Musto Lark National Championship 2025 at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club - Day 1

2025 Musto Lark Nationals at Abersoch Day 1 © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

The 2025 Musto Lark Nationals kicked off today at the South Carnarvonshire Yacht Club in Abersoch. The usual class stalwarts were joined again this year by defending champion Tom Gillard crewed this time by long term sailing partner Rachel Grey.

2025 Musto Lark Nationals at Abersoch Day 1 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Also in the hunt for the top spot would be previous champions Ed Bradburn and Holly Evans, Chris and Nic White, Stuart and Nick Hydon, and champions from WAY back Tim Fells and Chris Allen, and John and Vicky Brickwood. Proceedings were halted on shore for an hour while the race team waited for the very light westerly breeze to improve somewhat.

2025 Musto Lark Nationals at Abersoch Day 1 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Sailors were set off on race one under a gate start, with 10th place finishers in the last race of last year's nationals Jonny Coate and Kate Phillips as pathfinder. A very light and shifty breeze combined with strong tide running right-to-left made for a tricky first beat. In general those who played the right hand side did best, but there were big gains to be made in the shifts close to the windward mark.

2025 Musto Lark Nationals at Abersoch Day 1 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

At the first mark the top three was Bradburn/Evans from Gillard/Grey, followed closely by Coate/Phillips. The top reach was as one would expect of a top reach, until the breeze shut down and shifted left as the leaders approached the gybe mark. This compressed the fleet and punished heavily those who took a lower line to the mark, including Bradburn/Evans who ended up having to drop the kite and put in a couple of tacks to round. Gillard/Grey and Coate/Phillips just about got round under spinnaker and gybed immediately. The Brickwoods and Whites behind chose to carry on without gybing, hooking into some nice pressure on the right of the bottom reach which was now more like a true downwind leg. Stuart Hydon, who has a real knack for finding his way to the front, saw his chance to jump on that train and gybed across to join them. This would prove to be the defining move of the race as the Hydons rounded the leeward mark in first place from the Brickwoods with a healthy lead on Gillard/Grey and Coate/Phillips.

2025 Musto Lark Nationals at Abersoch Day 1 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

The course was adjusted while we sailed a very port tack biased beat, so that we had a good true downwind for the last leg. That run proved to be very tactical due to the strong tide running left to right, those who gybed a little earlier benefitting from a fast approach to the final leeward rounding. The race was won by the Hydons, followed by Gillard/Grey, with the Brickwoods in third. A good tussle for the next few places saw Coate/Phillips just pip the Whites to fourth.

Unstable breeze meant that racing was ultimately abandoned for the rest of the day. 3 races planned for tomorrow in slightly more breeze according to the forecast.

Results after Day 1: