Nearly home; with Ryde Church Spire and No Man’s land fort just astern, Bembridge and St Catherine’s off the starboard bow, ‘Darter’ and “Gwaihir” race across Hayling Bay on a sparkling Solent Summer afternoon during the return from Cowes.
The National Swallow Class at Cowes Classics Week 2021
Twelve Swallows signed up for Cowes Classics this year and a spectacular week was had by all.
The pandemic meant that not all made it to the first race but as ever in the Swallow fleet, competition was fierce with the leading boats crossing the finish line within metres of each other in most races, and almost the whole fleet often finishing within a few minutes.
Skua, (sailed by Harry, Prue and Peter Roome), won the Vernon Trophy for the passage race over with a perfect rhumb line course. Others challenged, and the final corner at Norris caught out a few close followers.
When the week started in earnest it was Gwaihir (Mike Wigmore, Charles Hyatt, and Keith Bliss) that were first out of the blocks with back to back wins in races one and two. A nice left shift on the first beat of the race home saw Buccaneer, (Mike Bond, Simon Hamlyn, and Marcus Irwin-Brown) take the lead which they held to near the finish when Skua slipped through to take the win.
The extra race sailed that day was early warning of the Race team’s intentions, and racing on Tuesday was cancelled early due to the forecasted SW gale so allowing all to make plans for the resulting lay day. Alongside the show of classic cars and boats the attractions were trips to Osborne House, or some made a visit to our new Swallow builder David Heritage Racing Yachts.
Racing was back on Wednesday with three races rostered. The usual customers fought for the lead with Skua winning the best of the day. Buccaneer had a good day with three thirds. Ka Nyenga (Mike Robinson, Mike Lindsay Neil Sandberg, Andrew Christie, Ben Misselbrook, and William Mills) had a fourth in race one. Blue Tit (Paul Giles, Tom Clarence-Smith, and Chris Williams) led the final race home only to be caught, right on the finish line, by guess who? Yes it was that Skua again.
So, it was all to play for on Thursday. Gwaihir made an uncharacteristic mistake and was rolled on the finish line of race one and sailed the wrong course in race two. Oh dear! Solitude (Andrew Reid, Anthony Lunch and Christine Graves) had a fourth and Spreadeagle (George Miller, Johnny Miller, and Ginny Kidd) had their best day with a fourth in race one.
All week Swift (Andy Fitzgerald, David Sloper and a frequently changing array of glitterati in the front), was always in the frame, seldom out of the top three and Friday’s race was to be their big moment with a long awaited win.
The Royal London Yacht Club did a great job of making what they could of the Covid affected tea, daily prizegiving and evening functions that go with the superbly organised racing to make this such a special event. Be one of those to return in 2022 with the pandemic gone? to get us back up to our more characteristic fifteen boat fleet.
Full results are at https://www.cowesclassicsweek.
Swallow National Championships 31st July/1st August 2021
The Notice of Race is attached here https://mcusercontent.