keelboat news

keel boat news and developments

HEADLINES

Click here for more news stories

Hyde success in Sussex Regatta

Thursday, 29 April 2010

The Hyde-powered J-92S 'Neilson Redeye' takes overall victory for the second year in succession, while two Hyde Sonars found success in Class 2.

The Sussex Regatta is traditionally the first of the season, taking place over Easter weekend and this year the event was hosted by Brighton Marina Yacht Club. The fleet was split into four fleets, two IRC fleets and two PY, based on a Sussex handicap system. Neilson Redeye was in IRC2. Racing was abandoned on Friday due to the bad weather, but the fleet of 44 yachts took to the water on Saturday in more moderate conditions. The PRO squeezed in four races on Saturday, with racing run from the harbour wall as the seas were too rough to launch the BMYC committee boat. All fleets had some tough sailing in big, cold seas and winds ranging from 15-25 knots.

Saturday's challenge
Pete Tyler shares his account of the day's racing... "With a good start we lead the fleet, sailed carefully and conservatively, and no-one seemed to get near us, even the faster boats in the fleet stayed in our wake and we finished first on the water and first on corrected time after handicap adjustments - the game was on! The next two races were close, and without accurate timings and a calculator we would have to wait to see the corrected results ashore. On the final race of the day, again we showed a clean pair of heels to the fleet, but a wrong course decision by our navigator (me!) meant we sailed the wrong way for a leg and then had to windward launch the spinnaker, difficult in 20 knots on a reach! We caught up some ground, but back in the Club the results showed we had dropped to third place on this race, by just 13 seconds! On the positive side we had won races two and three by very close margins, so were leading the regatta on day one with three firsts and a third."

Flatter seas and sunshine
Sunday morning brought better weather, sunshine and a cross-offshore breeze that flattened the seas. The committee boat set some short triangle/sausage courses and squeezed in three races for the four fleets in the day. Pete Tyler explains: "Again it was close, and race five seemed a cert for us to take a win - finishing well ahead of the fleet, races 6 & 7 were too close to call and the corrected times would be close, very close - with Neilson Redeye taking three wins out of three on the day, with one race only a three-second margin."

Reflecting on the weekend's racing Pete sums up: "Some good starts, good boat handling and a well prepared yacht seemed to do the trick. Our new Ultra-Sonic antifouling is keeping our hull clear, coupled with our new hull paint from Flag paints, we had a great boat speed. Our new spinnaker from Hyde's was kept in the bag, and our old sails were aired, so look for some more speed when we hoist the new shaped spinnaker and our H5 mainsail and jib. The Hyde- DPcarbon sails are now into their third season were perfect for the conditions."

Meanwhile, also sporting Hyde Sails, the Shoreham Yacht Club Sailability boats (Sonars) 'Josh' and 'Geronimo' formed an unbeatable double-act to take a clean-sweep in the Sussex Clubs Combined Handicap Class 2.

posted by Hyde Sails at