Stormy Seas And Exciting Sailing… While It Lasted! – 2021 Solway Yacht Club Kippford Week

After the very successful 2021 Solway Yacht Club Cadet Week with good weather throughout, it was grey skies and poor forecasts that welcomed sailors to the 2021 Kippford Week.

Fortunately, tide times had required a Sunday first day instead on the traditional Monday start, but at least it gave Principal Race Officer, Lindsay Tosh, and the Race Committee a better weather window, two races each day in each class being planned.  With entrants from far and wide, as well as the well-established home fleet, stiff competition was guaranteed, and it was overcast skies with strong gusty winds that greeted those heading out on Sunday morning.

As the larger cruising yachts reached the start line out in the Solway, followed closely by the Flying Fifteen keelboats, the four dinghy fleets launched for the inshore courses. Everywhere, it was immediately apparent that conditions were going to be testing. Club Secretary John Sproat, sailing one of the Flying Fifteens, described the conditions as like being in an “eccentric washing machine with added pressure washer out in the Firth. It was full-on planning with spinnaker and max speed reaches!”. Nevertheless, two races for the Flying Fifteens were held and the leading crew immediately emerged; two firsts for father and daughter crew of Hamish and Sally Mackay set the bar high.

Inshore, the fast H1 handicap fleet included several Olympic Finn class dinghies as well as a couple of powerful catamarans, and it was the Finns of Stewart Mitchell and Mark Crowther with a win apiece that were out in front. Dominant in the medium handicap H2 fleet from race 2 onwards was Duncan Greenhalgh in his Challenger trimaran, chased by a trio of GP14s headed by the masterly John Broadbent and his crew Anne Craddock. Plus a second Challenger of Stephen Thomas Bate. Included in with the H2 race was a fleet of Laser Radials, Duncan Blandford scoring two class wins on day 1. The H3 fleet featured all younger sailors with Dominic Colbeck in his RS Tera successfully “Tera-ising” his rivals with back-to-back wins.

Day 2 arrived with similar conditions but a change in wind direction created a combination of windless dead-spots while elsewhere inshore, more strong gusts. The H1 fleet saw a first time Kippford Week win for the Solway Yacht Club Cadet Captain James Bishop in his Laser, the first no doubt of many to come, with Mitchell second. Greenhalgh scored two more H2 wins but another master of Kippford sailing, Stewart Biggar close second in the first race. Then, in the second race of the day, a different crew were challenging; the GP14 of Mark Lewis and Beatrice Overend claimed second. In the Radials, Megan Greaves-Martin, the Cadet Week winner two weeks earlier, took the first race, Simon Wilson getting the class win in the second race of the day. In the H3 class, Emily Biggar and her crew, Lewis Alexander, in their RS Feva took the first race win. Offshore it was two more wins for the Mackay crew but in the Cruiser class John Searle and his crew of Gareth Jones, Andrew Bodenham and Stewart Monaghan in the Pegasus 800 were in close competition with previous winners David Henderson and crew David Butler in their Hawk 20.

Day 3 and initially with no wind, the fleets were towed out to the starting area just as the tall ship, “La Malouine” came into the estuary looking magnificent under sail, seemingly bringing a pleasant breeze in with her. Racing got underway once more and in the Flying Fifteens the Mackay dominance continued, despite a close chase at times from the Colin Filer / Jamie Gascoigne crew. Sadly, the cruiser race was declared void later after confusion over the race finishing line. Inshore it was yet another different crew of Ian Holden and Nicola Nelson in their RS400 that took the H1 fast handicap class win but in the H2 fleet it was more of the Greenhalgh Challenger with the Broadbent GP14 second in both races.

BUT very sadly, that was it!

Day 4 dawned stormy and with poor visibility, the Race Committee tried to find sheltered water for competition to continue but as the race start time approached, the inevitable cancellation of all racing for the day was announced. The final Day 5, initially at least, seemed more promising but despite good visibility, the wind was strengthening and now exceeded the speed of the previous day. Again, the Race Committee went through their Risk Assessment process and again, the inevitable cancellation followed.

So, at the end of Day 5, a rather truncated set of results was published and a socially distanced prizegiving followed. As well as collecting the Solway Salver for their Flying Fifteen fleet win, Hamish and Sally Mackay were awarded the magnificent Prince of Wales trophy for their outstanding performance, winning every one of the six races held.

RESULTS

Cruisers

1^st Pegasus 800; John Searle, Gareth Jones, Stewart Monaghan and Andrew Bodenham

2^nd Hawk 20; David Henderson and David Butler

3^rd Hunter Horizon 21; Sandy Mair and Alistair Johnstone

4^th Hunter 20; Robert Dinwiddie, David Wood and Cameron Daly

5^th Hawk 20; Angus Campbell and David Harding

6^th Delphia Classic 700; Fiona & Gordon Blandford

7^th Venturer 22; Louise Allan and Elaine Ross

8^th Hunter Horizon 28; Dougie Waddell and Kate Howatson-Kerr

Flying Fifteens

1^st Hamish and Sally Mackay

2^nd Colin Filer and Jamie Gascoigne

3^rd Chris Taylor and Stephen Gaughan

4^th Scott Train and Anne Stewart

5^th Jim Holland and Ian Murgatroyd

6^th Peter Hammond and John Sproat

7^th Gordon Daly and Jane Gascoigne

H1 Fast Handicap;

1^st Stewart Mitchell (Finn)

2^nd Mark Crowther (Finn)

3^rd Simon Roberts (Laser)

4^th Ian Holden and Nicola or Peter Nelson (RS400)

5^th Tim Colbeck (Laser)

6^th James Bishop (Laser)

7^th Mark and Emma or Anna Simpson (National 12)

8^th Bartholomew Franklin (Laser)

9^th Caitlin Ross and Pippa BensonRS200)

10^th Jack Jardine and Alex Lammie (Fireball)

11^th Scott and Nicola McColm (RS400)

12^th Alex Glendinning (Vortex)

13^th Finn Mitchell and Ellie Rowand (F18 catamaran)

14^th Keith Veasey (Finn)

15^th Ben Ibbotson and Emma James (Hobie 16 catamaran)

16^th Matthew Murray-Downing and crew (RS400)

H2 Medium Handicap

1^st Duncan Greenhalgh (Challenger)

2^nd John Broadbent and Anne Craddock (GP14)

3^rd Stephen Thomas Bate (Challenger)

4^th Stewart Biggar (Laser 4.7)

5^th Mark Lewis & Beatrice Overend (GP14)

6^th Douglas Hay (Solo)

7^th Ian & Margaret Purkis (Firefly)

8^th Philippa Howie & Louisa Birdsall (Wanderer)

9^th Ross Crawford-Paul and Elaine Herlihy (GP14)

10^th Lilli Bell (Byte C1)

Laser Radials

1^st Simon Wilson

2^nd Duncan Blandford

3^rd Finlay Train

4^th Megan Greaves-Martin

5^th Lucy Bodenham

6^th Hamish MacDonald

7^th Emma Lane

8^th Fiona Grierson

H3 Slow Handicap

1^st Dominic Colbeck (RS Tera)

2^nd Emily Biggar & Lewis Alexander (RS Feva XL)

3^rd Toby Iglehart (Topper)

4^th Tamsin Wallace & Mhairi McFadzean (RS Feva XL)

5^th Jacob and James Colbeck (Mirror)

6^th Katie Harris & Jack Johnstone (RS Feva XL)

7^th Jack Vivers (Topper)