Folkboat Week at the Royal Solent Yacht Club

Action from Folkboat Week © Rachel Nuding

Action from Folkboat Week © Rachel Nuding

Lymington Yacht Haven sponsored Folkboat Week

The 40th anniversary year of Folkboat week was hosted by the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth and sponsored again by Lymington Yacht Haven. The RSYC hospitality and organisation, as usual was excellent hence the venue being held here for the last 40 years, with a record 35 entries.

The first day racing was two triangular courses, which involved close tacking up the island shore. Crackerjack (Stuart Watson) and Riot (Nick Burgin) scored a first and second respectively in both races, with Milly (Richard Webb) third in race one and Svenja (Mike Stoner) in race two.

Race three took the fleet out though the Needles for the Christchurch Ledge race, this was dominated by Svenja from start to finish in a light NE breeze, with the current national champion (J Austin) in Tak second. and Riot third.

Wednesday was the traditional 3 windward/leeward races in Hurst bay. The light NW wind made the strong fleet cheat the tide upwind. Crackerjack won the day with a convincing 1,1,2, Tak 2nd with 2,2,5. Rio (Mike Shepherd) lead race 2 for two laps only to be pipped on the line into 3rd place. Race 3 was won by Good Shepherd (Keith Whitelaw) who led from start to finish, with the beautifully restored Karla (Pete MacGregor) 3rd.

Thursday gave the fleet a welcome lay day. Race 7 saw the 3 main contenders battling it out, with Tak taking line honours, Crackerjack 2nd and Riot 3rd.

The ladies and crew race in the afternoon was also very competitive, with Pilgrim (Sally Potter) winning the ladies and Crackerjack Mathew Jones the crews race.

With no discards in the event, the final race on Saturday was important as Crackerjack only had a 4 point lead on Tak. This was the Long Solent race, the race officer Rachel Nuding sent the fleet zig zaging up the Solent to East Lepe on the tide and the vast majority of the fleet came back on the tide in a F3 NW. Riot led for 3 legs only to be overhauled by Crackerjack with Tak just beating So! (Simon Osgood) for 3rd.

Overall Results: (no discard series)

1st Crackerjack, Stuart Watson/Matthew Jones 19pts
2nd Tak, Jeremy Austin/Ado Jardine 25pts
3rd Riot, Nick Burgin 31pts
4th Gap, Year Steve Proffitt 52pts
5th Milly, Richard Webb 77pts
6th Rio, Mike Shepherd 77pts

The Cruiser Division Perspective: (by Brian Appleyard)

In generally fine weather a total of Nine Cruisers raced at some time during the week, most boats pushing 45 years old and some older. Using a well established handicap system that tries to level the field by correcting for the propeller type fitted.

Starting 5 mins after the open fleet. It would be fair to say that 3 boats were substantially faster than the rest of the fleet. Yoho (Sail No 1), Callisto and Folkdance. Some very close racing was seen between these three boats.

The Christchurch ledge race was particularly memorable, fine weather light airs and the cruiser fleet finishing in amongst the open fleet. The peel of bells from the Sconce buoy that crept out in front of one boat (name withheld) whilst the crew were distracted with tin opening was something to hear.

The rest day on Thursday was used by some to wander down to Totland Bay where anchors were dropped and swimming, sun bathing and fishing were the order of the day. Yes this really was the Solent.

Overall Cruiser Results:

1st Folkdance
2nd Callisto
3rd YoHo
4th Hangover
5th Cynara
6th Carlinetta
7th Sandpiper