Miracle National Championship 2026 at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club - Day 1
by Hannah Metcalfe-Smith 10 Aug 12:55 PDT
Day 1 - Miracle National Championship at Abersoch © Helen Jacks
The Miracles have arrived in sunny Abersoch for the 2026 Miracle Nationals at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club. Day One started with a 1200 briefing and a 1400 race start after some significant and troublesome travel for the intrepid sailors with various road closures on major routes like the M6 and M40.
Some important notes to start the report - a thank you to South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club for hosting us at their wonderful club for the event and to Jeff Weir and his wife Sandra for volunteering for tally duty to keep us sailors safe, especially making sure we all return at the end of the racing.
Day 1 started with two races, in bright sunshine and a decent breeze to get out to the start line, although during the race the wind was light throughout, occasionally making it a challenge with the waves across the bay.
The Smiths in Queen Bee (4115) were first around the windward mark, having taken to the right-hand side of the course off the start line and lead the race from start to finish. The Smith daughter-duo Hannah and Indigo (3805) took a slightly differently route going up the middle of the beat to come out second at the windward mark and made for the chase. Paul and Dave (4110) were third around the windward mark, but by the end of the race had dropped back to 8th.
There was tight racing throughout the fleet until the end with Andrew Clark and Teddy (3461), racing neck and neck with Richard and Ben (3813) right to the line.
Race 2 started in more breezy conditions, with a change in wind direction and a newly laid set of marks for our second, triangle sausage course of the day.
Nick and Lynn were first around the windward mark again with Brian and grandson Jago (4021) in hot pursuit, followed by Graham and Helen (4130). Hannah and Indigo tried to tack underneath Andrew and Hannah (4123) at the top mark and were unsuccessful in completing their tack without impeding them and went off to do their turns watching them as well as Simon and Ali (4050), and Mark and Kieran (4010) go through, dropping them down to seventh.
With nobody able to catch them, Nick and Lynn finished the first day with two bullets and a mixed bag of results for everyone else. Simon and Ali and Andrew and Hannah were tussling throughout the course and around the marks.
Hannah and Indigo had taken a different route up the beat for the last lap to see if they could improve on their position, which lead to jumping ahead of those two as they fought for position at the top mark. Indigo and Hannah were able to hold onto their improved position down the kite legs, but unable to improve further to catch Graham and Helen in third overall, just behind Brian and Jago.
Results: www.scyc.co.uk/sailwave-result/miracle-nationals-2026