Sportsboats in Pwllheli

Justin Chisholm reports on the Mailspeed Marine regatta over the bank holiday

Contrary to recent rumours Sportsboat racing is thriving in Cardigan Bay and the local Abersoch and Pwllheli fleet is looking forward to a full season of events. This was evidenced by a strong turnout for the first event of the year - the Mailspeed Marine sponsored Sportsboat Regatta hosted by Pwllheli Sailing Club. There was a notable change in the profile of the fleet this year with a drop in the 1720 entry almost being compensated for by an increase in the SB3 fleet. To be fair to the missing 1720 owners almost all had sent a note to teacher justifying their absence and promising to be on parade next time.

Saturday’s racing was scheduled to start at 12.00 midday but when the fleet assembled in bright sunshine the forecast breeze failed to show. With AP still hanging limply two hours later and the fleet beginning to fry gently in the sun OOD Richard Tudor took the sensible option and sent the fleet home.

Sunday looked set for a repeat performance so the competitors were held ashore until around 14.30 when an afternoon breeze began to fill in. After one abandoned attempt to start a race a shaky eight knot zephyr allowed the race team to get two races away. In the first Tony Woods and his team on Polecat lead at the windward mark from Callum Edge skippering Owen Owen’s Barbarian. The Polecat team had spent the winter racing together on Windermere and generally seemed to have an edge on boat handling. They extended their lead on Barbarian on the next beat and were able to coast the final run when Barbarian’s bow man took to the water just after the hoist. Dropping the kite and turning back to collect him dropped the Holyhead boat back into the pack.

David Cummaford on Converting Machine recovered from a shocking position at the start to slip into second place with Ben & John Skelly’s SB3 Baby Blue taking 3rd on corrected time - holding off Mailspeed Marine’s Marketing Director helming SB3 Stop me & buy one who were two seconds behind on elapsed time.

Polecat made their intentions clear in race two by banging in a solid second behind Alex Taylor on 1720 Green Monkey. Barbarian managed to keep everyone on board for the whole race and took third place.

Happily Monday dawned with a full complement of both wind and sun and the relieved race team were able to make up some of the race deficit by running four quick fire sprints. In the closest finish of the weekend Dave Ashcroft’s 1720 Cosmic took the gun from Barbarian by one second on elapsed time with Polecat scoring a consistent third to keep them well ahead on points. Owner/driver Ashcroft was clearly delighted with the win and was quick to praise his crew for their efforts.

Race four saw the first non 1720 winner when the regular team aboard Hunter 707 Quango made the most an excellent start to squeak into first on corrected ahead of Polecat and Stop me & buy one. The Quango team are in training for their upcoming first ever visit to Tarbert for the Scottish Series in a few weekends time.

Baby Blue finally found the fast pedal in Race 5 and used their port tack start to good advantage to score an impressive 43 second corrected time victory. Quango proved themselves to be no flash in the man merchants with a solid second ahead of Green Monkey.

Before the final race of the day Polecat held a nine point overall lead over Baby Blue and seemed to be cruising when they rounded both the first and second marks well clear of the fleet. Disaster struck however when a knotted kite halyard resulted in a Grand Old Duke of York drop. For the uninitiated - the kite remains “neither up nor down”. Sailing with it in this position dropped them to ninth on corrected and allowed the Ben and John Skelly to entertain thoughts of an overall win if they could bang in a final race win. However they got embroiled in boat for boat battle with classmate Stop me & buy one and the resulting eighth place meant it really was all over now Baby Blue. Barbarian finished in style by winning the last race by a second from Green Monkey with Cric Peters helming Andrew Brooks and Eleri Griffiths 1720 Luvly Jubbly into third.

Overall it was of course the consistency of the team Polecat crew that secured them first place and a complete set of crew jackets. Helmsman Tony Woods said afterwards that they were delighted to win and summed up their performance in “We sailed well in between the cock-ups!”. Alex Taylor in charge of second placed Green Monkey acknowledged that the no discard series had been tough to deal with. When asked about a poor drop on the final mark of the final race which cost them a race win he explained that “My girlfriend and her mate were pulling the kite down so I couldn’t shout too much. To be honest if it came down in the boat and not the water we were pleased!” Visitors John and Ben Skelly on SB3 broke the 1720 monopoly by slotting into a well deserved third place.

Overall Results:

1st Cork 1720 Team Polecat Leigh & Lowton SC
2nd Cork 1720 Green Monkey South Caernarvonshire YC
3rd Laser SB3 Baby Blue
4th Cork 1720 Barbarian Holyhead SC
5th Hunter 707 Quango Pwllheli SC