Falmouth Sailing Week 2024
by Jane Wright and Nigel Sharp 20 Aug 14:50 BST
10-17 August 2024
IRC 1 Racing in Falmouth Bay turning on an innovative MarkSetBot during Falmouth Sailing Week © Mike Postons
Falmouth Sailing Week, organised by The Port of Falmouth Sailing Association on behalf of The Royal Cornwall and Mylor Yacht Clubs; Flushing, St Mawes, Restronguet and Helford River Sailing Clubs has successfully delivered another year of diverse racing for 20 classes.
The classes are divided into two fleets: The Bay Fleet and Carrick Fleet. This means two sets of committee boats, race officers and around 75 volunteers who deliver this whole regatta over the 7 days each August. Without their skilled input this regatta could not run.
This year PoFSA trialled the use of innovative GPS guided autonomous MarkSetBots in Falmouth Bay to reduce the environmental impact by traditional racing marks and the physical challenges, that anyone involved in laying large buoys has experienced. Cornwall Council's Fal & Helford MPA funded two of the bots as did Cornish Lithium, Marlow Ropes, Pendennis Shipyard and Mylor Chandlery.
This regatta is unique in that it is hosted by 6 different yacht and sailing clubs and has no one centre. Each club goes to considerable effort to organise post regatta teas and prize-giving. Fierce rivalry ensues over who delivers the best teas each year!
Nigel Sharp, the RO for the Carrick Fleet writes:
"There was a mixed bag of weather during this year's Falmouth Sailing Week: two glorious days, two days when conditions were much better than the light wind forecasts had suggested, and otherwise challenging conditions which forced the cancellation of races on one day in the Carrick Roads and two in Falmouth Bay.
In the Bay there were two series - one of ten races spanning the whole week and one of five races on the last two days - and in both cases the winners of each class were the same. Craig Brown's Ultra 30 Trigger's Broom dominated IRC Class 1, ahead of Greg Peck's Rocket 1084 Camp Freddie in the short series and Thomas Syrett's JPK 1010 Miss Leading in the longer one; Robbie Tregear's Half Tonner Per Elisa won IRC Class 2 with John Hicks' Corby 25 Macavity and John Allen's X-302 Antix taking the second places; in the IRC 3 Class, Tom Hill's Albin Express 26 White Magic beat Garth Weaver's Mini Tonner Chiot Noir by just a single point in the short series but was a comfortable winner over Luke Goodden's GK24, Kizzy in the long one; Neil Chamberlain's Hanse 301 Tai Mo Shan had narrow victories over Andy Weir's Hydro 28 Bad Habits and John Bailey's Jeanneau 36i Moondance in E Class; and in Q and U Classes, both the winners and second place boats were the same in both series - Christophe Dormenval's Quarter Tonner Dream Weaver and David Scott's First 21.7 Ferret of Mylor, and Roeland Vroon's Achilles 24 Hotfoot and Kevin Baley's IF Boat Emily Too respectively.
In the Ancasta Champagne Race there were class wins for Jonty Layfield's Swan 48 Sleeper X, Antix, Peter Sharp's Autarky, White Magic, Dream Weaver and Hotfoot.
In the Firebird class there were series wins for James Parker's Firefly and Peter Stephens' Ultraviolet, while Mike Webb's Crackerjack won the Firebird long race.
In the Carrick Roads there were series wins for Ellie Craig's Aero in the Singlehanded Dinghy Class; Huw Beverley-Jones's Te Fiti in the Mirror Class; Mike Conlin's Wild Goose, by just a single point from David Mitchell's Folkboat Aries, in the Handicap Yachts Class; David Liddington's Mistress which dominated the Piper/Rustler Class; John Brunyee's Arlette in the Gaffers Class; Miles Carden's Ariel in the St Mawes One Design Class; Mike Grice's Polyphemus in the Ajax Class; Stuart Sly's Jackdaw in the Shrimper Class (with 26 entries, the largest class of the week); and Simon Perkins' Kitty, just a single point ahead of John Fox's Pixy, in the Sunbeam Class.
In each of the Falmouth Working Boat Classes, two boats finished with the same points and identical results, and so the ties were broken by the better results in the last race - this gave overall victories to Will Miners' Nellie May with Dave Cockwell's Mildred second in B Class, and Phil Slater's Lottie with Lord Falmouth's Deliverance second in C Class.
In Wednesday's Mainbrace Rum Race (the Carrick Roads' equivalent of the Bay's Champagne Race) there were class wins for Ellie Craig, Martin Egan's Mirror Bold Forester, Aries, Bob Edwards' Piper Kelpie, Sue Grigg's Gaffer Katy, Brian Phipps' Shrimper Ysella, Trevor Murphy's Moon and Lottie in the Working Boat Classes, Polyphemus, and Joe Bernie's Sunbeam Fleury."
All results are available to view on the website: falmouthweek.co.uk/sailing-week
The dates for next year's Falmouth Sailing Week will be 10 to 16 August.