Flying 15 Bulwark Trophy 2026 at Hayling Island Sailing Club
by Simon Thompson 8 Jun 23:51 PDT
6-7 June 2026
Flying 15 Bulwark trophy at Hayling Island © Ingrid Abery /
www.ingridabery.com
This year's Bulwark trophy was part of a double handed regatta run by Hayling Island Sailing Club that also included the 5o5 class, the Fireballs, and Merlin Rockets.
As this event was not paired with the Southern Championships the attendance of visitors was low with only four boats from other clubs.
The weather forecast for the event was challenging and in the end the sailing on the Saturday the 6th of June was cancelled due to the force 7 gusting nine winds sweeping the country.
Forecast for the Sunday was much calmer (a relative term) at F4 increasing to F5. The Race Officer made the decision to pack 4 races into the day's programme and planned for race 1 to commence at 10am. Being the 4th fleet to start the Flying 15s had a margin of extra time. Given the challenge of starting the 5o5 fleet we did not start until nearly 11am.
The fleet got away cleanly on start one under the black flag introduced to calm the 5o5 fleet down. The course was an inner trapezoidal course separating the finishing line and the faster fleets downwind legs.
The beat was the usual challenge in a big Hayling bay chop giving an uncomfortable ride up to the windward mark. Those boats who had decided to go right early seemed to slightly get ahead of the bulk of the fleet who stayed on starboard from the start longer.
The ride back down to the leeward marks was fast with all boats surfing for long distances. The second beat saw more of the fleet take the right side of the course to benefit from the lee bow effect from the tide. After the second beat there was a reach under kite across the waves to the turning mark for the downhill run to the last rounding mark and the reach to the finish.
The wind had now increased to the promised F5 but race 2 got away promptly behind the Merlin Rocket second start. The rest of this race and the next were a repeat of race one with bigger waves. One boat even got flattened on a downhill leg after a gybe went awry.
After race 3 a large contingent of boats decided to call it a day and go for home. The remaining hardy Hayling sailors completed the last race.
The trophy was won by Andrew Jameson crewed by Greg Wells. Greg's comment was, "its much harder at the front of the boat!" Despite that special plea, membership of the crews union was denied, even with the special pleading that he was thinking of fitting a spinnaker chute now.
Given the planning and financial challenges of competing in the Nationals next month in Hartlepool or the Europeans in Mallorca in September some sailors will not meet again until next year.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 4112 | Andrew Jameson | Greg Wells | HISC | ‑5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2nd | 4089 | Hamish Mackay | Andrew Lawson | RTYC/HISC | 2 | 1 | ‑6 | 2 | 5 |
| 3rd | 4030 | Alastair Stevenson | Simon Hunt | HISC | 1 | 4 | 3 | ‑6 | 8 |
| 4th | 4143 | Charles Apthorp | Iain Cadwalleder | HISC | 4 | 3 | 2 | ‑5 | 9 |
| 5th | 4132 | Simon Childs | Kato Childs | HISC | ‑6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 |
| 6th | 4107 | Mark Wood | Anne‑Marie Wood | HISC | ‑8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 15 |
| 7th | 4069 | Bill Chard | Josh Preater | CVLSC | 3 | 9 | 7 | (DNC) | 19 |
| 8th | 4148 | Simon Patterson | Simon Thompson | Draycote Water SC | 7 | 8 | 10 | (DNC) | 25 |
| 9th | 3994 | Ian Nicholson | Ian Finlay | HISC | ‑12 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 26 |
| 10th | 4126 | James Yearsley | John Costard | HISC | 9 | 7 | (DSQ) | DNC | 32 |
| 11th | 3912 | Charlie McKee | Adrian Simpson | HISC | 11 | 12 | 12 | (DNC) | 35 |
| 12th | 3736 | Peter Bannister | Sue Bannister | HISC | 10 | 10 | (DNC) | DNC | 36 |
| 13th | 3951 | Chris White | Roger le Pla | Northampton SC | 14 | 14 | 9 | (DNC) | 37 |
| 14th | 3751 | Peter Warne | Graham Wilson | Northampton SC | 13 | 13 | 11 | (DNC) | 37 |
| 15th | 3939 | Athol King | Alison Miller | HISC | 15 | (DNF) | DNC | DNC | 47 |