This years SOMR was once again hosted by Hastings Yacht Club. Whilst the fleet was smaller than hoped, some of the flamboyant personalities made it feel much larger..... and non more so than Mark Stafford, respectfully known as "Shreik", whose huge presence on the dance floor made the lead singer swoon....but more of that later...
This year we were sponsored by e-marineworld (does their logo remind you of pacman?)... Tim and Rob provided some nice new trophies and then went on to win most of them! I put it down to their new ace crew of "big" Tony Holt ably assisted (possibly controlled) by Gale Perry. They took Line honours in all four Races thus winning the inaugural Greyhound Trophy.
The regatta was held in light and fluky winds with the exception of the first race which was champagne sailing in near perfect reaching conditions along the top of Westernport. For the rest of the regatta your anchor was a strategic weapon to stop the tide taking one backwards in the frequent windless zones and those who used it wisely made good gains....sadly, the crew of Shuttle did not catch on and they were noted overtaking many boats going backwards on several occasions.... In spite of the conditions, all races were hotly contested with the top boats separated by no more than a minute or 2.
Shaun Fishley on Frassld continues to improve and we expect him to knock Skips off their top spot soon. He was 2nd overall on OMR. George Bulka had some exciting moments on Redshift and took out the PHC trophy. Probably not his best regatta and I put it down to him being distracted by his new baby Catamaran. You can never write off Leon and Rainbow Connection with a handicap to die for.... he should have won it all in the light conditions but found a few too many holes and ended up 3rd in both PHC and OMR. Jeff on Chilli had a ripper last race and was leading the pack until we realised he had missed out a mark.. this was easy to do in the windless conditions..Al on Mustang Sally was in cruising mode and training up a new crew.. fortunately for the rest of us they had not learnt to use the screacher so Al was down the field this time. That leaves Shreik on With Teeth....somehow, in the last race, he managed to not see a huge Channel Mark which was the first turning mark, and managed to wedge his tri onto it... made a lovely bell like sound and took him 5 minutes to free himself... for his efforts he won the Pigs Might Fly Trophy and the Zinta Trophy for the best boat breakage..Finally, the start boat... they did a great job as usual, but turned up with a start mark 18inches high that one could barely see. Fortunately, in the 3rd race it sunk, never to be retrieved... the gods were on our side that day....
The presentation Dinner on the Monday night was well catered and well supported by sailors and members of HYC. We had the same live band as in previous years and the lead singer certainly remembered Shreik for his on floor activities.
Many thanks to the HYC team lead by Josie, Ian Anderson as Race Officer and all competitors. I think running it on Cup weekend was probably not the wisest decision in hindsight, but a good time was had by all...
