21/05/2022
Southern Championships Downs Sailing Club

Report by Veronica Falat

Downs Sailing Club on the Kent coast hosted the 2022 Streaker Southern Championships over the weekend of May 21^st-22^nd – and what an excellent weekend it was for the club’s Commodore Simon Cory!

Saturday’s 3 races were sailed in much windier and rougher conditions than most competitors had anticipated but this didn’t phase Simon Cory who won them all in fine style. Dave Adams, from neighbouring Broadstairs SC, also knew how to cope with the sea state and was best able to keep Simon in his sights. Veronica Falat, Simon Herrington and Phil Halldron were the next chasing group but many others succumbed to capsizes and retirements, and with the beats being into the tide and so feeling like hard work, the fleet became smaller as the afternoon wore on!

After an excellent barbecue on Saturday evening, everyone was looking forward to easier conditions on Sunday and, this time, the forecast didn’t disappoint! Sunday’s racing was in a nice force 3 with a brilliant blue sky, blue sea and the need for plenty of suncream! The breeze was still from the south but the tide was flooding, so the beats felt quite short and the emphasis was now on the long downwind legs and in judging how much allowance to make for the tide on the reaches.

Sunday’s first race (race 4) saw most of the fleet arrive closely packed at the first mark but it was Dave Adams, Veronica Falat and Chris Smith who managed to pull clear and they finished in that order, with Simon Cory in 4^th. Race 5 was won by Veronica with Dave 2^nd and Simon Herrington 3^rd. Simon Cory was again 4^th which started to make the points scores look interesting but he made a good start in the final race. Dave was first to the first mark but Simon was right behind him and, on the downwind legs, Simon sneaked ahead. Veronica managed to overtake Dave on the next beat and close up on Simon but Simon took the win and the championship.

This was an excellent event. Thank you to Downs SC for all the help with launching and recovery of boats on the steep shingle beach – and for the good racing. The only disappointment was in the low number of visiting boats. Hopefully more people in the class will give this venue a try. The Streaker fleet at Downs is well into double figures and one of the strongest in the club. Some of the sailors are relatively inexperienced so some prizes were awarded to the ‘Rookie’ section of the fleet, many of whom were very plucky in giving Saturday’s conditions a go!   

Saturday’s 3 races count towards the North Sails Southern Paddle series and the event provided the chance to present Simon Herrington with the North Sail he won in the prize draw at the end of last year’s series.

The overall results of the Southern Championships count towards the 2022 Rooster Super Series which got underway with the Inlands a week earlier. The next event in this series will be the Northerns at Hykeham in mid-June.

With 4 race wins Simon Cory is certainly a very deserving winner of the Southern Championship and, as someone said, it must be his trophy as it has his name all over it – he has won it 5 times before in the 1990s!