Commodore’s Comms, September 2025

Dear Members,

A slightly later publishing time this month due to a trip to Boston Massachusetts, but more about that later.

Its been a busy time for many sailors who have been representing the club at World and National Championships in various parts of the Country.

First, a huge well done to Jonathan and Sebastian Nagle for a brilliant performance in the GP14 Nationals at Tenby at the beginning of August.  They finished 11th overall out of a fleet of 37 boats. Conditions were challenging at times after the passing through of Storm Floris and they posted 2 results of 8th during the 8 race series. In fact, they never posted a result outside of the top 20. Well done to them both (especially Seb !) for a superb performance. 

Moving further into August were the Flying 15 Nationals and World Championships at Weymouth and Portland. Most of our members who travelled opted to sail only the Worlds, but of note in the National Championships was “Riggy” crewing for Andy Tunnicliffe who finished an excellent 7th out of a field of 65 boats.
The Worlds I’m led to believe was at times a week of boisterous winds and sea states varying from a short chop to 2-3m swell, difficult conditions.  In a field littered with current National and World champions from various classes, the event was won by Graham Vials and Chris Turner, their 6th World championship and unprecedented in the class, winning 6 out the nine race series in a fleet of 82 boats. Andy and Riggy finished 11th overall. Keith Byers and Jim Hunt  finished 23rd , with Tony Woods/Keith Jamieson, Julian Clarke/Nick Hampson finishing further down the fleet.
As I write this, Immediate Past Commodore JR is competing at the K1 Nationals, at Weymouth where he has finished  a very creditable 11th in a fleet of 38 boats.
Well done to all of our sailors who have competed on the National and Worlds stage this year and thank you for representing the club at such a high level.

Coming up of course, next weekend is the 24 hour race at Southport. Together with some of the clubs seasoned veterans, our Sunday morning sailing squad, both adults and juniors have been working up to this event for some time now and will be racing the club GP14. I wish them well, and huge thanks to all those helpers and supporters who have helped and coached the squad. Let’s hope the weather plays ball and they all have a fabulous fun time, enjoy the experience…and maybe get in the prizes!!!

Elsewhere in the club, as we are into September, socially we have the combined Flying 15 and Cruiser Dinner 20th and the week following that is the Dinghy Dinner. Please book with Zoe if you’d like to attend either or both! The season is drawing to a close for the 17ft fleet at the end of the month as is Thursday night sailing for the dinghies and 15’s ,who will hopefully be looking forward to the Autumn series on Sundays during October and November. Lets hope we get some sunshine and fair winds to see the season out.

So back to Boston. Sue and I travelled there to see our son Matthew, who is in the midst of a Fellowship at Harvard. He had, on our behalf, written to the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, Jay Cross, and we were very kindly invited to their Harbour Court premises in Newport Rhode Island where we were made to feel very welcome by their General and Operations Managers. It was an honour to be at a club which, not unlike ours, has such a wonderful history, for them particularly with the Americas Cup. After a lovely dinner on the terrace overlooking the bay last Saturday evening I was delighted to be able to present a Club Pennant to the General Manager, Jim Hoyle in the Library.  It was an honour and a wonderful occasion for us all to be able to represent RWYC at the highest levels of the Yachting World.

David Heron
Commodore