BOB's Regatta
Published 12:24 on 6 Oct 2022
BOB's Regatta
Saturday 24th September saw the annual Bob's regatta return for our youth sailors. The day saw a gusty breeze from the north that definitely put on some challenging conditions for our sailors and their safety boats
Baby Bob's
Four of HRSC best youths turned out on a sunny Saturday morning to compete for the Baby Bob trophy. Aged between 6 and 11 years old and up to RYA level 2 standard, they competed in the Optimist class.
12 races, 1vs1 starting from the beach they had to reach out to the middle of Hamble River, tack round a buoy and return to the beach. The first one to reach the hands of one of the 4 coaches won the flight.
The first race was against Amelie (8) and Matthew (6) with Luke crewing. Amélie took a early lead and sailed very cleanly to the win.
Next flight was between Leo (11) and James (7), James had a early lead but Leo snuck past with a more direct coarse and took his first win.
Round 4 was against Amélie and James. It was head-to-head all the way round the course. Unfortunately for Amélie she hit the bottom and James got past in the last second for his first win.
Round 9 saw Matthew against Leo. Leo unfortunately dropped his centre board down too early and got stuck on the beach leaving Matthew to sneak off for a easy win.
After 12 races the results were:
Amélie 5 points
Leo 3 points
James 2 points
Matthew 1 point
Everyone came in smiling and James even went back out for more practise. Afterwards we all headed back to the club for burgers and chips and collected their chocolate trophies which didn't last long.
A big thank you to the race team and safety team who made this happen.
Cousin Bob's
This season's Cousin Bob's regatta which is for children with RYA level three and above took place on Saturday 24th September this year.
The race was well attended by children with broad range of racing experience turning out a fleet of six Teras and five Oppies this made for a busy start line.
Cousin Bob's was a four race series of two laps each giving the Kids one discard, the Race Officer was Coriolan Rousselle ably assisted by Carla Foltys as race timer and results scribe. Racing took place on the Warsash side of the river with a mainly Northerly wind which at times provided some challenging gusts but gave a reasonably consistent breeze for the racing.
The first race got away cleanly with no-one OCS. Henry Pashley, notable for his effective prowling up and down the start line, was first over the line. There was a tight fleet up the first beat but by half way down the first run Henry and Freddie Dencher had opened up a convincing lead which they retained until the finish with Harvey Marchbank coming third making it a 1-2-3 for the Oppies.
Race two had a very similar look to race one with Harvey first, Henry second and third place going to Oscar Hillman also on an Oppie.
During the sequence for race three the wind speed increased resulting in more challenging conditions for the kids. The start wasn't as clean and a couple of boats were OCS and had to re-cross the line with one boat unable to continue due to a Main Sheet failure.
The remaining fleet were more split this time with Harvey and Freddie on their Oppies coming first and second with a first Tera podium of the series for James Hankins. The battle for the top three places was closely fought with the boys finishing within a second of each other. Notably this trend continued further down the fleet with Martha Hart and Eva Foltys swapping places several times on the run up to the line with Martha prevailing 1.5 seconds ahead of Eva.
Between races three and four the breeze continued to be gusty and shifty which kept the crews on the safety boats busy as several competitors capsized, some more than once which resulted in a delay for the fourth start with three of the children retiring and returning to the beach.
The fourth race got off to a slightly more scrappy start with a couple of collisions and near misses but all of the remaining boats made it over the line. Once again Freddie and Harvey opened up a convincing lead resulting in first and second but the main excitement was in the middle of the fleet where Alixe-Constance Rousselle, Martha, Oscar and Henry were in a tight group and swapped places several times making for a spectacle for the crew of the committee boat to watch as they all crossed the line in a fairly tight group with Alixe securing her first podium place.
A big well done to all the Cousin Bob sailors for a great set of races, and thank you to the committee boat and safety boats supporting the fleet.
Uncle Bob's
Saturday 24th September saw a fine day, with sunshine and a moderate breeze, ideal sailing conditions, for the annual Uncle Bob's Regatta, named in honour of 'Uncle' Bob Williams, one of the founders of the club.
Uncle Bob's is a 4 race series with each sailor able to discard their worst result. Race officer Samuel Spencer was ably assisted by James, Mike and Caroline. Initially setting a tight course to ensure the sailors were able to demonstrate their starting ability and rules knowledge that they have been working on over the summer.
Sixteen of our older cadets, sailing Toppers, Fusions and Lasers, racing on a triangular course at Cat Head. The racing was close, with each of the four races seeing a different winner.
Race 1 was won by Elin Jones (Laser 4.7), after a fantastic start she proceeded to sail away from the fleet. Allowing the morning excitement to get the better of a lot of the sailors with several close calls around the 1st windward mark.
Elin Jones (Laser 4.7) winning on the water then came equal with Sofia Dewsbury (Topper 5.3) in race 2 once the PY was applied, the morning nerves had settled as all racers were demonstrating great starting techniques to hit the line at speed and try to sail away from their competitors.
Finally in the closest and most entertaining race final race, Phileas Rousselle (Topper 4.2) came out on top. In the final race the top 9 all finished within 1 minute, keeping the committee boat on their toes! With several interesting decisions regarding their boat positioning from the sailor, your race officer counted 7 boats within 5 meters of water approaching the leeward mark. Phileas was able to masterfully dodge the traffic to emerge victorious.
The regatta result reflected the close racing, with just 3 points separating the top 6 sailors. Zac Bromilow led the Fusion fleet finishing 8th overall. Whilst Elin Jones won the battle of the Lasers coming 4th Place overall. Ever consistent Kristian Foltys (Topper 4.2) secured 3rd place. With Sofia Dewsbury placing 2nd Overall and 1st female finisher. Phileas Rousselle emerged as the overall winner of the Uncle Bob's trophy defending the title he had claimed for the first time 12 months earlier, will this be the beginning of a dynasty or will the other sailors be able to continue improving to take the title in 2023?
Most importantly there were smiles all round as the cadets came off the water to enjoy burgers and chips in the club house!
Last updated 13:16 on 16 April 2024
