Byte Inland Championship 2023 at Bowmoor Sailing Club

The traditional end of season Byte Inlands at Bowmoor was this year a shared event with the Comets.

Five minutes separation between the fleets seemed to work well apart from the first race when the Comets got over excited resulting in a general recall and some interesting inter fleet situations. The intention was to hold four races on Saturday with another two on Sunday morning but with the wind dropping towards the end of race three, race four was canned. As ever there were shifts and gusts a plenty (with the odd bit of weed thrown in) to keep everyone on the toes.

In the first two races Duncan Glen (Spinnaker) managed to build up a healthy lead enabling him to keep a watchful eye on the battle behind. George Jacobs (Combs), Esther Heathcote (Bowmoor) and Rick Whitehouse (Combs) shared the 2nds, 3rd and 4ths with Matthew English (Bowmoor), Louise Carr (Shoreham) and Alex Davies (Bowmoor) never far away. Very close racing and much place changing throughout the fleet was the theme for the day.

Byte Inlands 2023 at Bowmoor - photo © Louise Carr

Race three saw the breeze beginning to swing and drop with big gains for those in the right place at the right time. One such beneficiary was Alex who hooked into a lovely patch of breeze on the left hand side of one beat whilst the others were stuck in a hole on the right. He stormed to the front and, although unable to fend Duncan off till the end, took a well-deserved second place.

Sunday dawned to the sound of wild swimmers and more breeze which was forecast to increase further during the day. A pin biased line in race 4 saw Duncan and Alex having to return which resulted in Alex going for a swim. Some of the gusts were quite fruity by now leading to a number of capsizes including Duncan who put it in having fought his way through to the front. George sailed serenely past to take the win. The final race was a battle royal between George, Esther and Rick with no quarter given. The course included a dead run to mark 11 directly in front of the clubhouse. This provided excellent entertainment for the spectators gathered on the veranda who could be heard "oohing and arghing" in appreciation of the spectacle unfolding in front of them. It would appear that (unbelievably) Comets are even more tippy on a windy run than Bytes and roll in to windward for a past time. Once such incident resulted in a Comet mast landing across Esthers cockpit - not sure how she came out of that one unscathed but no damage done.

Byte Inlands 2023 at Bowmoor - photo © Emma Brisley

Overall Duncan retained the Inland Trophy followed by George, Ester and Rick. A special mention to Jess Skelding (Winsford Flash) who sailed superbly, keeping her rig upright all weekend, to secure the CI Inlands title, once again demonstrating the benefits to the class of the smaller rig.

As ever the organization and hospitality from the home club was second to none with the PRO Matt Banbrook and his team doing a superb job, thanks again "Team Bowmoor".

Overall Results: