Hayling Island Sailing Club welcomed 33 Flying Fifteen entries to the Southern Championship on 24^th-25^th 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!

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 2^nd 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

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