Hornet National Championship at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Day 3

Rain, rain, go away

Having fitted 3 races into day 2 with the anticipation of biblical weather, day 3 dawned for the Hornet fleet with a surprise force 3 and a gentle sigh of relief that there might be less aches and groans in the dinghy park later.

However another day of breeze, shifts, waves and more importantly enough rain to sink the English Riviera into Torbay was yet to come!

The fleet headed out to the race course with a building breeze and the sequence commenced. Thankfully, as the chairman took a boom to the head, a protest was avoided by most of the fleet deciding they deserved a head start and were halfway up the first beat when the gun went.

Race 6 began with a clear second attempt and the fleet were off. Having had several goes at guessing the shifts in Torbay over the last few days, boats went left and right, some very far right and a handful to the far left which turned out to be right. With a big lift up the left hand side of the course 2165 with multiple time champions Dick Garry & Sam Woolner, finally joined the front end of the fleet party after an unusual performance for the first 2 days and rounded first. They were followed by Nathan Bachelor & Sam Pascoe in 2168 and Kevin Francis & Jonathan Osgood sailing the borrowed 2190 in hot pursuit.

The inevitable happened on the 2 sail reach to mark 2 and 2168 showing their dominance and a level of skill and elegance comparable to Torvill and Dean in their prime, reached high and took the lead before popping the kite ahead of 2165 and 2190 to head down the run. Unfortunately for 2190 they headed down the mine as well as the run and took an early bath. This allowed father and son Gareth and Will to assume third place and chase the leading 2. These 3 retained their positions until the last run, where the gap was closed by 2109 and 2163. 2168 was well clear ahead and maintained their comfortable lead to the finish, but McNamara & Chatterton rounded behind 2176 and rolled over the top of the Russell boys as if the ages were reversed......

Not to be put out, Terry Curtis and Gavin Pulloin in 2163 put on their big boy pants and flew their kite between the leeward mark and the final mark before the finish.

Throwing off a wall of spray and pushing the boundaries of the Hornet's hull speed, they powered through the lee of 2109 and 2176 to push into third and fight for second place with 2165, although the spinnaker dropping process allowed 2165 to maintain their second place, 2163 third, 2109 fourth and 2176 fifth.

The penultimate race for the championship was started in a tropical monsoon without the heat. The rain came in from the right and so did the breeze, although again going left paid with the shifts and 2168 resumed their normal pole position at the windward mark, closely followed by 2165 and putting in a Herculean (on the crews part) effort in big breeze was Duncan West crewed by his 14 year old son Will.

The hoist and the run took its toll and the experience in big breeze for McNamara and Curtis pushed through along with Skudder/Hills in 2160 to begin the chase down on 2165.

The big boy pants, however, were a one time use and Curtis narrowly avoided a capsize trying to hoist the kite on the first reach. The next 2 laps involved places changes, more place changes, shifts and both artistic and sketchy downwind performances. Up the final beat, McNamara, Skudder and Curtis took different shifts to Garry and closed the gap. With Nathan & Sam in 2168 away, taking their first Hornet Championship with a race to spare and a perfect score sheet, McNamara pulled through into second, Curtis into third and Garry managed to hold off a final tussle from Skudder to take 4th and 5th.

A huge congratulations to Nathan Bachelor and Sam Pascoe for their masterclass in windy weather sailing and taking the 2025 Hornet National Championship title!

Special mentions for the day are as follows:

• Simon White sailing 2101 for winning his Knot tying Scouts Badge

• Will West for showing the big boys how to trapeze upwind

• Tom Guy for taking home the newly appointed mainsheet jammer trophy after removing it from his own boat to donate during today's racing

• Our honourable(ish) chairman for winning the new Magnet Trophy by taking the third boom to the head, none of which belonged to his boat (there's still tomorrow to go so it could be four)

• Uncle Tim Coombe for taking his annual swim in the first race

As for the most spectacular capsize, half the fleet are sharing that one!

First, second and third are decided! For the rest of us, there's potential place changes still to come in tomorrow's final race!

Thanks to Sponsors Exe Sails & Robline UK for the supplied post racing beers!