Twenty seven boats ventured out onto the water Boxing Day morning to take part in Weymouth Sailing clubs annual festive sailing event.
National squibs, Dinghy's (new for this year) and Keelboats enjoyed unseasonally warm, if a little overcast weather.
The wind gods chose to be pedantic blowing a good 5/6 from the south west out in the bay at the start, but as the race progressed and the fleets started to tack up the River Wey against the ebbing spring tide, the breeze began to drop and some boats had to retire as they were sailing backwards faster than they were moving forward.
Rumrunner who hit Condor Vittesse last year wisely kept well clear of the fast cat this time around, nevertheless, in doing so, managed to get stuck on a mud bank on the opposite side of the river below the Nothe Fort cafe.
As is customary, the commodore is race officer for the day and Mark Bugler did not disappoint, setting a course that kept even the fastest keelboats out on the water for over two hours, giving punters the chance to enjoy one last blast around the bay before general lift outs.
The keelboats needed two starts after a general recall, as is always, everybody else was over except the story teller!
Second time around only Wildfire was OCS after a helpful call up from Scoline, this ladies and gentlemen was not going to be a gentle wobble around the bay, the water was positively boiling with testosterone.
Starting adjacent to the moored super yacht Tattoosh, boats beat to D mark which enabled spectators the chance to view the boats at close quarters, a port rounding saw kites deployed for a two mile and one half mile downwind blast to Bowleaze via a gibe at J, before beating back to O. A deep spinnaker run followed to J passing Tattoosh and the chance to exchange banter with the crew. A final beat back to O before a run to the middle of the bay thence uphill to finish outside of the WSC club house.
First in the Squibs was Dave McCune on Inky Finger, first in the dinghy's was Megan and Sam Pascoe on the appropriately named Leader whilst in the large fleet of keelboats, one of the largest turnouts on record was Joel Wood on Excaliber, The Middleton-Stewarts on Crazeology were second and the first WSC boat home..
Thanks must go to Euan McNair who after the failure of Viking II has stepped in with his own gentleman's motor launch to allow convivial race officership to carry on through the winter series and Boxing Day races.
It must also be noted the work that Kevin Sear does to ensure the finish cannons are maintained which add to the whole atmosphere of the day, his work is not just a case of polishing brass!
Submitted on 28th December 2011