Ramsgate Week 2026 at Royal Temple Yacht Club - Overall
by Peter Jackson 29 Jul 11:34 PDT
19-24 July 2026
After a boisterous start to the Round the Goodwins race light winds and hazy sunshine set in and prevailed for the week as the tide moved towards neaps. The IRC and new YTC classes (using RYA/RORC 'Yacht Time Correction' system) were mainly started from a committee boat. YTC Class 6 and non-spinnaker local handicap class used the club line off the harbour with shorter inshore courses.
Stats show Kent gets the most sunshine and least rain in the UK. This week it also got just enough wind for a great sailing week, with zero breakages and sail repairs.
Visitors from Norfolk through Greenwich & France to St Helier matched the strong Royal Temple Yacht contingent in numbers. The new YTC fleet matched IRC in numbers, so around 30 boats, including the inshore Class 6, plus an additional class of 6 Local Handicap non-spinnaker boats. The Club hopes that introducing YTC classes may tempt more cruiser racers to join in. The impressive array of trophies was spread equally among RTYC and visiting competitors who also seemed to be competing in drinking the most!
The EARO Round the Goodwins race started with a fresh fetch NE to the Goodwin Knoll buoy before the long run south with the tide outside the sands, the biggest boat graveyard in the world with over 2,000 known wrecks, including 13 warships and 40 merchant ships in one night in 1703. The waves remained big but the wind eased and veered and the fleet said goodbye to the East Goodwin light ship, the last in the area, soon to be replaced with a buoy.
Mike and Jo Brand's X40 Fox out the Box led YTC but were passed here by the IRC leader Peter & Alex Jackson's Pronavia 42 Sport Assassin, both RTYC boats. Simon Farren's A-40 Warrior was well up headed for France and got lost.
It was all change at the SW Goodwin turning mark as the leaders hit the adverse tide beating past the South Foreland and Deal. The race timing allows the tide to turn to bring the small boats back and so it did, as the 42 moored up and the 40 crossed the line. The RTYC's Gary Walters J97 Jura won YTC from Frenchman Jean Marc Devos' feeling 850 Carpe Diem. The smallest boat in IRC Walton & Frinton's David Evans; Hustler 32 Hullabaloo XV took the overall, from WMYC & DSC's Simon Clifton in the A31 Aztec, and the RTYC X99 Xpedite.
James & Lizzie Fisher, sailing 2 handed was 2nd to the 32 in their Dufour 36 Loki in EAORA with the A-40 3rd.
The wind stayed light from the north for the midweek series, a change to the prevailing S-SW
wind of the last few years, giving beats against the tide. As the big vs small boat speed difference is greater upwind than down this reversed the recent edge smaller boats have had and allowed the scratch IRC and YTC to get away up the beats. Fox out the Box and Assassin plugged in 4 straight wins in a row. It may be that both Mike and Peter being past National Champions helped a little, but both had tied up their classes by Thursday lunchtime.
Thursdays racing for the Queen Elizabeth II trophy (presented by the late queen) was a 2 race windward-leeward aggregate. In race 2 the wind veered 20o after the leaders had finished lifting the smaller boats to the line. Jura, after a string of podiums, won the YTC class from the X40, the Medway based Dehler 34 Zephyros and the French crew in Carpe Diem.
In IRC Assassin finished on the beat before the big shift ended her run of wins. The WMYC A31 Aztec, following a 4,2,2,1, sequence, got a well deserved win, from the RTYC's Martin Law in the modified Cork 1720 Flying Pig and Peter Pearson et al's RTYC based HOD 35 Buccaneer, with Assassin dropping to 6th behind the local Melges 24 and X362 Sport.
In the meantime the inshore classes were having untold fun off the club line. James Bradney's lovely varnished Ramsgate based Mullins23 Monarch set out her stall early with two wins, one from the race 2 line honours boat the local Owens/Mayne/Gardner Link 30 Zorra. The Lucas/Nicholson RTYC modified E boat Zigge then turned up to take race 3 from Monarch and John Barnard's Greenwich based Limbo 6.6 LoFlyer, who then posted a 2nd from Monarch ahead of Zigge. Lo Flyer then won the last race from Zigge to confirm those two in 2nd & 3rd overall behind Monarch. with Zorra, wanting more spinnaker work, in 4th.
Non-spinnaker Local Handicap Class 7 was largely a benefit for Bernard Sealeys Dover based Astrillious 38 Karibia Breezes, winning 4 of the 5 races. Mark Andrews & Jonathan Hague's RTYC Francini 43L Avventura, stocked up for a transat, scored two 2nds before slipping back and giving best to Susan Anderson's Gibsea 252 Impulse (RTYC & Margate YC) Impulse steadily improved with 3,2,1, the only time the 38 slipped to 2nd. Impulse finished up 2nd ahead of the heavyweight 43 with Carenage 2 in 4th.
The last days racing was for is the Ramsgate Gold Cup (IRC) and other class trophies as well as series points, with earlier starts and longer 'coastal' courses. But the wind, due to clock south, didn't play ball so starts were delayed. A fickle breeze appeared from the NE and the race started, but with YTC and IRC only sent to Broadstairs Knoll, south to the Brake sands off Deal, round Gull Stream inside the Goodwins then in to East Brake.
With a weak south going tide Fox out the Box' built up a lead in YTC, but Loki found more breeze offshore and rounded just ahead, with Jura 3rd. Loki headed back out on port with her asymmetric kite as the X40 gybed inshore struggling with her kite sock. Assassin nailed the IRC start and quickly did the same up the beat, rounding just behind the Fox for the run south, following Loki out into the breeze. The 42 had sewn up the IRC overall series but Peter was after matching Richard Matthews seven Gold Cup wins.
But the wind offshore died away. First Loki then Assassin found the doldrums as the little wind there was headed them, precluding a gybe. Simon Northrop in the Melges 24 Lock Stock spotted the doldrums offshore and gybed to follow Mike Brand in the X40. The wind, still patchy, filled in inshore giving the X40 and Melges, now both on port, a fast close reach for the 3 mile down tide leg towards Deal for the next mark. The wind also filled in from behind, for the rest of the fleet but reached Assassin late and left Loki for dead. The wind for the 42's symmetrical kite was well ahead of the beam but the X40 and Melges big Asymmetric kites were perfect taking them through to leeward to round half a mile ahead of the 42. The J97's led the chasing pack with her assy, rounding the leeward mark just behind Assassin. Both Archambault's, the 40 Warrior and 31 Aztec, closed in ahead of the bulk of the fleet.
The 2 mile leg to the Gull Stream buoy was a beat, lee bowing the tide on starboard. Fox out the Box and Lock Stock headed off on starboard but Assassin held on to port to lee bow later in the stronger offshore tide, also finding more & lifted wind. With the breeze still patchy the race was shortened after 2hrs at Gull stream. Assassin reclaimed line honours by 6 minutes, but Simon Northop and the Melges team took the Gold Cup by a clear 4 minutes with the A31 and A40 filling the podium ahead of Peter Pearson et al in the HOD 35 Buccaneer, winning the season long dual with the X36 Stiletto. The X99 Xpedite and Cork 1720 Flying Pig all corrected within a few seconds ahead of. Warrior won Class 1 from the Corby 33 Imposter and Assassin.
The Fox crossed 7 minutes behind the 42 but Jura had followed Assassin and closed up to correct 8 minutes ahead, followed by Zephyros in 3rd and a close finish between Carpe Diem and Bad Boys with David Preston's Rye Harbour based First Class 8 Luna in 6th, correcting just 10 seconds ahead of stablemate Richard Elliott's Sunshine 38 Roxanne.
On the Inshore course John Barnards Greenwich Limbo 6.6 LoFlyer took the Class 6 YTC win from the local Lucas-Nicholson E boat (mod) Zigge. Monarch had her lowest finish of 3rd in the light, flukey winds. In Non-spinnaker class 7 Bernard Sealy returned to the front in his Astrillious 38 Karibia Breezes from Dover. Susan Anderson, (RTYC and ex Margate Y.C. commodore) in her Gibsea 262 Impulse returned to 2nd, from Mark Andrews & Jonathan Hague's 43 Avventura.
IRC Class 1 and Overall winner was the home club's Assassin, Peter & Alex Jackson's Pronvavia 42 a past Solent Points winner, but only by 1 point overall from class 2 winner Simon Clifton's West Mersea based Archambault 31 Aztec. Local Simon Northrop's Melges 24 Lock Stock was 7 points back, 2 up on Stiletto and 2.5 from Flying Pig. Simon Farren's A-32 Warrior beat Imposter to 2nd in Class 1.
Mike & Jo Brand's RTYC X40 Fox out the Box took Class 4 and YTC overall by 3 points from Gary Walters, also RTYC, J97 Jura, and visitors Medway Y.C's Dehler 34 Zephyros steered by Andrew French, and father & daughter James & Lizzie Fisher 2 handed in the St Hellier & Ipswich based Dufour 36 Loki. 3rd in class 4. The Dale family's RTYC Corby 26 Bad Boys with wheelchair bound navigator Anthony just beat Jean Marc Devos's Feeling 850 Carpe Diem, 2nd in Class 5 to Zephyros, besting her Dehler 34 sister ship Flyer from Colne Y.C. this year. Young sailor of the week was won by Assassin trainee navigator Gray Jackson.
Event website: www.ramsgateweek.com