Medway Yacht Club Holdfast Keelboat Regatta 2024
by Philip Clarabut 21 Jul 23:09 BST
12-14 July 2024
Medway YC Holdfast Keelboat Regatta © MYC
The Holdfast MYC Regatta started with a practice race on Friday evening but with the winds dropping together with an ebbing tide the course could not be completed. So, it was back to the clubhouse where we all enjoyed excellent fish and chips.
The main event took place on Saturday and Sunday but for the Race Officer watching the weather it started several days earlier. The various weather apps were reporting 2 - 5 knots of wind in a north west direction - not good!
Thirty-six boats entered the regatta (Cruisers, Dragons, Sonatas and Squibs). The cruisers sailed two races on Saturday and one long race on Sunday. The Dragons and Sonatas sailed four races on Saturday and two on Sunday. The Squibs using the club line sailed four races.
On Saturday morning there was a gentle breeze with a little more from the west than predicted. The Committee Boat, "Moonshine", left the pontoon at 8 a.m. and proceeded down river to the vicinity of buoy 16. A course was set and Class 1, Class 2 and White Sail with no delays started against a fast-flowing ebb tide to the windward mark buoy 19.
With light winds the Race Team kept them in the river, the turning mark being Z2 and with couple of dog legs they finished up-river. The second race of the day took them to Stangate spit buoy, again with light winds we kept them in the river but had one or two interesting dog legs in the course.
Finishing with smiles and waves was good to see. After day one with two races completed "Chips" (Robbie Stewart and team) were leading the way in Class 1 (YTC), "Brigand" (Dick Owens) was leading Class 2 (YTC) and "Valancia" (Alan Thomas) Class 3 (White Sail).
The Dragons and Sonatas sailing windward/leeward courses completed four races on the Saturday. The Sonata starts were incredibly close and hats off to "Watersong" (Luke Hopper) who had two great starts and continued to be the front runner after day one. The Dragons also had some great starts and very close racing, "Whistle" (Quentin Strauss) had a clean sweep but was kept on his toes by the visiting Dragon "Still Crazy" (Ian Gray).
This event was not all about racing and it was great to see a number of the non-racing cruiser class sailing for the Montgomery challenge trophy. They started west of the club line some time after 10am (it is all very relaxed!) headed for the Montgomery, leaving it to port, before returning to the club.
There was a tremendous atmosphere at the club on Saturday evening with a Caribbean style buffet and a magnificent band who kept us dancing until late in the evening. Perhaps a little late for some helmsmen!
With a light westerly wind (it never stopped fluctuating!) Sunday's long-distance race for the cruisers got under way. The RO set a somewhat ambitious course taking the fleet to South Kent and one or two dog legs on the way home.
However, the wind filled in and "Chips" led the fleet up river to the finish in good time. Unfortunately, "Chips" rounded the last but one mark incorrectly handing line honours to "Zephyros" (Tim French). Congratulations to the Bailey family (Stuart, Zoe, Ben and Laurence) who were by far the youngest crew.
The Dragons and Sonatas completed both the windward/leeward Sunday races with plenty of wind although the direction of wind was challenging for the RO who moved the windward mark twice. The Dragons had a very close first race with "Still Crazy" just pipping "Suti" (Toby Atack) to the line preventing "Whistle" getting a clean sheet.
The Sonatas had two fantastic starts on Sunday and "White Noise" (Lucian, Johnny and team) had a tremendous battle with "BD2" (Alistair Bolton) who took line honours in both races.
The Squib class had some close racing on Saturday in Gillingham Reach. Five Squibs sailed four races and with three different winners the trophy was up for grabs. It was "Cultra" (Andrew Knatchbull) who took line honours in the final race.
My thanks to the Committee Boat crew for making it such an enjoyable two days for me. The RIBs were tremendous and of course we cannot do this without the competitors. Thank you for taking part and we hope to see you all and others in 2025.
The full results
The Regatta Series trophy winners are:
Class 1 YTC - Zephyros
Class 1 IRC - Chips
Class 2 YTC - Brigand
Class 2 IRC - Lo Flyer
Dragons - Whistle
Sonatas - BD2
Squibs - Cultra