Bembridge SC September Keelboat Racing
by Jockey Wilson & Mike Samuelson 20 Sep 21:54 PDT
19-20 September 2026
Bembridge SC September Keelboat Racing © Mike Samuelson
Saturday 19 September by Jockey Wilson
Blowing too hard on Saturday afternoon so N over A kept everyone safely ashore.
Sunday 20 September by Mike Samuelson
What a difference 24 hours makes; from a F7 on Saturday to a gentle F3 North/North Westerly on Sunday afternoon. Add in lots of sunshine and it was almost champagne conditions; all it needed was a couple more knots of breeze and it certainly would have been almost perfect. It was therefore a bit disappointing that there were only two Redwings and three (single-handed) One-Designs racing.
The two Redwings made an excellent start with Tim Montague in Musicus avoiding being shut out at the Committee Boat end of the line by some nifty manoeuvring.
Start of Redwing Race 1
It was clear soon after the start that whilst their boat speeds were similar, Harlequin was pointing considerably higher than Musicus which meant that unsurprisingly Xander rounded Derrick well ahead after a challenging first beat. Tim closed up a little on the run to Fitzwilliam but Xander's victory was never in doubt.
For a second race Tim handed over the helm to his 11 year old son Theo; sadly no video of what was a cracking good start. Again any advantage enjoyed by Musicus was negated by Harlequin pointing higher. After a slowish beat to Britten and a run to Garland with the breeze dropping off, the race was shortened to save another beat to the original finish at Nainby. Despite best efforts by Tim and Theo to rein in Xander it was to no avail, so Harlequin finished with two wins.
The three single handed One-Designs had a similar course to the Redwings but had Britten as their windward mark. The start was something of 'follow my leader' as they crossed the start line close to the Committee boat one behind the other. Richard Coleman in No 10 lead the way with Tad Ross in No 8 and John Suffield in No 4 close behind. All decided to tack soon after the start and head offshore in the hopes of benefiting from the flooding tide. There was little in it and the lead changed a number of times. Two boats (No 8 and No 10) had senior moments after rounding Fitzwilliam and started heading to the finish at Under Tyne thereby missing Tara, but after a gentle reminder to all boats of the course, they corrected and in the event their slight detour made little or no difference. Any of the three could have won; Richard having rounded Tara last crossed ahead of John and Tad in the final 50 metres, however then overstood slightly which let John and Tad enough room to cross the line seconds apart. Great stuff after after an hours race. All decided to forego a second race!
Next weekend (26 & 27 September) sees the last races of the season; mid-morning starts so fingers crossed for a favourable forecast to encourage a good turn out. The Illusions will then be back with their first Regatta (the Trafalgar Trophy) over the weekend of 10 & 11 October.