Bembridge Illusion Prince Philip Cup 2026

Bembridge Illusion Prince Philip Cup © Charles Evans

Saturday by Robin Joy

Given the road closure opposite the Pilot Boat, to have a total of twenty Illusions racing for this season's Prince Philip Cup was pretty amazing, Seventeen Illusions came to the start line early on Saturday morning; Concerns about getting back in against a light southerly and an ebb tide dictated racing inside the harbour.

The shifty breeze made course laying a little tricky for Race 1, but the fleet got cleanly away before a more permanent shift gave those on the left side of the course a lift into the windward mark.

Owen Pay read this well, and led Bruce Huber, Jockey Wilson and Raymond Simmonds by over 50m onto the first run. The windward mark was adjusted as far as possible to the now 10kts from the SE, but the order remained unchanged at the finish, with Mark Downer finishing 5th, and Xander Shaw 6th.

Race 2 saw another clean start, and the fleet remained tightly bunched up the beat.

The breeze was steadier for this race, and Mark Downer had a number of boats on his transom as he led at the first mark. Mark extended his lead a little to win, but never really got away from the chasing pack, with Mike Toogood pipping Bruce for second. Then came Owen, Jockey, and Paul Newell.

More cloud cover for Race 3 brought testing windshifts again, with the odd flick to the right lifting those on starboard into the mark.

It was Jockey's turn to shine, and he led the way down the first run. The battle for the other podium places was between Paul, Raymond, Bruce, and Owen, who were at close quarters for the rest of the race. Jockey extended his lead handsomely, and was followed home by Bruce and Raymond.

Sunday by Laurence Blackburn

Conditions on Sunday morning were calm, with light airs and low cloud hanging around the harbour, setting the scene for what turned out to be a busy day on the water. The Race Management Team had unexpectedly been reduced to 2 crew members, meaning that ARO (Charles Evans) had to double as the mark layer, and the original mark layer (Laurence Blackburn) had to be promoted to the Race Officer.

Sadly, there weren't any pictures or videos taken due to the Race Officer leaving his camera back at the clubhouse!

After deciding to remain in the harbour, the first Race got under way with a clean start and a NE breeze of about 8 knots, providing a good beat up the harbour, and a very close fleet rounded the windward mark; it was hard to tell from the committee boat who was ahead until the sailors began hoisting their spinnakers. As it transpired, Anna Row in 91 had made an excellent start and led the fleet around the first mark, but on the downwind leg Anna was overtaken by Paul Newell and Mark Downer.

The fleet remained fairly close together on the second round, with Mark Downer, Paul Newell and Bruce Huber heading up the fleet. On the third round, the wind shifted right quite a way, so the wind was now coming more from the SE. On the line Mark held Paul off, and Bruce remained in third.

Owing to the massive wind shift, the Committee Boat, the pin and the marks had to be repositioned and with lots of help from the sailors we eventually got going. We had a clean start and again a very close fleet throughout most of the second race. Mark maintained his lead with Owen Pay in second and Paul Newell coming home third.

The Race Officers were hoping for a nice, easy getaway for the third race, but that wasn't to be, as the first start had to be General Recalled due to multiple boats on or over the line at the start. Having completed the start sequence again under Flag Uniform, the fleet eventually got under way and spread out throughout the race, however it got quite close at the end with the top three, but Mark Downer maintained his winning streak and just took the winning gun from Bruce Huber with James Wilson in third.

Wrapping another brilliant weekend of racing with 20 boats taking part across the weekend. The Prince Philip Cup was won by Mark Downer, with Bruce Huber second and Owen Pay third.

Overall Results: