Sail Chat 16th August 2026

Sail Chat , Hampton SC - Sunday 16 August 2026

Race officers DO Roger Ward

ADO John Heath

T/keeper Tim Herbert-Smith

Caterer Jade Cosic

Another warm day , though partly cloudy and a bit cooler than recent days , much to the relief of those on

& off the water. A gentle but shifty breeze from a westerly direction was sufficient to enable racing to take

place. Very little current on the river which is now very low. Easy to see the bottom in many places

(including tiny fish & mussels) & water lily banks appearing .

Just 2 entries for the morning handicap race won by Phill Chambers in Clea . Second was Claude Wheeler

in the club Pico.

Happily more entries for the afternoon races with top marks to the Comet class with 5 starters. Wind

W/SW force 1-2 was enough to keep boats moving in typically fluky conditions . The race officer set

straightforward upstream/downstream courses with the Merlins going further in both directions with 4

laps of both courses to take account of the light conditions.

The Merlin start was postponed to allow Andrew Mills time to rig & launch his boat. So first off were the

Comets led over the line by James Warren in Petena IV crewed by Elodie who had the perfect start at the

pin end. However, he was soon overhauled by Phil Dalby in Cherry Pie who opened up a slight lead over

the chasing pack where racing was very close. 3 boats crosssed the line together in second place at the end

of the first lap !

The fleet then began to spread out a little with George Bell in Poppy in hot pursuit of

Cherry Pie. Phil Dalby held off George until the final leg of the last lap when George chose the Middlesex

side of the river where he found a bit more breeze than Phil on the Surrey side & managed to cross on

starboard . George just managed to keep in front of Phil on the last tack to the line, finishing half a boat

length ahead.

Petena IV was third , Dave Gettings in SwyNDon fourth & Alex Cosic in Hester fifth.

There was a combined start for GPs , Enterprise & Merlin. Sadly only one GP , John Hollands in Kraken

crewed by Sue Morley & one Enterprise, Phill Chambers in Clea. The Merlin fleet comprised Stuart

Jenkins & Nicola Scaddan in Cindy & Andrew Mills crewed by Claude in Shenandoah.

Although Andrew managed to launch in time to get to the start , he was well behind the line & never

managed to catch Stuart who won with plenty to spare.

Both the GP & Enterprise skippers failed to read the course correctly & assumed they were sailing the

Merlin course so went to mark D rather than E on the first beat. John in the GP fortuitously passed the

correct side of E on the run but Phill left E to starboard . The race officer magnaminously decided to jump

in the launch to tell the competitors ; this enabled John to head back to the correct leeward mark &

properly complete his first lap , but Phill decided he'd had enough & headed back to the Club.

Unfortunately he ran aground off Benn's Alley & was caught in the duck weed & algae which is rapidly

speading over that part of the river. John Heath went to the rescue to tow him off in Benn 1.

John Hollands & Sue managed to complete their race without further mishap.

Afterwards , competitors & others enjoyed a delicious tea prepared by Jade who had sensibly asked who

was coming on Whats App to get an idea of numbers to avoid over catering. Everyone agreed that the

cheesecake & blueberry/apricot cake were equally delicious. The bar did good business to the extent that

the beer in the barrel was finished , but have no fear for next week another barrel is ready to go on tap !

Tim Herbert-Smith

Last updated 5:21pm on 18 August 2026