Itchenor sailors go far for success... Bass bragging rights up for grabs

August was a month of championships for a number of Itchenor sailors '“ most of them held away from the confines of Chichester Harbour, writes Chris Blevins, rear commodore sailing at Itchenor Sailing Club.
Bass Cup action at Chichester YCBass Cup action at Chichester YC
Bass Cup action at Chichester YC

We were all watching from afar as Sophie Ainsworth and Ben Saxton competed against the best in the world at the Rio Olympics in the 49erFX and Nacra 17 classes respectively.

Both opened their campaigns strongly and finished well enough to be able to compete in the medal races which are restricted to the top ten crews.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Closer to home Cowes Week attracted our keel boat fleets. After only narrowly winning the Sunbeam class at Classics Week in July, Roger Wickens returned with imperious form to dominate with five wins out of the seven races.

Almost as impressive was the performance of the Migrant team in the Swallow class. Messrs Fisher, Thompson and Glennie won four of their races to come out on top.

However, the Itchenor star of Cowes Week was John Tremlett who won the Captain’s Cup in the XOD class for the fourth consecutive year. This is unprecedented.

There were highly-commendable results from a number of other Itchenor XODs that meant the club came out on top for the sixth year in a row.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A number of our International 14 crews took off to France for the world championships in Carnac. Thanks to a final couple of good results Archie Massey and Harvey Hillary moved up to third overall. Well done to Neale Jones and Ed Fitzgerald, and Katie Nurden and Nigel Ash who were fifth and sixth out of the nearly 80 entries.

Itchenor SC was honoured to host the Mirror national championships. More than 50 boats entered the event, supported by Strutt and Parker. We are very proud that the winners were Itchenor members, 13-year-old Bertie Fisher and his crew Felix Kent.

Despite the strong winds that plagued the weekend, we managed to get most of our races away at our club regatta and those hardy souls who took part returned to the club for a well-deserved traditional Itchenor tea.

Club racing continues to the end of October so we will be pleased to welcome anyone who would like to experience the friendly racing at Itchenor.

CHRIS BLEVINS

CHICHESTER YC

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Bass Cup – an annual dinghy contest between Chichester Yacht Club and Dell Quay Sailing Club – got under way with racing run by CYCs Adrian Rowe from the CYC committee boat Cyclone.

The contest comprises six races held across two separate days, with the final three races this Saturday.

Both Chichester YC and Dell Quay had similar entry numbers in the 21-boat fleet. Racing got under way in pretty breezy conditions.

Racing was in a single-handicap fleet. In race one the fastest time on the water was set by Andy Conway in his RS100, but the classic single-hander boats won on handicap with all the first four places going to CYC.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ian Payne was first going spectacularly fast in his Laser, with Mark Harper second (Solo), Charlie Porter third (Laser) and Lucy Boreham fourth (Europe).

The wind dropped a little for race two, when again the single-handers were at the front of the fleet.

Dell Quay got to the front, taking first and second place. First was David Maltby (Solo), second a DQ Laser, third Boreham and fourth Porter.

The third race saw CYC take the first six places – the top four being Andy Palmer-Felgate (Laser), Boreham, Andy Conway and Porter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At the end of day one the contest was led by Boreham with Maltby second and Payne third. The series is led by Chichester YC with 21 points to Dell Quay’s 41 ahead of this weekend’s races.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking sports news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

Share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

Related topics: