|
Chichester Week - 20 boat classes with just under 400 entries. International sailors and UK sailors alongside famous names such as Steve Cockerel.
12 youth sailors and 16 adults sailors and ground support crew, made the journey to Hayling Island for the 49th annual Chichester Harbour Federation Week. The weather was expected to be strong winds Monday, Tuesday milder on Wednesday and Thursday picking up again on Friday.
Our Byte sailors who had been training for the nationals since October 2022 had a tricky choice for their sail option for the Byte National event. The first day our sailors had to launch with strong winds and choppy water learning to avoid the big cruisers steaming through the narrow Chichester channels. Missed gates were forgiven for the Byte National on Monday, but stricter rules were applied for the rest of the week. A few boats retired early but all sailors came back with new found sea sailing skills.
Second day the conditions were milder and nerves were less jangly the fleet was in good spirits and some good positions were earned. HISC were excellent hosts with plenty of evening specials events - lives bands, bbqs and quiz nights. Two of our sailors hosted a Bowmoor tent tapas evening with bring your own sweetcorn.
Wednesday, calmer conditions favoured the C1 rigs and lighter sailors. The racing was delayed until the sea breeze arrived. Mixing up the results and making the Bowmoor results table open to all. Each day the tides arrived roughly 30 mins later allowing hangovers to have a chance to disappear before sailors launched.
Thursday the winds picked up stronger than expected again sailors retired early and the results table was wide open for our Bowmoor sailors.
Friday everything was to play for, sensible sailors had an early night to allow their best chances in what promised to be the most challenging conditions of the week. Boats were made ready, sailors were dressed, courses check nerves were frayed, and the postponement flags raised……...
Event Photos here.
https://haylingisc.smugmug.com/Open-Events/2023/Chichester-Harbour-Federation-Race-Week
The RS Elite fleet were the only boats allowed out to play on Friday as up 45kts winds built up following the early morning rain. The 18 boat Elite fleet comprising 3 ex Olympic sailors, completed 6 races, 2 each day from Wed to Fri. The only visiting boat was E’Tu owned by Buzz and crewed by Charlie Sansom and John Banbrook finished 8th overall but with some great early results including three 5th places in races 1-3; proof again that ‘pond’ sailors can mix it with experienced local sea sailors.
Bowmoor had the largest visiting contingent so received special mention at the prize giving event on Friday. Tilly White was the only non local Tera sailor visiting the event and was warmly welcomed by the hosting sailors. Who gave her really good tips for local conditions for tide/chop. The supporters were happy to see so many Bowmoor people receiving awards as the whole Bowmoor team had worked really hard all week in challenging conditions.
In summary by one of our regular sailors, “It was jolly fun and the waves were great” Charlotte H
Date for next year: Week commencing 19th September 2024 |
