result for the youngest helm in the fleet.
Although the main trophies will be presented at the MOCRA annual Dinner in November, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors (Mermaid Gin, PR Systems Marine Electronics, Allspars masts and rigging, Highwater Sails & MultihullCentre.com) no boat went away empty handed from the Championship dinner held on Thursday evening at BSC.
Additional photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBv6sL
Yachtsandyachting on-line: https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/275946/MOCRA-National-Championships-at-Bembridge
Prince Philip’s Cup (23 June)
The 68th running of Prince Philip’s Cup, given by the late Prince Philip in 1956 to foster good relations between Clubs on the Isle of Wight and the wider Solent area which organise sailing racing, was held at Sea View Yacht Club on Sunday 23rd June 2024.
A sunny and almost windless day saw 8 teams meet for a short briefing and a draw for boats before the competitors embarked for their allocated Seaview Mermaid.
A windward, spreader and leeward gate course was set off Seagrove Bay in 6 knots of SE breeze on a rising spring tide.
Race 1 saw the Royal Yacht Squadron called OCS in a close start; The breeze was flicking and the fleet split tacks on the 0.25 mile beat. The red spinnaker of the Imperial Poona YC was the first to appear at the spreader mark and they held their lead to the finish, closely followed by the RYS who had the benefit of a fortunate wind shift and the Royal Thames YC in third.
A further wind shift to the SE necessitated another course adjustment before Race 2 got away cleanly. Sea View YC led at the finish, followed by the Imperial Poona YC and the Victory Class from Portsmouth Sailing Club.
A further veer of the wind meant another course reset before the double points scoring Race 3 got away in a very even line. The Royal Thames YC won from Sea View YC and the Imperial Poona YC.
Race 4 got away cleanly and was won by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club with the RYS second and Imperial Poona YC in third place.
The very fickle breeze then died and reappeared from the NW for a few minutes before dying completely. After a 20 minute wait to see if the breeze reappeared, the RM team of Jeremy Spencer-Cooper and Jon Curtis displayed the ‘N’ flag and racing was abandoned. A short but successful series of races saw a different winner for each race.
All retired for a most convivial lunch at a long table under the SVYC awning before the magnificent Cup was presented to the Imperial Poona Yacht Club.
The 69th running of this prestigious event will be held at Sea View Yacht Club in 2025.
Victory Class 90th Anniversary Eastern Solent Weekend (28 - 30 June 2024)
As part of their 90th Anniversary celebrations, six Victorys raced over to Seaview on Friday afternoon in quite bouncy conditions. First to finish on the SVYC line was Zilch (Z75) helmed by John Scammell; second was Zelia (Z54 - Geoff Dixon) and third was Zada (Z79 - Nick Benham). Z48 Isabel helmed by Jim Downing tacked early only to find himself rather close to the swimmers on Seaview beach! Subsequently they were joined by Zircon (67 - James Jopling) and on Saturday morning by Seagull (Z73 - Jim Page). After a very jovial informal supper at SVYC on Friday evening, crews met up on the staging mid morning on Saturday and as planned had a relatively short one round race around the SVYC buoys.
Victory Start 1 Saturday - https://youtu.be/o3z4pSx7na4
Looking completely in control, and making their spinnaker work well on the run to the leeward mark, Zilch (Z75) was the first to cross the finish line ahead of Zada (Z79) with Zelia (Z54) third. With the fickle SSE’erly breeze coming and going, the third race was essentially a passage race to Under Tyne - a challenging beat as it turned out. After a tight start close to the inner distance mark. it was soon evident that the front three were going to be the same boats (in the same order) as the previous race.
The final race of the day was another ‘round the cans’ race, making use of Tara as the windward mark, Fitzwilliam as the wing and Britten as the leeward mark; set three times round with the requirement to go through the line to complete each round. After a clean start (just) it was again Zilch (Z75), Zada (Z79) and Zelia (Z54) who lead the fleet doing well to locate the correct buoys in unfamiliar waters.
Victory Start Race 4 Saturday - https://youtu.be/Wcqi1MbOg7o
Although the front group seemed to make light work of the fickle breeze, the last few boats struggled to stem the increasingly strengthening tide taking boats, against their wishes, back to Seaview. Indeed Dolphin (Z9) realised that they were on a looser so sensibly decided to retire and use their outboard to help them to the overnight moorings at Under Tyne. As the leaders had already taken an hour and a half as they came to complete the second round, the third round was abandoned and the S Flag (shorten course) was displayed.
After an excellent bbq at BSC on Saturday evening, it had been agreed that crews would meet at BSC the following morning at 10:15 to be ferried out to the Under Tyne moorings with the aim of the passage race back to Portsmouth starting at 11:00 so as to be off Seaview at 11:30 when the Red Arrows were doing a display over Ryde Sands. In the event it took a couple of boats a bit longer to rig but with the breeze holding and despite the very biased line, the seven Victory’s (Zada Z79 having returned the previous late afternoon) and although it was a beat all the way, good progress was made and they were treated to their own display overhead! Also a timely reminder for some of how far out Ryde Sands stretches! Self finishing off Suffolk Sails, the front three boats were Z48 - Isabel; Z54 - Zelia and Z70 - Unity who all finished within three minutes of each other after a two hour race. Counting all 5 races, the top three overall were Zilch (Z75) helmed by John Scammell; Zelia - Z54 helmed by Geoff Dixon and Zada - Z79 helmed by Nick Benham.
A fun weekend which it is hoped can be repeated again soon. Its been too long since the Victorys were regular visitors to the Eastern Solent.
Additional photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBxzAm
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