Pwllheli Regatta, welcoming the return of the RNLI ALB
by Vicky Cox 2 Jul 17:53 NZST
pletive, winners of the Pwllheli Regatta Feeder Race and IRC class © Paul Jenkinson
The weekend saw the return of the Shannon class all weather lifeboat to Pwllheli and to mark the occasion Pwllheli Sailing Club, joined by a fleet from sister sailing club South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club (SCYC), formed a welcoming party off the harbour entrance as part of the Pwllheli Regatta.
The SCYC fleet raced from Abersoch to Pwllheli in the morning with the race won by Mike Crompton's X-yacht, Xpletive.
The two sailing club fleets then combined to join the Pwllheli Regatta fun race. All emphasis was on fun racing with fancy dress and fishing encouraged during racing with the reward of race time reductions. Sadly with winds building to 16kts and clocking right to form a tight reach on the longest leg of the course, any fish about would have been hard pushed to keep up with the boats on the water.
As a result, all focus returned to winning the race with some close competition between Xpletive and Will Partington's A35 AndromedA. In the end it was another first for Xpletive closely followed by J70 Mojito Bach, with skipper Sam Hall and crew all wearing fancy dress, a selection of women's floral print midi and maxi dresses akin to a scene from the League of Gentlemen or reminisce of a Monty pythons sketch.
As a result, Andromeda had to settle for third place with Mojito just behind them.
With all crew dressed in a selection of fancy dress, from fruit to Roman guard and Pirate, Mojito claimed that the 3 fishing lines streamed at the back of the boat had slowed them down and the banana and lime costumes made it harder to hoist and trim their sails. Not surprisingly, their efforts gained them the commodores bottle of rum, the prize for the best dressed boat.
In YTC cruiser class, Tim Rouse's Theia won the race, expertly helmed by daughter Maddy who took them over the finish line 4 minutes ahead of Tamour on the water, nearly 15minutes ahead on corrected time.
Racing finished and it was time to welcome the RNLI back to Pwllheli with flags of all kinds hoisted and decorating the fleet.
The Shannon was escorted by the Abersoch and Criccieth lifeboats and welcomed by cheers, flag waving and air horns sounding.
All crews, racing, cruising and RNLI, plus supporters and volunteers then headed into Plas Heli for music by the Jac Dobson band, a BBQ by Sean Devlin together with race results and trophy presentation.
Results and full racing program at pwllhelisailingclub.co.uk