The Royal Lymington Yacht Club played host to the highly anticipated Hamble Yacht Services Cape 31 National Championship this weekend. The championship took place over three days, with the Cape 31 fleet racing across nine close races in the stunning waters of Christchurch Bay.
The first day of the regatta certainly reminded the class why we come to race in the Bay—12-20 knots from the southwest and some nice shifts to play with. Nick Phillips' Chaotic took the first two races of the day, and Sandy Askew’s Flying Jenny won the third. Meanwhile, we saw Guy Gillon’s Khumbu, Ben Pritchard’s Akheilos (helmed by Colette Richmond), Lance Adams' Katabatic, and Julian Metherell’s Bullit all on the podium on Day 1.
The sailors came off the water on Friday buzzing from an awesome day in the Bay, looking forward to the rest of the weekend. The fleet were welcomed in with to dock drinks and music from the team at Harken before the Royal Lymington Yacht Club put on a great event at the club in the evening with daily prizes from North Sails, an Around the World style buffet dinner, and some great live music.
Saturday brought a lighter breeze but brilliant sunshine—a day for the books and the photographers! With race wins for Bodfather, Akheilos, and Chaotic, the podium was graced with Mount Gay Rum, and the Royal Lymington Yacht Club brought the party to us at Lymington Yacht Haven on Saturday afternoon with drinks and pizza after racing.
With race wins from several of our Corinthian/1 Professional teams over the weekend, the competition was rife in their sub-division.
Our final day brought the real drama. Simon Perry’s Jiraffe, Tony Dickin’s Jubilee, and Andy Fitzgerald’s Short Echo picked up the bullets on the final day, mixing up the leaderboards. Going into the final race, there were only 2 points separating our top two teams and 4 points separating our top three Corinthian/1 Professional teams. The battle for third was also on between Khumbu Black, Jiraffe and Akheilos throughout the day.
It was a showdown in the final race for Chaotic and Flying Jenny. Chaotic had the early lead before Flying Jenny picked a few good shifts and was able to hunt Chaotic down—match racing on the final lap. On the final downwind, the two boats were neck and neck—an unfortunate coming together meant that they had to go to the protest room. Our International Jury, led by David Hudson, decided that both teams were at fault, which resulted in them both being DSQ in Race 9 (link to decision). After points were calculated and discards considered, it was Flying Jenny who took the overall win in the 2024 Cape 31 National Championships with the worst result of a 7th after a discard. Chaotic, carrying their 12th in Race 8, were second overall for the fourth time this season. Third overall, podiuming for the first time this season, was Guy Gillon’s Khumbu Black.
In the Corinthian/1 Professional Division it was Charlie Whelan's Bodfather who took first on countback, with Duncan McCarthy's Tonto in second and David Cummins Flurg in third just two points behind them - finishing in 6th, 7th and 8th overall.
Twelve different teams podiumed across the nine races, which is a great statistic— showing both how competitive the fleet is and the ability of all the teams. Consistency is key in this fleet which you’ll see from the results.
Prize Giving on Sunday featured some beautiful pieces of Art from Sarah Hornby sponsored by HYS, as well as goodies from Quantum Sails, Harken and Mount Gay. The Hamble Yacht Services Trophy was proudly raised by the team on Flying Jenny before they shared a well deserved champagne shower on the deck.
The Royal Lymington Yacht Club and Lymington Yacht Haven were impeccable hosts, and the class looks forward to coming back in 2025.
Thank you to our international partners Quantum Sails, Doyle Sails, and Mount Gay, as well as our UK class partners North Sails, Mount Gay, Ocean Art, Harken, and Cyclops for supporting our events.
Full results - https://cms.cape31class.com/racing/results/regatta/39
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