Fun in the sun on Saturday at the International Paint Poole Regatta 2026
by Mark Jardine 24 May 20:59 AEST
22-25 May 2026
With a light offshore breeze of 5 to 8 knots in the morning, and a thermal breeze developing in the afternoon, the International Paint Poole Regatta 2026 started under scorching sunshine. This was also the second day of the IRC European Championships, after they started on Friday.
With experienced race officers across the courses, the most was made of the breeze in the bay, resetting the marks in preparation for the sea breeze which kicked in during the afternoon.
The Green VPRS 1 and Cape 31 fleet rolled straight from the offshore to the thermal breeze with just a slight delay to move the marks on the course to the east, in front of Bournemouth beach, while VPRS 2 had a short AP after lunch as the wind settled.
The sea breeze came in nicely, starting with 7-12 knots for race 3, then 12-16 knots for race 4 on the well-set courses.
David Ellis, who is doing mainsheet and tactics on the 707 'Three Little Pigs' in VPRS 1 described the day: "I thought the racing was absolutely fantastic on Saturday. Considering the conditions, they couldn't have done a better job. The afternoon races in particular were faultless with a perfect offset for the building tide."
In VPRS 1, Mark Titterington and Hannah Lewis's 'Elevation', a Dehler 36 SQ, is the only boat to have knocked together a perfect scoreline so far. With a yacht in VPRS 1 having won the prestigious Canford Cup more times than any other fleet.
Keith Lovett, helm on the QT 'Ecume de Mer' in VPRS 2 had a similarly superb day on the water: "Two excellent courses on Saturday in what were undoubtedly challenging conditions in the last of the offshore breeze. Following race 2 the race team flipped the course and moved the fleet in preparation, perfectly timed for the sea breeze to arrive and two further races. Frankly it couldn't have been better."
In the IRC Southern Championship Class Toby Gorman's 'Stan the Boat' and Sue Brown's 'Astronomix' are tied at the top, although the latter struggled in the final race of the day, so they have a worse discard.
The IRC European Championship fleets were further offshore and all the fleets, bar IRC 2, have now completed six races, having started their event on Friday.
Malcolm Offord's Braveheart leads IRC 0, with a string of three bullets from race 4 onwards.
The 13-strong IRC 1 fleet has a tie at the top with 'Impetuous' from the South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club and 'Jack Rabbit' from The Netherlands on 11.5 points. The half point is from race five, where the two boats had exactly the same corrected time to finish, so they scored 2.5 points each while the Belgium team on 'Moana' took the race victory.
IRC 2 has completed one less race, with Olly and Sam Love's 'Frank 4' holding a 4 point lead over Dirk van Rompuy's Belgian team 'High Five' in second in the 17 boat fleet.
The largest of the IRC Europeans fleets is IRC 3 with 18 boats, sees Sam Laidlaw's 1990 Vrolijk-designed Quarter Tonner 'Aguila' dominating on 5 points, 12 ahead of their nearest rival. The only blemish in the 2016 Canford Cup winner's scoreline came in race 6 with a 4th.
The hyper-competitive Cape 31 fleet has four boats separated by only two points, with Robin Jacobs' 'Earlybird and Guy Gillon's Khumbu 2 currently leading, but that could change in an instant.
The One Design classes were spread across both Poole Bay and the Harbour, with the J80 National Championship fleet, racing out in the bay, currently led by Simon Cameron and his team on 'Intergalactic'. David Pipe's 'White Magic' won 3 of the day's 4 races to lead the Sonata class.
With the picturesque surroundings of Poole Harbour, the 2.4mR National Tidal Championship is led by Megan Pascoe on 'Little Miss Esme' while the R19 Class sees Steve Thompson's 'Roulette' and Andy Macgregor's 'Ricochet' sharing the spoils with a win a second place each in the two races held.
The Redwing class is similarly close, with Andy Pearce's 'Rosetta' in front on countback thanks to a win in race 2, tied on points with Malcolm Bentley's 'Prawn II'. Paul Cantewell's Black Magic won the only race in the Shrimper class.
The Flying Fifteens stayed inside the harbour but were unable to get a race in.
The fleet came ashore to free beer and great value food at Parkstone Yacht Club to cap a day which was both exhilarating and exhausting.
Sunday's forecast is even hotter, with a thermal breeze beginning to build in the bay. With the exceptional May sunshine there are certainly worse places to be!
Find out more, including the full results, on the official event website, pooleregatta.co.uk.