Poole Week 2026, In Association With Haven Knox-Johnston Day 1
by David Harding 23 Aug 22:32 PDT
23-28 August 2026
Poole Week 2026, In Association With Haven Knox-Johnston, Day 1 © David Harding /
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Sunshine and shifts
The UK's long hot summer has been wobbling a little over the past week or so, but it was back for the first day of Poole Week. The sun was shining, the temperatures returned to near-tropical (well, almost) and a south-easterly breeze of 10-12 knots was waiting to greet the 150-odd dinghies and keelboats as they headed out into the harbour.
As is the norm in Poole Week, the fleets were divided between those starting from Parkstone Yacht Club's platform (multihulls, fast and slow handicap, RS200s, ILCAs and Dolphins) and those using the PYC committee boat, Golden Dolphin, in the harbour's Top Triangle (Flying Fifteens, Wayfarers, Redwings and XODs). Racing areas will be switched around for most fleets during the week, but that was the programme for Sunday.
All the platform starters apart from the multihulls and slow handicap were sent on a course that took them on a beat down the harbour towards Sandbanks and then around the islands (Brownsea, Furzey and Green). Round-the-islands courses present challenges in any wind conditions, but easterlies can be particularly fickle and a few sailors found themselves finishing further down the results than might have been expected. Others sailed according to form, including Jon Heissig and Nicky Griffin, visitors from Llangorse, who finished at the top of the RS400 fleet last year. This year, the 400s are in the fast handicap fleet, racing against the Merlin Rockets among others, but Heissig and Griffin still led the way around the course to finish 30 seconds ahead of Steve and Ally Tyler's Merlin Rocket on corrected time.
Close finishes were very much the order of the day, with less than half a boat-length separating some of the Dolphins after nearly two hours' racing. The multihull fleet is smaller this year because Poole Week coincides with the Dart nationals in Falmouth, but the remaining home-club Darts were joined by the Hobie 16 of Mason Green and Ollie Duvalle. The Hobie shot off the line in the first race and stayed close enough to the Darts to win by just seven seconds.
Finishes were almost as tight in the slow handicap fleet, in which both races were won by father-and-daughter teams. Sophia O'Gorman in an RS Feva, crewed by Roger (more commonly seen at the sharp end of the ILCA 6 fleet), won the first race by 13 seconds from the Mirror sailed by Neil Davies and his daughter Hollie. The Mirror in turn won the second race by 24 seconds from the Hartley Zenith of Chris Swallow from Burton SC.
Up in the Top Triangle, meanwhile, the Flying Fifteens and Wayfarers in particular were doing battle with winds disturbed by Brownsea Island. As one competitor put it, 'you're almost better off being one of those sailors who doesn't understand playing the shifts and just goes all the way across on one tack.' Despite this, Richard Whitworth and Jack Bowen scored a 2,1 to lead the Fifteens. Ian Sargeant ended the day one point ahead of Jackie Dobson in the eight-strong Wayfarer fleet.
Winds were marginally less shifty for the XODs, whose course was further south and away from the Brownsea effect. Of the 28 XODs entered, four are from Itchenor and three of those occupy the top three places after Monday's two races. The local boats have some work to do, though Willie McNeill's 2nd in the second race keeps him in the hunt.
The forecast predicts rather more wind for Monday, so it will be interesting to see what the results look like after Day 2 of Poole Week 2026.