West Country Boat Repair 2000 Millennium Series at Castle Cove Sailing Club

Ben, Sam and Tristan celebrate winning the West Country Boat Repair 2000 Millennium Series at Castle Cove © 2000 class

Lijia Xu and Ben Richardson finish 2nd in the West Country Boat Repair 2000 Millennium Series at Castle Cove © 2000 class

Martin Pascor (PRO) and Julie Pascoe, the real force behind the West Country Boat Repair 2000 Millennium Series at Castle Cove © 2000 class

Castle Cove Sailing Club gave their usual warm welcome to the 2000 sailors for the West Country Boat Repairs Millennium series Round 2 event on the weekend of 18th & 19th May 2024.

The weather forecast leading up to the event was not ideal in whichever app you chose to view. Many of the sailors present doubted whether we would get on the water let alone sail. Saturdays forecast included torrential rain and no wind. At the pre event briefing Martin Pascoe, our superb race officer for the weekend, was not deterred by the forecast or the 'crews union' being averse to sailing in the rain without costly penalties for their respective helms.

Martin as a very experienced race officer not only set superb courses, swiftly moving marks with all the variables in the wind direction. On Saturday he even managed to turn off all the rain and provide the most enjoyable breeze from the WNW that provided very good racing condition.

Benjamin Pascoe (age 7) crewed by his Dad, Sam (over 21) and little brother Tristan (aged 4) set the pace and led from the start. Sometimes as the wind increased Benjamin had to hold the tiller with both hands to get round the corners. Our only hope of gaining on them was that Benjamin and Tristan would soon tire having been sailing all morning with the cadets followed by heaps of fun swimming in the sea. Fuelled by vast quantities of Haribo, unfortunately there was no slowing at the front of the fleet. Indeed they still had more energy than anyone, throwing their moves on the dance floor to the amazing band in the evening.

Lijia Xu (Olympic Laser Radial gold medallist and 2022 2000 National Champion) was providing close competition being hot on Benjamin's heels all weekend. Lijia even gave the rest of us a head start by having to restart having been over the start line in race 1. Pete Vincent and Kirsten Glen led race 3 at the first windward mark and managed to pull away downwind to record a race win.

Sunday dawned with a forecast for warm sunshine and no wind across the whole of the UK except for Portland Harbour where the sun disappeared and a perfect sailing breeze built. Behind darkening clouds 3 more races were completed. Heads needed to be out of the boat to spot the wind shifting from the NE to SE and various bands of useful wind pressure across the course.

The Tim and Linda Hulley, Iain and Sarah Yardley regularly showing up with good speed and Pete/Kirsten led the 3 races at the first windward marks but there was no stopping the Benjamin/Tristin/Haribo show as they out paced everyone to win all 3 races.

During the 6th and final race the wind started to ease and Tim deployed a special manoeuvre at the leeward mark to make sure everyone was still awake. Clear ahead rounding the leeward mark Tim tripped and dropped the tiller, thus parking the boat head to wind across all the rest of the 2000 fleet trying to round the mark. This is not a fast manoeuvre nor recommended by RRS as was helpfully pointed out by the rest of the fleet. We crawled into a corner to carry out our turn and have a little weep.

At the end of racing we all sailed back to the shore as the sun emerged, reflecting on a great weekend's sailing with close competition throughout the fleet and with places constantly changing.

The prize-giving was held in the warm sunshine overlooking the calm waters of the harbour.

Overall Results:

1st Benjamin Pascoe (just awake), crewed by Sam and Tristan (asleep by the end of prize-giving), Castle Cove SC
2nd Lijia Xu and Ben Richardson, Castle Cove SC
3rd Pete Vincent (our Millennium series sponsor, thank you Pete) and Kirsten Glen, LLandegfedd SC

Silver Fleet
1st John Best and Suzy Aidden, Lee On Solent SC
2nd Guy and Julie Boswell, Llandegfedd SC

Thank you Martin for so efficiently producing great racing all weekend and a very special thank you must go to the super human Julie Pascoe who kindly provided scrumptious hot bacon butties to all the sailors before going afloat both days to be the Race Officer's most able assistant all weekend as well.

Thank you to Castle Cove for inviting the 2000 fleet to come and play on your fabulous water, for making us all so welcome and to all the volunteers who made the weekend such a success.