This was an eventful weekend. Top of the list was the fact that Tonbridge achieved its highest place finish since first entering the regatta in 2011. After the cancellation of all 2020 events, it was a joy to be back. Our crew, skippered by Peter Impey, sailed over from Portsmouth to Cowes in the gloom of Friday evening, giving us minimal time to familiarise ourselves with this brand-new yacht. Come the dawn we were ready; in the three scheduled fleet races Tonbridge notched up two second place results and one ninth, putting us third overall. But for an unfortunate tack at the final mark in race 2, it is possible we could have taken second place. Such are the fine margins of competitive sailing but, given the appalling conditions which confronted all of us on Saturday, we were limited to sailing with two reefs in and no spinnaker, so it was pleasing that we came through unscathed. Inspite of the strong winds, rain and big gusts, it was genuinely competitive, with Bradfield and Uppingham making our lives difficult throughout. Indeed, the final placings saw Bradfield the winners overall, Uppingham second and Tonbridge third.

After victory at the ATYRA J80 Regatta in April of this year, where Tonbridge were dominant, we were quietly confident of doing well in the bigger boats, though the Arrow Trophy can be a bit of a lottery with the weather.  This year the twenty-six entrants were split into two separate fleets to accommodate the new boats, which were significantly different to the Oceanis 37's. Given that the original intention of the regatta was to race in one-design yachts this seemed a reasonable compromise. OTSA was assigned one of the new Sunsail F41's, Sunsail Zephyr, which our skipper described, with some understatement, as “uncooperative in race conditions”, making the job all the more tricky given that we had to get used to it 'on the job'.  Excuses aside, it was the same for everyone and undoubtedly we were pleased that conditions prevented us from having to hoist the spinnaker…

We were sorry that our Secretary and long-standing skipper, Alistair Impey, was unable to sail with us this year due to illness, but it was largely down to his energy and organisational skills that we mustered a crew and found a boat. We look forward to his return next time.

The 2022 regatta will be held on the weekend of 1^st/2^nd October. Please get in touch via Tonbridge Connect  (https://www.tonbridgeconnect.org/home) if you are interested in joining us, or alternatively via email on (otsailing.sec@gmail.com)

The OTSA also arranges participation in other events: Belvidere Cup and J80 Regatta in April and the Generations Cup/Nick Turner Trophy in May. Please get in touch if any of these interest you.