Winter Champs, the seasonal aspect to this regatta was never in doubt yet this did not deter 50 hardy souls from shaking off the ice from their boats and heading out into a brisk and cutting nor’easterly breeze last weekend. If the wind chill made eyes water, the fleet, racing in Chichester out of Hayling Island Sailing Club, were soon warmed up a notch or two by the close and tactical racing that took place over the three races on Saturday.

A progressively gustier breeze off the land, matched with an ever increasing ebb tide, made the beats a ‘who dares wins’ affair in the ever narrowing channel. Often ignorance can be bliss which is the only excuse I can find for some punchy and very successful moves by some visiting teams that resulted in the likes of Spod Olive and Mike Warren sailing in the newly sponsored Sola boat, putting in some excellent beats on the four-lap courses to be in or near the lead at some stage in all three races. He did however, lose the chance of being overnight leader when pushing it just a bit too far. After taking the lead in race three from Barrie Edgington and Harvey Hillary sailing Team RWO he promply run aground in the mud. But as is often the case, Geoff Carveth and Craig Davies, sailing Fat Face, put in there usual consistent performance keeping cool heads, while others seemed to be losing theirs to the numbing effects of the cold. They marginally led the chasing pack of Sola, Nick Peters and Nicky Griffin in Fat Face 2 followed by Rick Tagg, new crew Roz Allen and Team RWO with two points separating the lot after day one. With a slightly reduced turnout the next day, the fleet enjoyed fractionally warmer conditions and superb racing. Mike Lennon and Emma White failed to feature in the overalls points after day one due to missing race one. But, they did however, emerge bright and breezy on Sunday to add a solid set of results to the two ‘counters’ from Saturday and secure an third. Team RWO also improved on the previous day’s results to score 1,4, 1 and rue what might have been. Carveth took an overall win with a consitent set of results.

Overall Results

1st Geoff Carveth and Craig Davies

2nd Barrie Edgington

3rd Mike Lennon and Emma White

4th Ricky Tagg and Rozalyn Allen

5th Alan Olive and Mike Warren