Portsmouth Regatta 2021
by David Price 9 Jun 2021 03:30 NZST
5-6 June 2021
Portsmouth Regatta 2021 © Lotte Johnson /
www.lottejohnson.com
The annual Portsmouth Regatta returned last weekend, 5-6 June and provided great competition for IRC and Club fleets, Squib and Tempest classes and local favourites, the traditional Victory Class.
In 2014 the Regatta was revived by Portsmouth Sailing Club, the Royal Albert Yacht Club, and the Victory Class, and this year's event was chosen as the first of the 2021 Solent IRC Owners Association series.
The International Tempest Class, sailing over three days, used the event as their Southern Championship and the first of their Euro Cup series.
Winds throughout the regatta were generally light but race officer Tim Johnson capitalised on a building southerly breeze on the Saturday afternoon and, with some slick race management, managed to get four races in for all fleets. This proved a good move as Sunday morning was, as forecast, extremely light with only one further race achieved for all fleets.
Chris Fife-Shaw, in Easy Tiger, took the Club fleet honours and racing in the IRC fleet was dominated by John Allen's X-302 Antix having sailed down from Whitby earlier in the week!
In the Victory class, Duncan Evans and Tom Hartridge in Z74, Peregrine, were first with four wins while Ullswater sailor, Jon Modral-Gibbons, in Tumbledown Wind, won a very competitive Tempest Class.
The Squibs were the largest fleet racing, with Portsmouth sailors joined by a strong contingent of visitors, many of whom had sailed across the Solent from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club at Fishbourne and it was a Royal Victoria sailor, Steve Warren-Smith, who took first place ahead of Portsmouth sailors Dan Henderson in second, and Rob Tarboton in third. Steve Warren-Smith's performance was also good enough for him to take the historic Royal Albert Cup, for the overall winner of the regatta.
Despite the challenging, light wind conditions and the COVID restrictions on socialising, the event was considered to be a great success. Competitors were extremely complimentary about the race management and several visitors commented very positively on the additional challenges and interest provided by the high levels of commercial and naval traffic passing through the area. In addition to ferries and hovercraft, competitors this weekend were treated to the sight of one of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, departing the harbour with Army Air Corps Apache helicopters embarked!
Results for the Regatta are at www.portsmouthregatta.org/page/race-documentation