Easter Racing in conjunction with Musto ISORA at Pwllheli Sailing Club
by Vicky Cox 2 Apr 12:59 UTC
Glorious sunshine - Pwllheli Easter Racing © Karen Cartwright
Glorious sunshine welcomed the fleet at the start line for the first coastal race out of Pwllheli on Sunday run in conjunction with Musto ISORA.
With staggered starts, Mark Thompson's J97 Jac y Do in class 2 was already at the first mark by the time classes 0 and 1 started.
Class 1 boats Excession and Wild Haggis got off to great starts, lead by Brian Dixon's Gelert in class zero. Andrew&Sam Hall's J125 Jackknife found great speed to quickly catch them up, all heading inshore.
Nigel Ingram's Wild haggis then tacked out to join a group of Mojito, Panache, Finally and Paul Sutton's Lightening, further out. The offshore route seemed to pay off with Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox's J122 Mojito, first round the mark at Pen-ychain.
From there the fleet headed south to the Causeway cardinal, a leg that saw the retirement of Wild Haggis. Wind strengths varied in the oscillating breeze seeing Mojito hoist the code zero, maintaining pace with Jackknife and pulling away from Gelert. But as the reach tightened and wind strengths increases Mojito had to reduce sail allowing Jackknife to capitalising on skills and experience on the reach. And as Jackknife pulled away with ease they managed to overtake class 2 Jac y do just before the mark.
The next leg to the St. Tudwall islands saw increasing winds with Jackknife struggling to maintain course with their kite up. Although the fleet had gained some ground on them as a result, once round the islands and on the fetch to the finish, they comfortably had first place in the bag. Mojito, overtaking Jac y Do on the leg to the islands, struggled to get a reef in as winds rose to 29kts heading back inshore and were unable to reduce the distance to Jackknife, settling for second overall and in class zero behind them. Gelert completed the class zero placings with a third overall and in class.
Class 1 was taken by Ashley Field's Sun-fast Panache followed by Robert Temple's Excession and Paul&Sam Kitteringham's Elan 350 Finally in 3rd place.
Easter racing continued on bank holiday Monday with the first of the round the cans races of the year in Pwllheli. By all accounts, crews and skippers were excited at the first weekend of club racing in 2024 so crew numbers were high. Wanting to encourage young sailors out on the water, Mojito ended up with a full boat of 16 crew, all enjoying the Easter sun and light wind introduction. They were all rewarded by two race wins in the process. Hopefully they'll all come back again to enjoy more racing.
Skippers are always looking for more crew so why not get in touch if you fancy having a go - email
All you need is enthusiasm for being on the water.
Look out for more information at www.PwllheliSailingClub.co.uk or isora.org