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Southern Championships & Bulwark Tophy 2025 - The wavy one!

Hayling Island SC May 24th-25th

Hayling Island Sailing Club welcomed 33 Flying Fifteen entries to the Southern Championship on 24th-25th May 2025 in conjunction with the historic Bulwark Trophy. From the home club, a strong turnout of HISC’s finest, with around half the fleet made up of visitors from Parkstone right up to Royal Windermere.

The event promised to be one of the best attended regattas of the year prior to the World Championships, as only large fleet sea based racing before the big event in August. And so it was, with a 20-25 knot west-south-westerly forecast all weekend.

Saturday’s racing was off to a boisterous start, with a steep chop and a few breakers through the channel over Chichester bar. Once out in the bay, the swell moderated somewhat, the Fifteens, sharing the venue with the Osprey and 505 open meetings on their own trapezoid course. The Fifteens were happy to race a challenging length windward-leeward course, punching into the swell upwind and white-knuckle rides down the run, and increasingly large short-fetch waves approaching the bottom end of the course.

Chris Waples and Simon Weatherill showed excellent upwind pace in these conditions in race 1 and powered out to the favoured right-hand side of the beat to lead narrowly at the windward mark closely pursued by Charles and Charlie Apthorp, Ian Pinnell and Ian Cadwallader and Greg Wells and David Tulloch.  Greg Wells and David Tulloch found some great waves down the first run to take the lead which they held to the finish with Ian Pinnell and Ian Cadwallader passing Waples and Weatherill on the second downwind run to take second, in third Waples and Weatherill.  

Attrition started to set in by race 2 both sailors and kit were taking a beating. Andy McKee and Rich Jones limped home with a snapped T-Terminal and a banana-shaped mast, some crews soldiered on feeling decidedly ropey, and others chose to head for shelter. First place was a comfortable win for Hamish MacKay and Andrew Lawson sailing upwind low and very fast to punch through the awkward chop, father and son Apthorps in second, with Waples and Weatherill again in third.  By now, the adverse current was strong at the windward mark and quite a few teams misjudged their starboard lay lines causing a bit of windward mark carnage on the first lap with many boats having to bail out and gybe round!

Image
Greg Wells and David Tulloch, winners of the 2025 event
While the wind direction was remarkably steady all day, the 25-27 knot gusts came back by mid-afternoon and by race 3, with bodies aching and some hairy gybes under their belts, for a couple more, enough was enough. Hamish MacKay and Andrew Lawson continued with the low and fast technique and repeated their success from the previous race, Jeremy Davy and Martin Huett pushed them hard though and took their best result of the weekend in second, the two Ian’s made up the podium.

An enjoyable meal and evening in the bar was well deserved with the 505 and Osprey crews; more than a few of the Fifteen teams retired earlier than usual, hoping they would be able to get out of bed in the morning.

Sunday dawned even windier and wavier, so the PRO wisely kept the fleet inside Chichester Harbour on a windward/leeward course. Only Race 4 was sailed before conditions became too strong to continue, after which racing was sensibly abandoned. The water was flatter, but the gusts were larger (up towards 30 knots).

Most entertainingly, Sunday brought the chance for the 505 and Ospreys to bear away at the windward mark, hoist the spinnaker, and point the boat straight toward the oncoming Flying Fifteen fleet (who started six minutes behind). Good seamanship across all the fleets kept boats safely apart, though the closing speeds in more restricted waterway would make many marine insurers wince.  The general thought was the right side of the first upwind leg would pay with flatter water, less current and a lift off the beach.  Therefore, Paul Hammett the excellent race officer set a port biased start line to encourage the fleet away from the CB.  Wells and Tulloch along with Russell Peters and Zeb Elliott started on starboard tack at the pin end and sailed for some time along the Stocker sand bank before tacking on the first shift.  This proved to be a winning tactic as both boats were 1 and 2 by some distance at the windward mark. Peters and Elliott took the lead on the 2nd beat but Wells and Tulloch regained their lead on the last gybe into the finish to win the race and the regatta. Russell Peters and Zeb Elliott were second with Andrew Jameson and Matt Alvarado scoring their best result of the weekend in third.

Trophies:
Championship Trophy – Greg Wells and David Tulloch
The Medway Fifteen Trophy – Greg Wells and David Tulloch
The Pitsford Salver – Hamish MacKay and Andrew Lawson
The Silver Fox – Hamish MacKay and Andrew Lawson
The Broxbourne Chiller – Greg Wells and David Tulloch
Marine Consultants International Half Hull – Kato Childs
The Rydon Trophy – Greg Wells and David Tulloch

Report: Charlie McKee/Greg Wells
Photos: To be confirmed

Final Results
Sailed: 4, Discards: 1, To count: 3, Entries: 33, Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank Sail No HelmName CrewName Club R1 R2 R3 R4     Total Nett
1st 4112 Greg Wells David Tulloch HISC 1.0 (5.0) 4.0 1.0     11.0 6.0
2nd 4089 Hamish Mackay Andrew Lawson HISC (7.0) 1.0 1.0 4.0     13.0 6.0
3rd 4142 Ian pinnell Ian Cadwalader HISC 2.0 6.0 3.0 (19.0)     30.0 11.0
4th 3760 Jeremy Davy Martin Huett Draycote Water SC 6.0 4.0 2.0 (9.0)     21.0 12.0
5th 4143 Charles Apthorp Charlie Apthorp HISC 5.0 2.0 (7.0) 5.0     19.0 12.0
6th 4061 Chris Waples Simon Weatherill HISC 3.0 3.0 10.0 (12.0)     28.0 16.0
7th 4107 Russell Peters Zeb Elliott HISC 9.0 (10.0) 6.0 2.0     27.0 17.0
8th 3904 Ben Cooper Richard Bundock Royal Thames (8.0) 7.0 5.0 6.0     26.0 18.0
9th 4082 Andrew Jameson Matt Alvarado WYC (34.0 DNC) 8.0 9.0 3.0     54.0 20.0
10th 4037 Neville Herbert Mark Fowler Lymington Town SC/
Tewkesbury CSC
14.0 9.0 8.0 (18.0)     49.0 31.0
11th 4030 Alastair Stevenson David Culpan HISC 10.0 11.0 (12.0) 10.0     43.0 31.0
12th 4046 Miles Odell Andrew Streeter HISC/NSC 12.0 14.0 (34.0 DNC) 8.0     68.0 34.0
13th 4132 Simon Childs Kato Childs HISC 11.0 12.0 (17.0) 11.0     51.0 34.0
14th 3884 Mark Nicholson Steve Culpitt Hayling Island SC 13.0 (24.0) 13.0 13.0     63.0 39.0
15th 4065 David Mckee Mal Hartland Dovestone SC (16.0) 15.0 16.0 14.0     61.0 45.0
16th 4126 James Yearsley Johnny Costard HISC 19.0 13.0 14.0 (34.0 DNC)     80.0 46.0
17th 4111 Mervyn Wright Ralph Singleton Parkstone YC (24.0) 17.0 11.0 21.0     73.0 49.0
18th 3994 Ian Nicholson Jez White HISC 17.0 16.0 18.0 (34.0 DNC)     85.0 51.0
19th 4069 Bill Chard Josh Preater Chew Valley SC 20.0 18.0 15.0 (34.0 DNC)     87.0 53.0
20th 3903 Gary Stuart John Wayling Northampton 18.0 19.0 (34.0 DNC) 16.0     87.0 53.0
21st 4130 Adrian Tattersall John Mathie Parkstone 21.0 (22.0) 20.0 15.0     78.0 56.0
22nd 4091 Jeremy Arnold Richard Hope RYA / Draycote Water 22.0 (25.0) 23.0 17.0     87.0 62.0
23rd 4097 Matthew Thompson Dave Chandler Tewkesbury 23.0 20.0 19.0 (34.0 DNC)     96.0 62.0
24th 4148 Simon Patterson Simon Thompson Draycote Water SC 26.0 21.0 22.0 (34.0 DNC)     103.0 69.0
25th 3918 Paul Busby Neil Barford NSC/HISC 15.0 (34.0 DNC) 21.0 34.0 DNC     104.0 70.0
26th 4005 Andy McKee Rich Jones Dovestone SC 4.0 (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC     106.0 72.0
27th 4086 Nigel Davenport Klaus Beyaert Draycote 28.0 23.0 (34.0 DNF) 22.0     107.0 73.0
28th 4133 James Fawcett Dave Dobrejvic HISC (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC 7.0     109.0 75.0
29th 3736 Peter Bannister Susan Bannister HISC 27.0 (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 20.0     115.0 81.0
30th 3912 Charlie McKee Adrian Simpson HISC 29.0 26.0 (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC     123.0 89.0
31st 4147 Tony Woods Keith Jamieson Royal Windermere 25.0 (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC     127.0 93.0
32nd 4135 Dave Lucas Harry Lucas GWSC (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC     136.0 102.0
32nd 3951 Chris White Tony Sanders NSC/HISC (34.0 DNC) 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC 34.0 DNC     136.0 102.0

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