Solo Nationals - Mounts Bay

Published 18:22 on 3 Sep 2021

98 Solos invaded Mounts Bay for the Rooster Solo National Championships from 22-27 August. A fantastic setting for the first real get together for the Solo fleet since the start of COVID.

Ian Bartlett and Vernon Perkins made the trip through the holiday traffic to represent our club. 6 days, 2 races a day, lay ahead on what our Scorpion friends, who sailed on the same water the previous week, had indicated were fierce seas and high winds. What had we let ourselves in for?

Whilst the week started well with both of us having to quickly learn how to do gate starts,and Ian was in the 40s and Vernon the 70s after the first day, thankfully the fabled seas and winds did not appear. During the course of the next couple of days the wind subsided, shifted to an easterly and got really fluky and our results declined just as quickly. The likes of Andy Davies, Tom Gillard and the other sailing superstars were of course fighting it out at the front, frustrating us mere mortals who could not get our boats to go anywhere near as quickly. They do have a slight advantage of racing there regularly in different National Classes. The conditions got to the state that the race officer could only run one race on Wednesday and not run races on the Thursday or Friday reducing the event to 8 races from the original 12. So, a good deal of time was spent kicking our heels and in the bar pondering the inevitable abandonments and getting upset with the race officiating and their ability to deal with shifty wind. And for anybody watching the result, don't talk about race 3 which will be talked about for many years, when all competitors were scored DNF. Note to self, watch for a shortened course flag otherwise carry-on sailing even if the leaders have stopped.

Fortunately Mounts Bay Sailing Club put on a fantastic event, the trollies were efficiently dealt with by the beach team even with the distance to the water, the members were especially welcoming and the trip to St Michael's mount where Lord and Lady St Aubyn opened their doors for us to tour and provided white wine to quench our thirst was definitely a high point, topped off by illuminating the mount on our last evening. A special place and hopefully we will be back sometime.

Finally, Andy Davies won the event and is the Solo National Champion 2021, Ian finished 72nd and Vernon 87th in a fleet where the racing is tight and one mistake costs 10 places. And only one person went home testing positive with COVID even though we were in Cornwall.

For the daily articles penned by the legendary Will Loy please click here often brutal but always a good read.

Next, the Inlands are on 18th September at Grafham for anybody willing to travel, see you there.

Vernon Perkins

Last updated 07:37 on 15 April 2024