Page 23 - Yachter Spring/Summer 2022

RACING - THE PLEASURE OF PARTICIPATING
If you fancy getting more involved with our club activities, having fun on the water, and meeting other members, there are plenty of opportunities presented by our racing activities. In this article I’ll outline some of the many ways you can both participate and contribute.
The club has a proud history of involvement in yacht racing.When the Olympics came to the UK in 2012, we supplied and trained up a race management team for the occasion. When the J-Class classic America’s Cup super-yachts came to race in the Solent the same year they asked us to run their races.
We are one of the nine clubs who run Cowes Week, and in recent years we have fielded a full team to run the White Group Committee Boat Line in the event.
Instigated by Jan and Neil Cox, we started running an annual series of races for Double Handed boats over 40 years ago and we are still running these popular events today.
We have a total of over 50 races planned for 2022.This full programme of activities provides plenty of opportunity for you to
get involved, either racing your own boat, crewing for others, helping to run races or helping behind the scenes to organise our racing and maintain our boats and equipment.
Racing your own boat
If you have a keel boat less than about
50ft long then we will likely have some racing planned that suits you. Our racing is designed to cater for all levels of experience. If you are new to racing and aren’t confident about getting started, rest assured that our racing is suitable for you and we can give you advice to get you started. Most of our races are run as a series of events spread over
several weeks or months.You can enter a whole series or a single day. Race entry is free to members while non-members can enter for a fee.
To start the year we run our aptly
named Frostbite Series - two races in a
day round-the-cans in Southampton Water every other Sunday morning from mid- January to the end of March, for a total of
12 races.These races generally start in the middle of Southampton Water to make
them easily accessible to boats based in Southampton, Hythe and the Hamble River. We have classes for boats that have either IRC or Club handicaps. They are a great opportunity to tune up your boat and crew for the racing season to come. If you haven’t raced before you can fill in a simple online form to give details of your boat, and we will work out a starting Club handicap for you.
Next to get going is our Double Handed Series - 10 weekend races spread over the
period from April to October. If you have trouble getting enough crew or if you simply enjoy sailing short-handed this series offers both races in the Solent and passage races further afield - this year as far as Cherbourg and Weymouth.These ‘destination’ races also give you a chance to meet and socialise with the other competitors when you arrive.
In 2021, we started running races in
the Western Solent off Beaulieu. Catering primarily for boats based in the Beaulieu River, these were the brain child of Guy and Zoë Darby, who run the races from their own boat, Ripple of Kyle.
They are fun races on weekday evenings with an opportunity to meet up in Gins afterwards for a meal and to socialise. In
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