Whisky Stakes at Ripon Sailing Club

by Lucy Priest 4 Jan 00:05 PST 1 January 2026

Despite the forecast of 30mph gusts and sub-zero wind chill there was a good turnout for the Ripon SC Whisky Stakes on New Year's Day.

With the fleet ranging in speed from RS200 to Optimists race officers Em and Ali set a beat through the narrows to the north lake, followed by an occasionally extremely interesting run back to the south lake, with a fast reach across to the jetties and a further run down to the factory before turning to beat back towards the club house.

In the first race James and Sue in the RS200 pulled away at the start chased by a mixed pack of Streakers and Solos. The first beat through the narrows was a little congested but the pack thinned out down the run with the leading Streakers able to make good use of some of the gusts down the narrows to gain distance on the RS200. During the second beat places changed in the Streaker pack with Lucy finding her way to the front, still chasing the RS200 while in the junior fleet Ethan had pulled away from the other Laser Radials. The wind stayed fairly consistent throughout, although one or two people got caught out by some classic Ripon shifts at Point. With a second back to back race to follow, the race team shortened course on 3 laps for the leading boats (2 laps for the Optimists), with the bulk of the fleet finishing in a 5 minute window.

With the weather still much better than forecast only one boat decided that one race was enough and the second race started promptly. Chris definitely won the start on this one, judging it almost to the millimetre, and there was some fierce racing between the Streakers up the first beat. A bad tack from Lucy resulted in turns, letting Steve and Ian through to chase Chris down the run, while Ethan was definitely enjoying the increasing wind speed. During the second lap the wind really started to build and the gusts and shifts became less and less predictable. Having clawed her way back into contention in the Streakers, a huge gust on the downwind leg in the narrows wiped Lucy out but also took Steve out, while Chris ended up in completely the wrong part of the lake (but still the right way up!). Further down the fleet the carnage continued, with two boats retiring and several getting to test the water temperature, and the race team decided that enough was enough and shortened the course on two laps for the leaders.

Back in the clubhouse Gail had done a fantastic job turning everyone's Bring & Share contributions into an amazing lunch spread while Em and Ali had the results processed well before the last sailor was out of the boatpark, never mind the changing rooms. The overall results in the junior (U18) fleet saw Ethan finish first followed by Oscar in second and Matthew third, all sailing in ILCA6. The overall winner of the Whisky Stakes was Ian Priest (Streaker) with James and Sue (RS200) second and Lucy (Streaker) third.

Many thanks all the club volunteers who contributed to running the event, and particularly to Ali and Em in the race box and Nigel and Michael in the safety boat for their efforts on the day. Here's to a fantastic year for Ripon SC in 2026!