A packed calendar for Island sailors
D
By JULIAN BARBER Vice Commodore, St Helier Yacht Club.
espite challenging weather conditions for much of 2012, the yacht
and sailing clubs and associations of Jersey put on another fantastic calendar of events, with over 100 races and cruising events organised over the course of the year, as well as involvement in other regattas in association with the nearby yacht clubs of Guernsey and France.
Contact Details: W:
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info@shyc.je T: 732229
The racing calendar started off in January with the aptly-named final races of the RCIYC Pallot Windows Frostbite Series in St. Aubin’s Bay, before a break in February and March to scrub down, antifoul and prepare boats for the season ahead.
April was a very busy month, with St. Helier Yacht Club hosting the Spring Series in St. Aubin’s Bay as well as the start of the more leisurely First Class Catering Coastal Series. The courses were set around Jersey’s coastal waters out as far as the Minquiers, and included a Round Island race. The Coastal Series is designed to encourage participation from those who are a little more nervous about close-quarter bay racing, and the
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boats that are not so accustomed to racing competitively are given more favourable handicap ratings. This series also includes a race specifically for lady helms and one race where a crew member gets to play skipper for a change.
April also saw the first offshore race of the season, the RCIYC Commodore’s Cup to St. Malo over the Easter weekend, as well as the start of the increasingly popular Alex Bleasby Retired Gents Series, where boats get a greater advantage the more elderly the crew they have! The well-supported Liberation Ale Beer Series also started in April where the incentive to win each race is the reward of a crate of beer. The more serious Cherry Godfrey Evening Series also started in April, with fierce competition in Class 2 between the growing fleet of quarter tonners. The final weekend of April provided some fine conditions for the Connex Spring Regatta for yachts, multihulls and dinghies.
For the first bank holiday weekend of May, St. Helier Yacht Club organised a cruising weekend to Granville and St. Cast where the pontoon receptions were enjoyed
by all who took part. A second cruising weekend to Chausey was organised for the bank holiday August weekend when a perfect evening was spent barbecuing on one of the beaches as the sun set. Accompanying dolphins on the return journey rounded off a superb weekend and similar cruising events will be organised in 2013. Also in May, several Jersey boats joined our French friends for the Trois Jours D’Armor race to Dahouet, and the month finished with the 2-handed Kalina Shields race.
June started with a new 60 mile race to Trebeurden in North Brittany, followed the next weekend by the Pallot Glass race to St. Cast and, shortly after, the biggest race on the local sailing calendar – the Carey Olsen inter- Island race which took place this year from Guernsey to Jersey. This event stirs up some fierce inter- Island rivalry and thankfully this year it was won by local helm, Allen Brown, skippering The Dogs. For the final weekend of June the fleet headed off on a Friday evening race down to St. Malo, a traditional event every year to celebrate St. Helier Yacht Club’s involvement in
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