Sailor’s Regatta 2025 – Day 3

On the final day, PRO Matt McGrath ran two courses for the multis and one for the monos. In the first race, competitors headed up to the top mark, then sailed downwind to the mosque near Mark Horwood’s old boatyard, back to the top mark, then back round the mark near the mosque again, ending with an upwind finish at the start boat. Interestingly, in the monohull class, Wind of Change sailed wing on wing downwind with an asymmetric spinnaker straight down the line rather than going on an angle, and it worked for them. The second race was a windward-leeward just for the multis.

John Newnham’s Twin Sharks earned line honours in every race and went on to win the multihull racing & OMR class series. But not without a fight as Andrew McDermott’s trimaran Trident captured two of the six races the multis sailed when the OMR Performance Handicap was factored in.

Niels Degenkolw’s X-Ton Phoenix made one mistake on the first day, rounding the wrong buoy, but then went on to win the four remaining races in the monohull racing class, adding another honour to their already full trophy case. Phoenix continues to excel in light wind as few other yachts are able to. Vitaly Plaskin’s Wind of Change came second (Vitaly used to own Uminoko, which won the monohull class back in the 2019 Sailor’s Regatta), while Kirill Stanshevskly’s Lastochka placed third. The crews on Wind of Change and Lastochka shared similar cultural backgrounds, so they staged their own duel within a duel. Mark Stennett’s Madam placed fourth in the class and although it missed out in the prize giving it was the most photogenic boat on the water.