Happy return to Sheppey for 2026 Easterns

Andy Wilson
2 days ago
3 min read

By Alex Porteous.

13 blazes entered for a weekend of competitive racing hosted by the Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club.

As the competitors arrived, the forecast was showing extremely light winds. However, local Blazer, Lee Marriott, had already warned us to ignore the forecasts as they were always wrong. That was definitely the case as the rest of the weekend would prove.

With 6 races scheduled across the 2 days, the decision was made to use the Reverse P course, always a delight, with two gybe marks to catch the fleet out. Race 1, and everyone was a little too eager leading to a general recall (much to the relief of some) and the race officer’s decision to go straight to a black flag.

This has the desired effect and upon setting off it was first-time championship Blaze youth, Bobby Deards, in 778 who got to the windward mark first. Unfortunately, an incident at one of those dreaded gybe marks resulted in a swim and a drift back in positions for Bobby. Meanwhile, Russ Wheeler (880) proved local knowledge paid off and took the win ahead of Class Chairman, Charlie Matthews (834). For the second and third races, Charlie took convincing leads, however there were many position changes amongst the rest of the fleet. Doug Clow (777) found another gear and was was consistently up the front end of the chasing pack and Tom Twist (806) was also getting to grips with the conditions and particularly the tide change that kicked in on race 2 which required a few attempts by some to get around the top mark. A special shout out should go to Ian Brunger who'd taken over control of blaze 531 from Stuart Brown (needing to head off to work). Unfortunately, a slight difference in height between the two sailors meant that the toe straps were worse than useless and resulted in an unfortunate capsize at the windward mark whilst lying in 6th.

As the fleet sailed in at the end of the day, results showed Charlie 1st, Russ 2nd and Doug 3rd but discards would only kick in after 4 races and there were a few sailors close on points.

For those who have attended events at the IOSSC before, the evening entertainment is not one to be missed. Whilst human hungry-hippos were no longer an option (something about health & safety) this time we had the Isle of Sheppey Grand Prix - a fiercely-fought competition involving radio control cars, three marks and lots of advice being yelled. Here, local lad Lee was pipped at the final turn by Charlie proving his competitiveness both on and off the water.

The forecast for Sunday showed less wind than Saturday, however by the time we all got on the race course the weather gods were shining on us and the well-behaved fleet got off on time.

Again, the course was a reverse P and it was Charlie who continued to lead the way in each of the 3 races that day (setting out his intentions for the June Nationals). In race 5, Russ (wearing the pink flamingo race-bib for a dufus rigging decision) gave a master-class in reaching, stonking past half the fleet to come up to 2nd ahead of Doug and Andy Wilson (811) on the line. In the final race, Alex Porteous in 874 came through from mid-fleet to hold her nerve and cross the line millimetres ahead of Russ taking 3rd place and her best result at a Blaze event.

Whilst it was clear to all who'd won (Charlie), less certain was what the order for the rest of the podium was. Doug and Russ had ended up on the same points and Russ was questioning whether those millimetres in the last race would be costly. However, due to his first place in Race 1 it was Russ who took second whilst Doug took the final place on the podium.

A huge shout out to the Race Officer, Mick Greenland, and his team of volunteers both on and off the water. In addition, many thanks to Battle Brewery and Allen Performance Parts for some fantastic prizes.

Results