CB Ultimate Hikers Solo Spring Championship incorporating the P+B Southern Championship

Day 1

Hayling Island are hosting a combined regatta for the very best of single handers and a bit like the porridge my mum used to tell me about, there are dinghies built just right for big bears, little bears and in the Solos case, mostly old bears.

The Finns are here in some force, 34 entries including the esteemed World President of the class Rob McMillan, a man who wields much power these days given the unquestionable strength of the Finn around the globe, despite the Olympic Committee doing them over which has monumentally back-fired. Everyone on Earth who races a single hander acknowledges the Finn as the ultimate test, wake up World Sailing.

At the other end of the scales, but on a parallel with the Finn, sits the Europe, once the Olympic single hander for women, this impish and stylish lightweight rocket ship has all the similarities of the Finn but on a scale requiring way less body mass. Both designs are aesthetically pleasing and incorporate cutting edge tech and a heap of carbon in the spars.

Conversely and possibly unfairly given my own history of the class sits the Solo, its through transom rudder arrangement, chined hull and stubby nose a million millimetres away from the smooth, soft lines of its counterparts. The cockpit, which in the other two provides a modern, open plan zoned section for the sailor to perform their athletic manoeuvres is quite different in this Jack Holt design. Try and imagine the cockpit in the other two then drag a small table into the middle, a genius move if you are having friends for tea but a trip hazard when you want to move from one sofa to the other.

Of course the centreboard case in the Solo was built further back in the hull and the designer opted for a pivoting centreboard so he had to build a big old box to house it. Hiking straps were yet to be invented in 1956 so the genius move was to top the case with a capping which incorporated toe holes so the sailor could hike. This also provided rigidity to the construction which after all, had to deal with some large forces from a fully battened sail. Now you could argue that it would have been a good idea to scrap this feature back when foot straps came onto the scene but I believe the sailors themselves enjoyed the additional seating it provided on those light wind days when you wanted to perch in the middle as you trotted down the Thames.

Having murdered my own class I should just mention that the Solos have 52 entries, more than many of the UK classes can muster at their National Championship so it has that thing that both the Finn and Europe have, allure.

Now I should mention that some of the Europe sailors are also blessed with this gift and all are as spritely on their toes as any Olympic gymnast but the Finn sailors, well, they were built for war and given the size of the sail they have to tame, there is no place to hide, especially during a gybe. You really have to stand close to a rigged Finn to fully appreciate the physical challenge which awaits, maybe the Olympic Committee need to have a team building exercise in sailing one and re-think their global strategy of what is the ultimate test.

Onto the Solo sailor, attributes should include shins of the hardest material known to man, at least three medical notes which should be shown at registration and ideally either grey hair or none.

Interestingly and like a breath of fresh air there are a new breed of Solo sailor coming through the ranks, a posse of young guns which like the team of 85, Clarke, Cook, Carveth, Bond x 3, Crawshaw and Green, are disrupting the establishment. Move over old boys, the new kids are in town. Harry Lucas, Alec Savitsky, Jamie Cuxson, Harry Marlow and Cam Norris all have cool names and the youthful demeanour which I just about remember feeling like forty years ago and it bodes well for the classes future. We just have to get them on the committee now.

I arrived at the venue earlier than expected, having programmed my SatNav the previous evening it had advised me that the 158 mile journey would take 4.5 hours so get up early. It was then a bit of a surprise at 4.15 am when it broke the news that I would be at Hayling Island at 7.20 with racing set to start at 1pm, the roads a little less congested than when I had programmed the details in on Friday afternoon!

Unsurprisingly the dinghy park was somewhat quiet but there were some other early risers already scoffing the excellent full English breakfast on offer, creased faces denoting which ones had slept in the cars and vans apart from Mike Barnes who always has a craggy profile.

I took a moment between mouthfuls of my own breakfast, eating someone else’s would have been wrong, to look through the list of Solo entries which I had printed out in font size 20 the previous evening, worryingly, I still required glasses. Tom Gillard would be racing his new Winder 1a/North with Oliver Davenport another likely candidate for overall victory in a Winder 2 and a sail cut by himself, an interesting development given his success last year at P+B. HISC has more Solos than anywhere in the UK and they also have some serious talent, Alex Butler and Mike Lennon (Quantum Sails) the two stand-outs.

With light winds expected for day one I anticipated a strong club presence near the top of the leader board with a few possible surprises from those cowboys who love to hit a corner.

I had attended the safety team briefing with the hope of jumping aboard one of the ribs, my media coverage pretty much relying on being close to the racing but with three fleets in the same quadrant of the bay and around six safety boats covering the 110 competitors, my proximity to the action would be somewhat limited.  Normally I can sweet talk the drivers to drift from their allotted position to get me in the sweet spots but safety at HISC is paramount and these teams would have made a Buckingham Palace sentry change look sluggish, therefore I would be relying on my Nikon P950 super zoom and a DJI mini 3 drone for suitably interesting material.

I scrambled aboard my ride for the day and readied myself, with over 45 minutes until the fleets launched I had plenty of time to prep sound and vision equipment, the liquorice rockets though would stay sealed for now. I have learnt the hard way that revealing the presence of these delicacies too early in the day would result in far too much sharing and my two crew members looked like direct decedents of the Bounty and we know what happened there.

I took the opportunity to launch the DJI, the clubhouse, completed in 2003, looking particularly stunning with the deep blue sky and spring sunshine accentuating every curve of the Morgan Carey contextual design. This was the inaugural flight over water and having seen the footage I can confirm it was worth every extra grey hair to get it.

With the fleets launching into a gentle 8 knots from the south-east and after finally coercing my drone back to the clutches of my outstretched hand we headed off to the race area, about two miles to the east of Hayling Bay. The courses which would encompass an outer loop for the Solos were positioned well to windward of a shipwreck, to be honest I have never raced in this area of the bay but it still looked wet and lumpy.

Race 1

The five minute gun was my cue to launch the drone and it set off from our position at the pin end of the line, the micro SD card absorbing every detail in high resolution, only my odd erratic alteration to direction spoiling its otherwise silky smooth progress. The committee end had been favoured leaving plenty of space for Timothy Barr, Simon Law, Alec Powell and Paul Haswell who is apparently a handy Aero sailor. Chris Brown and Mike Lennon we’re mid line with Davenport and Gillard starting a third of the way down from the committee boat, Chris Bunn and Nigel Bird opting to tack off to the right.

I turned and followed the fleet halfway up the beat, a full six minutes had past and I decided now would be the time to return it to the dry safety of its over-engineered waterproof case. I peered into the screen while toggling the joystick, spinning the drone around 180% would bring the start line back into view and from there I could guide it to me. Oddly and despite continuing to toggle the stick hard left, only sea could be seen. It was at this point that my console alerted me that my battery was depleted and the drone would return to home which, since we had launched over water, could have been almost anywhere. Following explicit orders from HQ, the rib had been gently motoring up the course and we were far from the start area so with the critical warning signal echoing in my ears and my senses elevated to a place saved for near-death experiences we powered towards the bottom of the course. It was all a bit of a blur, my mind filled with remorse, pending humiliation and the ignominy of becoming Wally of the Year as the nervous voice on the console informed me that it was preparing to land.

With 4% remaining I spotted our rib on the DJI RC 2 control screen, the white plume from our wake denoting our impending arrival and with literally seconds remaining I grasped the blighter, mainly thanks to my driver who had spotted it hovering just four feet off the water’s surface!

Of course this did not put me off and I would launch and recover with some aplomb later in the day.

Back to the race and having held on to some credibility on the rib we positioned ourselves just below the gate and it was Paul Haswell leading from Alex Butler with Davenport, Barr, Lennon and Simon Law the top six. Gillard, Harry Marlow and Brian Taylor racing Solo 6000 were in the mix, I had mentioned to him that ownership includes the position of NSCA President since the last two  were Burns and Latta but it did not seem to register.

The breeze was a very pleasant 10 knots but from an easterly direction I was thankful that I had packed my Aquamarine offshore jacket. It was time to ingratiate myself with the crew since their trust in me may have wavered so I cracked open the sweets, the aniseed flavour soon melting their demeanour.

Alex Butler took charge by the top of lap two and held to win from Davenport, Haswell, Gillard and Barr.

Race 2

The breeze was holding at 8 knots and with the tide a big factor the fleet consensus was to start towards the pin end. With renewed enthusiasm I sent the DJI up, positioned it over the committee boat and sat back as the incredibly powerful 48 mega pixel lens and 3 axis gimbal did all the work, making me look like a genius. Only one hour earlier I nearly looked like a muppet.

Mike Barnes is early and finds an improbable gap to dive into between Geoff Holden and Arthur Mason, I am pretty sure neither of the guys wanted to hit this beautiful wooden Beckett build. Anyway, the main players have popped out at the pin end, Brown, Swain and Gillard with Horey ducking transoms like Spurs drop points and Davenport sitting in Gillard’s exhaust fumes. Frary and Bunn are doing a job on Haswell who is blocked out while Barr, Savitsky and Lennon find nice lanes out to the left, high and clear.

Gillard gets into the lead somewhere over the next lap or so, heading left up the beats and he loves to soak low every chance he gets, sitting well forward to catch a wave before diving back with a big turn to accelerate into another opportunity, a great exponent of ultra fast downwind technique. The pack, led by Lennon and Davenport (Davenport Sails) can do nothing to catch the North Sails jockey who takes a comfortable win from HISC hotshot Tom Goodey with Davenport, Lennon and Frary completing the top five.

Race 3

With the wind twitching right from 150 to 180 degrees, PRO Paul Hammett had some tough decisions to make and was set to AP the start with just seconds remaining but the breeze flicked back just in time to square the line. The pressure was down to 4 knots, the wavelets lapping against the grey inflatable tubes of our rib like the tap of a Labradors tail against it’s master’s leg as he sits by the fire side. This would be a race of patience and persistence, attributes of which I have none so I was happy to be filming.

Gillard pops out at the pin end but only after we have had one general recall. The leading Solo into the top mark though has me rubbing my eyes and pinching my face, only after a slap from the big masculine hand of my driver do I realise I am not dreaming, Steve Roberts had finally done it.

He sneaks around the mark which has some alarmingly strong tide around it and this would provide another formidable challenge for those approaching on what they perceive as a good lay line. Harry Lucas is second from Gillard and Davenport with Mark Flew along way back in fifth but that would not have bothered him. The reach to mark two is made easier with a tidal stream under their hulls but back at the top it is all fun and games, Barr and Butler both collecting the mark and doing turns to clear their misdemeanours. Marlow has to bail out and Brown is another casualty, fortunately his CB Ultimate Hikers are also scuff resistant.

Gillard has the lead by the bottom gate and surprisingly, given they must have been racing for thirty odd minutes, the race continues, a long beat with the tide against prompting the entire fleet to head left out of the adverse current before choosing a moment to tack back. Gillard takes the win from Lucas, Davenport and Roberts with Brian Taylor fifth.

The run back to the club was long, some Solos being towed back into the strongest part of the tide, the fleet like water down a plughole, sucked towards shore and a bar with beer in it. Those here for the first time had good reason to look alarmed as wavelets danced on the surface of the water like a shoal of Piranhas in a feeding frenzy and unsurprisingly there were no capsizes.

So overnight Tom Gillard would lead the event with a 4-1-1 from Davenport on 2-3-3 with local Paul Haswell on 3-6-7. With three races planned for day two and only one discard, there was still a Championship to be won.

The galley laid on a fine menu for the ravenous competitors though by the time the Solo fleet got there the ribeyes and jackets were history, those Finn sailors require a huge amount of protein and carbs to run efficiently. The pasta bake and couscous had also taken a hit so we knew the Europe sailors had also eaten but I can verify the chicken teriyaki was delicious.

I was fortunate to be sharing one of the ‘Dunes’ cabins, literally three mast lengths from the dinghy park and had a wonderful sleep, my wax earplugs doing a great job of muffling my own snores and I awoke to more sunshine.

Day 2

The breeze was up and as the forecast promised, holding at 15 knots, game on. The generously spacious restaurant was dotted with groups of competitors loading up for the day, the chef doing well to keep up with demand of anything fried and the quality was on par with anything my mother-in-law can produce.

I touched base with the safety teams, ensuring they would not forget me and with the deadline of 9.20 am for rib launch, headed back to the dinghy park for last minute interviews.  Many of the boats were still covered from the harmful UV rays with their launch time still a good hour away and with the seconds ticking by, I loaded up my gear and headed along soft white sand, the quality equal to any bunker at Augusta National.

We motored out to our designated holding spot overlooking the sailing club and launch area and waited as dinghies began to line the beach. The air was cooler today, the sun’s powerful rays  filtered with an almost undetectable layer of cloud, the easterly breeze reminding me we were still in early spring.

The fleets launched and today they would have an easier passage to the race arena which was to the right of Hayling Bay, so a fetch to the large metal marker which denotes the edge of the sand bar and then a broad reach down to the starting line. The last few boats off the beach included Tom Gillard who had obviously rumbled that the full English breakfast was a serve-yourself deal and he needed all the weight he could get today. Tim Law was a surprise to see as he had not been present on the first day, this sailing icon is struggling with health issues but when he feels good he does what he loves and today he felt good.

We followed Simon Derham out, seeing him power through the Hayling surf rekindling fond memories of myself in my prime and, after unwrapping a soft chew and popping it in my parched mouth, took a moment to wonder where it had all gone wrong.

Race 4

Vernon Perkins wins the Wally of the Day for omitting to take a tally, only profuse apologies and much grovelling to the PRO preventing three DSQ’s. Mike Barnes had mentioned to me that before the start of race four he would be scattering his father’s ashes into the bay. Roy was a fine ambassador for the class and was very much a part of the Solo family for decades. He spent many of his later years at HISC, an absolute gentleman and is of course sadly missed. My fondest memory is after he had lent his Lovett 3252 to Geoff Carveth at the World Championship, Plymouth in 1989, given that the newest Solo number then was around 3800, no one thought Geoff had a chance but of course he won and the delight and pride on Roy’s face was unbridled. My wife’s favourite memory is of being aboard his launch in 2007 as I competed for the Tyler Trophy, not for witnessing my victory but for the excellent G+T’s that were provided.

Back to the racing and the start line was very pin biased, the PRO utilising that often used trick of keeping competitors who had endured an arduous end to the previous days racing well away from the committee boat.

Gillard wins the pin with Bird, Law, Swain, Bunn, Davenport and Roberts all on his shoulder and they head towards shore, powering through the confused wave pattern associated with this wind direction and tidal cycle.

Davenport is in his element and rounds the top mark with Gillard a way back and they split gybes, the leader taking the rhum line while his nearest challenger shoots right, utilising the wave angles with big changes in direction. The lead is reduced but now Davenport can once again unravel his generously long legs, the leverage keeping the rig bolt upright and driving while he foots off out of the tide and into an unassailable lead. Chris Brown is in third, the swap from Winder 1 to 2 seems to have improved his performance or maybe it is the CB Ultimate Hikers. Simon Derham, who had clearly had a chat with himself after arriving last to the start is fourth but takes the unpopular left hand gate mark which sends him into the stronger current. Law, Haswell, Goodey, Butler, Horey and Lennon follow around the right gate and power off in pursuit.

The next lap has limited overtaking lanes with the left corner the only sensible option, the downwind legs seeing the top two extend on the field to finish in that order, Brown, Haswell and Butler the top five with Law a valiant sixth.

Race 5

Breeze holding at 13-15 knots and it is a carbon copy of race 4 with Gillard powering off with some separation to Brown and Goodey with Bird sitting in some disturbed air and Mark Lee holding a nice lane above him. Davenport is a few boats above these guys and already maximising his VMG, the knowledge he has gained at P+B clearly valuable intel but he is also savage in these conditions.

Top mark and no surprise, Davenport from Gillard, I am a good mile away on safety duty but our NSCA Vice President Paul Davis is on shore and provided some info and photos/video. Alex Savitsky and Horey are having a good old ding dong, the downwind leg to mark two and the finish line providing perfect planing angles and a much needed opportunity for my Nikon P950 to stretch its zoom.

So Davenport takes his second bullet with Gillard second, Horey, Savitsky and Goodey completing the top five. The event now hinges on the final race and with the breeze down to 12 knots I launch my DJI for one final flight, releasing the little bit of tech into the sky with the anguish of a mother bird who has nurtured her chick for a month or two and now needs to let it go.

The footage would have been great but it is a general recall and not wanting to push my luck which was almost depleted after the horrendous experience 24 hours earlier, I withdraw my drone from the theatre of war, today it would not die but next time, oh boy we will have some fun.

Goodey nails the pin from Gillard with Swain, Hewitson, Brown and Law on his shoulder, Lee is in a tough spot with the rampant Davenport working over the top.

With the tide well on the turn there was a fair split to either side of the course but even with my eyes out on the end of their stalks it was impossible to determine who was who, my expectation though was that Davenport would again lead.

I was beginning to feel the effects of the Hayling swell, the constant yaw and pitch, much like the fairground rides I used to avoid, messing with my equilibrium, the odd burp confirming I was almost ready to chuck. I did also note that my crew members had looked a little concerned, my hands were shaking uncontrollably when packing the drone away but this was from relief not any ailment so a code red was not required.

Fortunately for me, one of the race team had to return to shore so after some iffy transfer skills to an emergency vessel we headed home, the fleet, tiny specks against the shore line.

Davenport was imperious and took the bullet to complete a clean sweep on day two with Gillard a gallant second and only losing on count back. Goodey, Haswell (third overall) and Frary completed the top five with the fleet enjoying a lovely ride back to the sanctuary of the club.

Davenport therefore wins the CB Ultimate Hikers Spring Championship and Tyler Trophy which has been run since 1961, using his own brand of sail and success sells so let’s hope he gets some orders. Tom Gillard looked despondent in the dinghy park but he is a multiple World Champion in more classes than most, the hunger that defines a Champion must make their stomach ache and only ultimate victory can quell the cramp. He will no doubt log this event, analyse and reboot for the next opportunity.

Third placed Paul Haswell is apparently pretty handy in an Aero and it is great to see talent jump in to a Solo and enhance the field, I do hope we get more. Racing against the best only raises the level of the fleet, get beat then get better.

The Prize Giving which was presented by Paul Davis included a draw for CB Ultimate Hikers which were won be Tristan Harding and a CB voucher won by Jamie Cuxson while P+B vouchers and caps were won by Mike Barnes, Peter Cooper and third placed Paul Haswell so a good weekend for him. Congratulations to Brenda Hoult (37th) and Maria Franco (44th) who battled the elements on the second day, both completing all races and to the young guns who must have gained invaluable experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKHprH5v34M

Huge thanks to the combined teams at HISC, to CB Ultimate Hikers and P+B, it was a great show. I would love to have been able to cover the Finn and Europe fleets but unfortunately I was just too far away from much of the action.

Full results on the HISc website under open events results.