The eyes of the sailing world were on Falmouth last week as it hosted the first regatta to go ahead on the south coast since the start of the pandemic.

While similar sailing events all over the world have had to be cancelled over the past few months, Falmouth Sailing Week was able to go ahead successfully - albeit in a modified and shortened format.

The Port of Falmouth Sailing Association’s organising committee – which is made up of members of the six local sailing and yacht clubs – worked tirelessly over a period of several months to overcome all the difficulties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A last minute flurry of entries saw 119 boats entering the event which, although fewer than in normal years, was significantly more than expected.

As usual the boats were spilt into two groups, one of which raced in Falmouth Bay and the other in the Carrick Roads.

Falmouth Packet:

Action from on the water

The event was dominated by light and variable winds during all four days but, despite that, the race management teams were able to run all seven scheduled races.

These included the Champagne Race sponsored by Ancasta on Wednesday, and then a series of six races over the following three days, sponsored by Hine Downing in the Bay and Mylor Yacht Harbour in the Roads.

In the Hine Downing Bay Fleet, Sarah Roby’s Charisma 22 Chiot Noir and John Hicks’ Corby 25 Macavity had a clean sweep of first places in their respective classes in the three-day series, while Ollie Berryman’s SJ320 Seajade and David Cunliffe’s Laser 28 Encore dominated their classes, the latter winning the Ancasta Champagne Race for good measure.

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Meanwhile in the Mylor Yacht Harbour Carrick Roads Fleet, Roger Ford’s Audry and Paul Pullen’s Pintail were level on points at the end of the series, with Audry taking overall victory after a tie break was initiated.

All six races of the series were won by John Howard’s Polythemus in the Ajax class, Martin and Samantha English’s Contagion in the Handicap Dayboat class and Lionel Hoare’s Merlin in the St Mawes One Design class.

Falmouth Packet:

A total of 119 boats entered the racing

The event’s biggest class was the Shrimpers with 20 entries, and this was won comfortably by Tony Wright’s Firefly.

There were also class victories for David Spargo’s Jean Genie (Falmouth Gaffers), Peter Knight’s Serena (Nordic Folkboats), Chris Hunt’s Comffortably Numb (Flying Fifteens) and Charles Taylor’s Piccolino (Piper/Rustlers).

Full results of the four days of racing can be found at www.pofsa.co.uk/20/FSW20

It had already been announced earlier this year that the shoreside aspects of Falmouth Week had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Falmouth Week plans to return in full on and off the water from August 6 to 15, 2021.