Bembridge Sailing Club Mid-May Keelboat Racing
by Robin Joy & Jos Coad 11 May 22:32 PDT
10-11 May 2025
Saturday 10 May (by Robin Joy)
Several days of cool easterlies may have deterred a few crews, but the two Redwings and two One-Designs that raced enjoyed some glorious sunny sailing in about 15kts of breeze.
Two short races were planned, and a start line using the inflatable ODM was set, with Fitzwilliam as a windward mark and Garland to leeward, twice round for both classes.
The first Redwing race saw Mike Toogood with a young family crew in Tara and Jockey Wilson in Quail both make good starts, and both initially opted to head inshore on port, before tacking for the mark. Jockey led at the end of the round, but Mike was close enough to justify a reduced second round, using Under Tyne as the new windward mark. Jockey couldn’t be caught, though, and led Mike home.
With Fitz being the only sensible windward mark to use, the course was used again for the second race. This followed a similar pattern to race one, and, with Mike suffering a tangled jib on the final beat, Jockey was again the winner.
Simon Allocca was helming No 1 One-Design , and led Stephan Ludwig in No 3 away from the start, over the same course as the Redwings. Simon extended his lead a little, so the race was shortened to one round, with Simon winning by nearly a minute and a half.
Martin Bonham took the helm of No 1 for the second race, but unfortunately made contact with the ODM, so executed a 360 penalty which allowed Stephan to lead away from the line. Martin managed to work his way past Stephan, however, and won, but only by a few boat lengths.
Sunday 11 May (by Jos Coad)
Despite it being a lovely sunny Sunday morning sadly there were only two Redwing takers. Jocky Wilson in Quail and Mike Toodgood in Tara. They both opted for two short races and with a NE4, gusting 5, the ROs set a start line at Garland. The first race was a beat to Fitzwilliam, running back to Garland, twice round. They made good time completing the course in 45 minutes. Jocky got away from Mike and proceeded to cover him up to the windward mark and was not to be caught, winning by 50 seconds
For the second race, with the wind easing to a straight NE4, it was agreed with the helms that a shorter course of Fitzwilliam and back to finish at Old Church was what was needed given there were only two of them. As in the first race, Jocky moved into the lead, never to be caught, and he completed this short course in 28 minutes with Mike just over a minute behind. With 4 wins, Quail won the weekend Redwing trophy - Lt Col Slaone Stanley’s Inkwell. There were no One-Designs.