Bembridge Illusion St George's Day Trophy and Woodford Long Distance Trophy
by Mike Samuelson 28 Apr 17:38 NZST
26-27 April 2025
The last weekend of the Illusion season is always reserved for the St George's Day Trophy on the Saturday and the Woodford Long Distance race on the Sunday. This year was no exception.
Saturday's forecast was for an easterly breeze of up to 10 knots with cloudy skies which was pretty close to what it was actually like.
With increasing numbers of moored boats in the harbour and at that stage anyway a relatively smooth sea outside the harbour, the decision was made to set the course up off Silver Beach for initially 11 boats and subsequently 12 once Bill Daniels had arrived in time for the second race. With just enough wind to make racing worthwhile the first race got away after a 15 minute postponement. Unusually for him, Bruce Huber got buried at the pin end of the line and found himself crossing the line last. Also unusually he did not appear to be able to improve his position as the two round race progressed and it was only on the last run he realised that he was towing a large clump of seaweed round the course. Mind you it brought a smile to Will Lowe who finished ahead of him!
Start of Race 1 on Saturday:
Meanwhile with the fleet splitting tacks on the beats to the windward marks, Oliver Morgan's white and blue spinnaker was one of the first to be hoisted as the front four vied for clean air to keep thir spinnakers filled. Raymond Simonds and David Peerless (his first venture afloat after breaking his leg 'apres ski') did their best to catch him, but failed with Raymond just crossing the finish line inches head of David. As always, some close racing throughout the fleet; indeed Hugh Doherty ad Philip Russell tied for eighth place!
As far as the Race Officer's on Sea Breeze were concerned the start of te second race was fine, however a number of competitors, supported by Jeremy Spencer-Cooper in the RIB at the pin end of the line reckoned the hooter had sounded 10 seconds early. A late General Recall was therefore called.
Start of Race 2 on Saturday (General Recall):
Re-start of Race 2 on Saturday:
The second start, under Fag U, was 'all clear' and it was not long before the fleet again split tacks as they did their best to maintain boat speed in the increasing swell and dying breeze. It had been especially interesting watching David weaving himself successfully, as it turned out, through the line on port! Raymond was the most successful in finding the breeze with Bruce and Mike Issaias picking up the scraps of breeze that he left them! Stopped after just the one round, Owen Pay was fourth and Mike Toogood was fifth.
Just when it looked as further racing was not going to practical, the breeze strengthened slightly (to 7 knots) in time for Race 3. Another excellent start especially as it was still under Flag U.
Start of Race 3 on Saturday:
Again split tacks and split leeward gate tactics, saw Raymond leading the way with Monty Irwin, Bruce, Bill, Oliver, Mike T and David all in the mix behind. Fortunately the 'new' breeze held and provided the occasional exciting moment as boats surfed down the increasing swell. Raymond picked up his second win of the day finishing ahead of Bruce and Monty. David was fourth ad Bill was fifth.
Fortunately the breeze remained around 8 knots for the fourth and final race; the sun also appeared to brighten things up. Started again under Flag U, Owen and Philip over cooked it and crossed the line early and with no 'get out of jail' card available under Flag U, were disqualified and headed back into the harbour.
Start of Race 4 on Saturday:
For the rest of the fleet, tactics were similar to the previous races with split tacks and optional gate selection. Bruce was first round the windward mark and although Raymond, Monty and Bill tried to steal his wind, it was not to be and he crossed the finish line after two rounds securely ahead. Raymond was second and Monty was third. Hugh Doherty apparently messed up the gate so retired.
With the rules for the St George's Day Trophy stipulating 'no discard', the overall winner therefore was Raymond with 6 points; and after a tie break, Bruce was second with 16 points just ahead of Monty (also on 16 points).
For the Woodford Long Distance, which marks the end of another amazing season of Illusion racing the weather presented itself with glorious sunshine and NE breeze between 5 - 6 knts at the start and with the course set in and out of the harbour depending on if the breeze held, should prove to be a fitting end to the season.
From the start Bruce Huber lead the way up the first beat to the first rounding, which was the around the moored Bembridge One Designs to starboard. Down to a laid leeward mark near the houseboats, also to starboard, and then on to H the yellow turning mark opposite BHYC.
The wind was remaining steady between 4.3 - 5 knts as Bill Daniels overtook Bruce at H as they began the beat back up the harbour heading for St Helen Fort. On the beat up the harbour Bill made an interesting detour deciding to go the North side of the visitor's pontoon, which as the locals would know is not the correct way out of the harbour, the RC(S) Alastair who was following in a BSC Safety Boat offered to take Bill's rig down for him so that he could try to navigate under the pontoon's gangway but alas he made the decision to turn around instead, by which time he had very much lost the lead he had and was towards the back of the feet by the time he was heading the correct way up the harbour.
By 11:15 the leaders were making there way out of the harbour entrance with Bruce in the lead, followed by Oliver Morgan, Mike Issaias and Hugh Dohrty rounding out the top four with the wind having picked up slightly to 5.5knts still from NE. At 11:23 the ROs decided to change the course to Nainby to starboard rather that the Fort as it seemed an awfully long way away with amount of breeze. Bruce was still in the lead as he rounded N at 11:29 with Oliver, Mike I and Hugh rounding 30 seconds later the gap between them was about a minute. On the final leg into the harbour the breeze held in between 3.9 - 4 knts all the way until they reached the harbour entrance where the wind dropped to 0 knots; a few minutes later it shifted to the SE and came back up to 5knts. The finish line was between BSC's flag stuff on the shore and Sea Breeze. All in all a lovely way to end the season.
The Illusions 2025-2026 season begins on Saturday 4th October 2025.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Helm | Sail No | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts | Woodford |
|---|
| 1 | Raymond Simonds | 165 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| 2 | Bruce Huber | 101 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 1 |
| 3 | Monty Irwin | 147 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 16 | |
| 4 | Oliver Morgan | 169 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 22 | 3 |
| 5 | David Peerless | 140 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 23 | |
| 6 | Mike Issaias | 152 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 23 | 2 |
| 7 | Mike Toogood | 142 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 24 | 6 |
| 8 | Bill Daniels | 68 | S | 10 | 5 | 4 | 32 | 4 |
| 9 | Owen Pay | 160 | 6 | 4 | 12 | D | 35 | |
| 10 | Hugh Doherty | 124 | 8 | 11 | 8 | R | 40 | 5 |
| 11 | Philip Russell | 153 | 9 | 8 | 10 | D | 40 | |
| 12 | Will Lowe | 150 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 42 | 7 |