After a week of high pressure dominating the Southern England weather system, the forecast was not looking good for the championships. And with little or no wind on the Saturday morning it was early afternoon before the fleet left harbour heading towards mark Colette at the Southern side of Osborne Bay, where the south easterly breeze was the best at that time.
After a further delay while the wind settled to a reasonably consistent 5-6 kts, the fleet finally got away, unfortunately the new breeze failed, and then all boats were becalmed, and much to the delight of all the boats, racing was abandoned for the day. Once ashore all crews agreed it was great going for the sail, and that despite no result, it was a fun, worthwhile venture.
A good social evening was had at the Royal London Yacht Club, our hosts for the weekend, where the CRO Mike Randall joined us for dinner, and Rugby on the big screen.
Sunday, another day, another interesting forecast, light breezes again, supposedly from the Southeast. The fleet congregated at Ancasta buoy at the southern tip of the Knoll Bank. After a few attempts at setting a fair course in the ever changing breezes, the wind shifted left and an easterly facing course was set. Light weather and time constraints unfortunately reduced the fleet who actually took to the water to 5 boats.
The Regatta ended as a 1-race series, with Andy Lawson’s No Dramas first overall, followed by Shaun Frohlich’s Exabyte, and Rob Goddard’s Rocketman 3rd but first Corinthian, with David Maclean’s Ada2 4th ahead of first youth Kai Hockley sailing Palaver.
Despite being a wind constrained race weekend, it was fun, and with the multiple attempts at starting a race and on the water sail trim observations from Rhos Hawes, a very worthwhile 2 days sailing.
Next Etchells regatta on the Solent is the Nationals and British Open Championship 22-24 September hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron.
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