With the late May holiday to celebrate 400 sailors came from far and near (well far at least as the near fleets seemed to have decided to stay at home – where were you, Parkstone?) to Hayling Island to enjoy some of the best facilities that Lottery money can buy. The entry at 34 was perhaps a little disappointing but given the pretty rotten forecast this was probably to be expected and in the event those who stayed away were the losers, missing as they did an excellent two day Fat Face circuit event.

With the wind on Saturday flicking between North and North West and a fairly steady force 3 the fleet made the long sail out to the Hayling Bay East race track to find the start area which we were sharing with the 800 fleet. After a short delay the fleet were able to demonstrate their keenness to start by having a first general recall where more boats were over the line than behind it. The race officer sensibly reached for his black flag which remained in evidence for the rest of the two days racing. Two more attempts to get away resulted in two more general recalls by which time the white board on the committee boat displayed a fairly long list of boats for whom the first race of the was going to be purely a spectator sport.

In the next start the reduced fleet got away and was led to the windward mark by Tom Halhead and Chris Humphry recovering from an indifferent start and showing awesome upwind boatspeed. Although racing on the outer loop the first reach was kiteable even for those with only a moderate amount of pork to their name and the three outer loop laps flashed by in a little over 30 mins. Halhead/Humphry extended their lead through the whole race and won from Nick Lowe and Elaine Marsh who held off a late challenge from Stuart Hudson and Roy Siever. David Jones and Mark Hogan came through for a solid fourth place.

The second race was delayed by two more general recalls where again some of the usual suspects started to appear on the white board for a second time. The race officer obviously getting fed up with the 400's unruly behaviour held the fleet back and ran a start for the 800s. Clearly not wanting to be out done by the 400's the 800 fleet promptly had a general recall of their own after which it was back to the 4's who eventually got away.

Again Halhead/Humphry got to the windward mark first but this time closely followed, much to everyone's surprise, including their own, by Bill and Lynda Handley. Halhead/Humphry again put daylight between themselves and the rest of the fleet with Chris Hogan and June Riley hauling through to second, the Handleys third and Jones/Hogan a consistent 4th.

Sensing that the day was wearing on and the bar was open the fleet behaved themselves for the third start and got away first time. History repeated itself with Halhead/Humphry taking line honours but this time followed much more closely by the chasing bunch. Second were Paul and Michael Allen presumably fresh and rested from having only watched the first two races as a result of two OCS black flags — a lot of sailing for just one race lads! Jones/Hogan improved to third and Hudson/Siever came back from their second race discard with a fourth.

Sunday dawned wet with no wind and the breakfast talk was of a drifter with possibly no racing ahead of the gale called for later in the day. Suddenly the wind began to build, reports from up and down the coast showed that the gale was moving in much more quickly than anticipated and if racing was going to lost it certainly wasn't going to be for lack of wind. This view was confirmed as the fleet sailed out to the start area only to be passed by the Solent weekend cruising fleet running for cover in the opposite direction with storm rigs set.

The race officer was left with an unenviable dilemma, either send us a long way out and risk the gale hitting when we were a distance from the shore or run the racing closer in for safety but in an area where the seas would be shallow wind over tide. The call was made in favour of the latter and the racing started in a South Easterly 5 which eventually swung more Northerly and gusted 6 with the steepest shortest chop that the fleet is likely to see this season.

With the fleet depleted by a number of boats who stayed ashore counting discretion as the better part of valour and the very tricky sea conditions no one was in the mood for another general recall and the fleet got away clean first time. In the shallow waters getting the marks to hold proved problematic and as a result the outer loop proved to be a curtailed one side leg. The race was over in less than 30 minutes and this time Hudson/Siever showed they were masters of the heavier conditions with the Allens recording their second runner up spot, Halhead/Humphry third and Jones/Hogan in their now familiar fourth position.

With competitors half expecting the racing to be called off as they negotiated the debris of what a little earlier had been the 800 fleet the race officer signalled for one last race. The fifth race was a rerun of the fourth with the top three boats as before. The Jones/Humphry team relinquished their usual fourth spot after testing the depth of the water at the windward mark with their mast, this little adventure allowed Hogan/Riley to come through for fourth place.

The race had been spectacular due to the sea state and everyone had a tale to tell of sailing into a wall of solid water at one time or another. On the final reach in from the outer loop the fleet saw the familiar AP over A being flown at the finish and with no real regrets headed for the shore and a warm shower.

Overall the performance of Halhead/Humphry on the first day had been enough to tip the balance and they won the meeting. Hudson/Siever were second enjoying a late run with their two firsts on the Sunday. The consistency of Jones/Hogan paid off to give them third and Hogan/Riley fourth. A special mention must go to the Allens who finished eleventh, suffered two black flags and then finished second in every other race — what might have been. Silver fleet was won by Richard Grayham-Eneck and Roland Walker in 13th overall.

No formal Duckhams award was made but with ex-400 sailors the brothers Grimm ( Baileys) now in the 800 fleet it was not hard to guess where it was going to be earned. About 1 minute after launch on the Saturday they managed to ignore a 6 foot navigation mark while chatting and snapped their centre board on the Winner bank. Repaired for Sunday they went out and broke a mast, and this after breaking a mast on Mark Reddington's SB3 the previous weekend - come back lads your fleet needs you!

All in all a great weekends racing in rather trying conditions and those who didn't turn up will no doubt be kicking themselves until next time.