While the weather for the start of the Regatta for last Saturday was ideal for most of the events, it was not so good for the sailing!, writes John Keast.

However, it did provide a great opportunity to integrate the beginners group into the racing scene.

In total there were 18 boats on the water for the sailing, half of these boats were being sailed by beginners, both youngsters and adults.

The beginners’ training has been very much helped by support from the Sid Vale Association and the Keith Owen Fund, vice-commodore Alistair Watson and his team have been able to implement a very effective training programme.

The flat sea conditions made launching easy, but the very light winds makes sailing challenging and is more difficult than sailing in a moderate breeze, however all the beginners displayed good skills to complete a shortened race.

The first junior to finish from the beginners group was Sofia Abrahams. Also, Louisa Brown and Ruby Hollier did very well in the RS Feva as the first novice pair. The first adult beginner was Tim Vause, with Lisa Craig and Nigel brown the first novice adult pair sailing the RS vision.

The remaining nine boats with experienced crews sailing a slightly longer course, but conditions proved frustrating with the wind completely disappearing for some of the time resulting in boats drifting backwards, only five boats persevered and finished, which meant that it left the regatta series wide open as there were two further races on the Sunday.

Bob Vine started Sunday in a strong position having finished as the first Laser on Saturday. Conditions couldn’t have been more different on Sunday with lots of wind and drizzle. Bob showed that he is an accomplished all rounder and won the Laser fleet prize. Visitors Adrian Morgan and Steve Board sailing a Laser 2000 won the handicap racing on both days to win overall, they sailed particularly well on the Saturday to finish ahead of James Salter and Dave Johnson sailing their International 14. On Sunday the catamaran, which at first sight looked like it should have been in the raft race on Saturday flew around the course, being sailed by Joe Snowdon and Steve Hackett former members of the club who now both work away, although the hurricane was the fasted boat on the water, once the handicapping adjustment had been made it do not do quite so well. With many enjoying the regatta scene on Saturday evening, James Salter and David Johnson deciding that the combination of hangover and strong wind would make too difficult to sail their high performance International 14 and ventured out in their Scorpion on Sunday.

They won both races on Sunday in impressive style, particularly in the final race arriving late at the start they then worked their way through the fleet to finish first and take the Scorpio prize. Miles Hapgood sailing with Steve Smith were having a good racing battle against Nick Jennings and Scott Tobin until Nick and Scott capsized who managed to turn their boat completely upside down in shallow waters and were fortunate not to have snapped their mast