Brighton Marina Yacht Club won the Regatta Team Trophy as they hosted the annual Sussex Combined Clubs Regatta from Good Friday through to Sunday.
The Regatta is arranged for a competition between each of five classes. Four classes race four races with one discard and the fifth, the Sportsboat Class, have eight races with two discards.
Conditions were not brilliant but apart from Saturday afternoon, when racing was abandoned due to weather and visibility closing in, the variable wind on a reasonable sea produced some close racing.
Brighton Marina Yacht Club were successful in all classes.
In the Sportsboat Class, consistency of performance won the day for despite SDM helmed by Dave Thomas registering three firsts, he sailed out in third place overall.
Bob Fuller sailing Cork'd took the honours with 13 points just one ahead of Penguin Power and Geoff Gibbons. Robin Stevenson, sailing Cow's Rigg, the present holder of the Bull 7000 National Championship, had the misfortune to be struck on the head by the boom and did not complete all races.
The IRC I Class saw M. Gutteridge and D. Money sailing their J90, Moose on the Loose into the winner's spot three times in a row, to take the Class Trophy. Second was Sleeper and Jonti Layfield, and third was Red Eye sailed by Peter and Pip Tyler.
There was a tie for the IRC 2 Class between last year's Royal Escape winner Mark Jephcott, sailing Spirit of Defiance, and Don Monroe and Jerry Williamson's Maxirati, but on count back Mark had more wins so took the trophy. Third was John May sailing Vision.
Portsmouth Yardstick I saw David Greenhalgh also take the trophy with three straight wins. Sunshine Boys was second and Donnatello third. The Portsmouth Yardstick 2 Class was won by Freebird with Heavens Above second and Windy City third.
There were 24 entries for Chichester Yacht Club's Easter Regatta and a further five boats racing for the Dee-Dum Trophy for Solos. This trophy was won by Gordon Barclay quite closely pressed by Ron Green who had the bad luck to capsize when leading in one race leaving Barclay to take the series with two wins out of three races.
In the Handicap Fleet, two RS400s did well in the fairly light conditions. Colin Smith and George Yeoman won the first two races and then swapped over for George to have his first go at helming these boats - they were second to Peter and Manda Robson who had two seconds already. In third place were Martin and Cindy Orton in their Lark.
In much less pleasant conditions last Saturday there was only a small entry, all single handers, for two races in the First Breath Series. Derek Jackman stormed round in fine form to record two wins from Ian Payne.
There was a lot of good sailing at Hastings and St Leonards SC over Easter. Good Friday and Easter Monday saw four good races in the Easter Handicap Series and three fleets battled it out on Sunday in the next two races in the Spring Series. In the Lasers, Rex Patching was winner with a first and two seconds, Paul Sandford (Laser) was second and third Laura and John Wiseman. The Pollard brothers, Mark and Shaun, were fourth (Dart 16).
The three fleets in the Spring Series were faced with gusty conditions with the morning Laser race being won after a fierce battle by Dave Hall, with Don Bowles second and Roy Sandford third.
In the Dart 16 race the winners were the Wiseman sisters, Laura and Claire, ahead of Shaun and Mark Pollard. Greg Wilcox and Ben Farnborough in their Shearwater Cat won the Handicap event. In the afternoon race, Dave Hall took the honours again in front of Don Bowles and Roy Sandford in the Laser Fleet.
The Pollard brothers won the Dart 16 race with Barry Duck and Simon Terry second and Jim Cartlidge and Lee Potterton were third. Greg Wilcox and Ben Farnborough took the honours in the Handicap race.
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