Write-Up

Keyhaven New Years Day Rum Race - UK, 1st January

Sixteen mixed Class dinghies took to the water at Keyhaven for their annual New Years Day race. This year was an early one as 'the tide waits for no one'. The start was set for 09:30 from the club line which enabled early arrivals to enjoy the beautiful sunrise of the New Year over the Isle of Wight!

A small contingent of five RS Aeros visited from Lymington Town Sailing Club and were well looked after by the wonderful Keyhaven YC hosts with rum tipples, a tasty soup lunch and some excellent racing.

The course was set for a dash out of the main harbour entrance, two windward leeward laps out in the waves, an upwind beat back upto Hurst Castle and a nice planing reach back to Keyhaven to finish. A good breeze saw the tour all done in only about 30 minutes - whilst being careful not to cut the shallow corners too tight!

The leeward berth on the start together with some precarious running with foils raised through shallows let Peter Barton pull away in his RS Aero 7 for the win. David Ellis finished close behind on corrected time in his RS Aero 5 and Simon Moss' Finn took third. Fittingly for New Years Day this was the first time adding a purple colour flash to identify the RS Aero 6, it looked great and Karl Thorne helmed it to 6th place!

Many thanks to all involved at Keyhaven YC for hosting a great morning's racing. The absence of restrictions allowed the day to proceed for the good of the sport and enabled a valuable outdoors based opportunity to excercise and catch up with friends during the festive period.

PHOTOS by Richard Edwards, Peter Fisher and Sue Markham
Winter 2021-22 Gallery for larger Photos
Keyhaven YC Facebook Album

Results

View Full Results File