Bob's Regatta 2023 Race Report

Bob's Regatta 2023 Race Report

Saturday 30^th September saw the annual Bob's regatta return for our youth sailors. As boats where rigged the breeze began to fill, making for an exciting day of racing for all out sailors.

Baby Bob's

Eight of HRSC best youths turned out on a sunny Saturday morning to compete for the Baby Bob trophy. Aged between 5 and 9 years old and up to RYA level 2 standard, they competed in the Optimist class.

28 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 2 coaches won the flight.

With 28 race's planned there was lots of sailing to happen with some sailors new to the Peanuts and JC's group taking the racing in their stride and giving it their all.

The first race was against Alex and Woody. Alex took an early lead around the mark to take the win.
Next flight was between Luke With Mathew crewing as support for our youngest competitor and Oliver sailing for the first time. It was a close race but Luke took the win just getting to the beach first. Up next was Matthew and James both regular JC attendees making for some close competition, It was head-to-head all the way round the course, but James managed to take the win! Round 4 saw Ethan and George both eager to take to the water, George was first to the mark and lead the way for his first win.

After 28 races the results were:

James 1^st

Matthew 2^nd

Woody 3^rd

George 4^th

Alex 5^th

Oliver 6^th

Ethan 7^th

Luke 8^th

Well done to all our sailors for some wonderful sailing and racing! Everyone came in smiling and hungry for their hotdogs and chips!
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 in pink ferry bay with a fleet of RS Tera's. Cousin Bob's was a four-race series of two laps each giving the Kids one discard, the Race Officer was Shaun Murphy ably assisted by Paul Baverey.

A southerly wind 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. Farryn Baverey was first over the line with an excellent start, with Oscar Hillman close behind and soon leading the way around the courses, and took the first win of the day Farryn was close behind taking 2nd and Stanley Seymour took 3rd.

Race 2 saw the sailors have a close start with a clean line, with Oscar taking the lead and Thomas Murphy close behind and took the lead going round the first mark closely followed by Farryn, then Stanley then Amelie Motherwell. On the down wind leg Oscar took the lead and mange to hold Thomas off as he finished first.

By Race 3 the sailors where becoming more confidant in their starting sequence and Thomas was first over the line and this time managed to hold on to first place the whole way around the course taking his 1st win of the day. Oscar was close behind in 2nd and Farryn had another solid 3rd place.

Race 4 was all to play for with Oscar having 2 wins and Thomas having 1. The sailors once again went in to a starting procedure. Racing was close all the way round the course with the top 3 sailors close by each other right to the finish line. It was Thomas that took the win of the race and the overall cousin bob's trophy.

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.

Full results can be found https://halsail-1e484.kxcdn.com/Result/Public/75912

Uncle Bob's

Saturday 30th 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 Cori Rousselle & Evie Rogers. A short windward-leeward course was set at Cat-Head in order for the kids to demonstrate the core racing skills they have been working on all year. Thirteen of our older cadets, sailing Toppers, Fusions and Lasers participated in this years uncle Bob's. The racing was close, with several close calls and plenty of opportunities to show how confident the sailors knew their rules.

Race 1 was won by Kristian Foltys (Topper 4.2), after a fantastic start he 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. Alixe-Constance Rousselle (Topper 4.2)was out to show the boys a lesson as she led into the first lee-ward mark before not giving enough space on the boy and getting tangled up. Martha Hart (Topper 4.2) & Patrick Hoolahan (Topper 4.2) continued their excellent sailing progression this year coming a close 3rd & 4th to Phileas Rousselle (Topper 4.2) in 2nd place.

Race 2 saw Elin Jones (ILCA4) get of the start line and leave the rest of the fleet behind, only race winner Kristian was able to keep her within his sights. Zac Bromilow and Oscar Bromilow (both sailing fusions) got their elbows out to squeeze past Phileas on the water and get right up in the action. The racers were joined by the Warsash club committee boat and a range of RS400s, Finns, Lasers and other fast boats for this race. The added excitement led to our sailors showing how to keep calm under pressure, with Margot LePen dodging a rampaging RS400, Whilst Alba McDougall (Topper 4.2) ,Eleanor Robinson (Topper 5.3) & Eva Foltys (Topper 4.2) skillfully maneuvered their way around the cluster of traffic.

During race 3, Kristian got caught up with the Bromilow brothers fusions and lost time to race winner Phileas Rousselle, setting up a winner takes all final race between Kirstian & Phileas. Other notable actions, were Elin's rudder becoming stuck under the traveller leading to her trying out for SwanLake with some spectacular pirouettes. Henry Connelly (Topper 4.2) & Alba were engaged in an enthralling drag race to the finish line with both sailors intent on pipping the other. Henry managed to pick up a mini gust at the perfect moment to pip Alba by a bow to the finish line.

In the pre-start to race 4, Kristian and Phileas knew that they were engaged in a winner takes all battle. Kristian had skillfully positioned Phileas above himself and was shutting the door on the committee boat until a patient Phileas managed to pick the perfect moment to accelerate down and just get in front of Kristian. The race was looking to hot until Patrick & Martha engaged in a very similar battle but oblivious to the action below them bore away straight into the racing line of Kristan. Kristan managed to untangle himself from the melee to be within 5 seconds of Phileas at the windward mark but was unable to overturn the deficit with Phileas coming home in first with Kristan behind in 2nd.

Elin Jones showed her consistency with for a 3rd overall finish. With line honours in the final 3 races.

Phileas is now a 3-time Uncle bob's champion! However, with only countback separating Phileas and Kristan and the remaining club sailors pushing all the way, it is clear that the quality of sailing at Hamble River Sailing Club has never been higher. With several of our youth sailors now travelling with the Topper class association it will be harder than ever for Phileas to try and become a 4-time champion next year.

Full Results can be found https://halsail-1e484.kxcdn.com/Result/Public/60088

Adults Optimist race

The final race of the day was what some sailors may have classed as the most important race of the day where sailors could see there group leaders battle it out to be called optimist intergalactic champion!

With club optimists rigged and adults grudgingly squeezing themselves into optimists the race was on, carefully overseen by race officer Elin Jones and her many (all female) race assistants, whilst onlookers could watch from the foreshore.

To win the race the adults had a quick 3 minute start an upwind leg, downwind and then back through the startline to complete the race.

Race 1 saw a strong start with the adults lined up on the line but as the Go signal went, Cori Roussell could be seen lacking a mainsheet and pulling himself along the side of competitor Sam Spencer. With uproar and shouts of protests from the shore Cori had no other option but to carry out his penalty turns taking him from first to the back of the fleet. Sam on the other hand was able to swiftly make his way to the front of the fleet by the first mark, soon followed by Shaun Murphy and Paul Braverey. Close behind them was Alice Ryan who on the downwind leg was able to squeeze herself into second place. As room around the mark was tight with Shaun close behind her, Alice grazed the mark, requiring her to carry out her penalty turns, these where done with eaze and she remained in 2nd place. As sailors made there way to the finish line it was Eliot motherwell who finished in 3rd.

Race 2 was soon started but with most sailors over the line protests could be heard coming from both on the water and the spectators onshore. David McDougall kept to his guns on a port hand flyer causing the likes of Rob Hillman and Paul to move out his way. It was only Alice who called her starboard rights forcing David to move.

Sam was once again miles ahead rounding the first mark with all competitors following him except for Mike Robinson who took a line close to shore, this led to his downfall as the wind near the shore was lighter and left him towards the back of the fleet as onlookers shouted there advice at him.

Mark rounding this time was cleaner from the adults however by this point Sam had already made his way round the leeward mark and was on his way to a 2nd win.

As the rest of the fleet rounded the bottom mark it was Eliot who kept his lead in second place, as Alice kept hold of 3rd place (despite the heckling from shore), and Tom sneaked in to a 4th place and David in 5th.

Final awards presented on the day where:

1st - Sam Spencer

2nd - Alice Ryan

3rd - Tom Hart (although on further inspection post racing Eliot motherwell may have come 3rd with Tom Hart in 4th)

Participation - David McDougall

Effort - Paul Baverey

Seamanship - Shaun Murphy

Lots of fun had by sailors and parents watching from the shore, less fun and some very sore knees had from the adult sailing, well done to all involved and to Elin for being a great RO.