RACE REPORT: 15 MARCH 2026 – FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON
Sunshine and a Met Office forecast of a 14kt SW wind offered the prospect of an excellent, if challenging first race of the season.
Seven boats launched: three Enterprises (James, Rob and Lev); Chris’ Leader; two Lasers (Tamir and Patrick); and a solo Solo (Lennert). Keith manned the Safety Boat single-handed, which was noble of him given the high likelihood of salvage operations.
In the event, all the big boats stayed afloat, if not always quite upright, which was impressive, especially as Rob and Lev were sailing single-handed.
The start was delayed by a few minutes awaiting late-rigged boats, and then by a few more minutes when somebody led half the fleet over the start line on the 5th minute, despite yellow and blue flags still flying pending the conventional six-minute start & signal. This was of little consequence because the wind (& sunshine) held throughout the morning – we definitely got the better half of the day.
Lev and Tamir got a very good start, sailing almost in formation all the way round the first lap with Lev just beating Tamir round the upwind buoy and onto the second lap. Fighting gusts (& doing well to avoid capsizing) Lev lost the lead to Tamir, and second place to James on the second lap.
Lennert retired when his boat filled with water.
From the third lap, James and Tamir started to consolidate their lead, albeit changing positions, with James taking and just holding the lead from the fifth (penultimate) lap, to cross the line after the sixth lap in just under 48 minutes.
Meanwhile, a real battle was developing between Lev, Chris and Rob, with Rob taking the lead on the fifth lap, only to relinquish it to Chris – by just 12 seconds – on the sixth and final one. Patrick, making a good fist of Strand’s unusual sailing conditions, completed five laps, finishing only a couple of minutes after the six-lap mid-field big-boats.
Tim Wellburn – OOD
PS A warm welcome to Patrick (Laser) and Lennert (Solo) who have joined SGSC and now have first-hand experience of our peculiar conditions. Long may they continue.
The next race is another A or B course (depending on conditions) starting at 15:30 next Sunday.
