Day 2

The East Wind Doth Blow

David Harding
Provisional results on www.pooleweek.org
Photos on www.SailingScenes.com

For a while on Monday morning, it looked as though any racing would be unlikely on Day 2 of Poole Week. Eurus (the god of the east wind) was letting rip. At times between 11am and 1pm, Parkstone Yacht Club’s platform was recording an average of over 20 knots and gusts into the 30s. 

Some of the forecast models showed the wind starting to ease from early afternoon, but a fair few competitors decided that it wasn’t for them and took the decision not to race. Some hung around, hoping that AP over A would be displayed so the decision would be made for them. Others used the time to tweak, refine and fine-tune systems on their boats. One or two even started to rig, having seen the wind beginning to edge downwards and believing that racing would go ahead. The optimists also pointed out that the tide was due to start flooding at 15:00, so the water would become flatter in the wind-with-tide conditions.

Just before 15:00 – nearly an hour after the originally scheduled time for the first starts – the decision was made: it was on. The XODs and Flying Fifteens headed up to the Top Triangle – without the Wayfarers or Redwings, which had decided not to race – while the fast and slow handicap fleets, multihulls and ILCAs made their way to the platform. The absentees here were the Dolphins and RS200s.

As it turned out, those who went afloat had a great afternoon’s racing. The wind started in the mid-to-high teens, gusting into the low 20s, before progressively easing during the afternoon to a thoroughly enjoyable 15 to 20 knots.

Because of the late start, only one race was run for all the fleets, but that was enough to see a good number of changes on the leaderboards. 

Having had a couple of mediocre results by his standards on Sunday (a 2nd and a 3rd), John Tremlett in XOD 91 won the race by a convincing margin while the series leader, Roger Yeoman (also from Itchenor) scored a 4th to add to his two 1sts from Monday. That leaves both boats on six points, with Willie McNeill moving up to 3rd.

It was back to ‘business as usual’ in the Flying Fifteens as well. Richard Whitworth was recorded as 2nd when he crossed the line in Sunday’s first race, but had retired having inadvertently missed a passing mark. An emphatic win on Monday, added to his win in Sunday’s second race, pulled him back to 5th overall. Phil Cotton and Martin Cowell hold the lead by a seven-point margin at close of play on Monday with an impressively consistent 2, 4, 3 scoreline.

Among the Platform starters, the fast handicap fleet was down to just five boats – three RS400s, a Merlin Rocket and the Contender of Nathan McGrory, who sailed an excellent race to take the win and move up to 3rd overall.

Also moving up, in the slow handicap fleet this time, was young Rosie Keats. Having been the hugely popular winner of Poole Week’s Boat Of The Week trophy in 2025, Rosie has switched from her Topper to an ILCA 4 (Laser 4.7 to most of us). She seems to be getting to grips with it frighteningly fast, winning Monday's race by 31 seconds from Neil Davies, who keeps the overall lead in his Mirror.

The ILCA 7s and 6s, meanwhile (read Laser Full Rigs and Radials) saw a proportionally higher turnout on the start line than most other fleets, showing that they don’t mind a bit of breeze. The battle of the day was between Parkstone two fast masters in the 7s, Chris Walley and Alan Davis, the former taking the win by a few boat-lengths.

The race officers’ decision to run Monday’s racing was undoubtedly the right one, and their timing was spot on. All the fleets that went out had an excellent race in challenging but perfectly manageable conditions, and still got back to the club for tea and cake at the normal time. It’s easy to be wise after the event, but those who stayed ashore missed a cracking afternoon on the water.