THE delightful and picturesque New Quay Bay enjoyed sparkling conditions and fresh breezes for the 150th Cardigan Bay Regatta, writes Chris Seal.

The numbers of all competitors were on a par with those of previous years (15 keelboats and 15 dinghies entered). There were some notable absentees including Steffan Williams who was away at the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds, where he accelerated into the UK silver fleet and now has been selected for the GB Youth Squad.

However, the increasing number of Hawk 20s provided close class keelboat racing, as well as the traditional IRC and Byron fleets.

There were two keelboat feeder races – the one from Fishguard, that was won by Drycin Bach (Hunter Duette), Jonathan Price-Jones and one from Cardigan won by Harlequin (Westerly Konsort) – Hefin Davies, who all had fun spinnaker reaches up the coast

Laughing Jackass (John Tildesley and Huw Jones-Williams) cruised the 25 miles across the bay from the Dovey estuary.

The dinghies had entered from as far away as Derbyshire, North Wales, South Wales, Cornwall and Pembrokeshire and they enjoyed two long, hard days of thrilling ‘champagne’ sailing.

Sadly, the third day was assessed as too high risk for dinghies as the Northerly blow against the tide race threw up big waves and confused seas. Only one Keelboat race was run on day three before they all headed onto their moorings early as well.

We were joined by our local friends from Dovey YC, Tresaith Mariners SC and Aberaeron YC – the latter braving the obstacle course of their harbour’s breakwater and newly created sandy beach to sail down to New Quay.

The inshore and family events were very well supported and, of course, were great fun - including sea swimming races for all ages, SUP races, crabbing, sand building, barrel-filling and ‘Briwydd’ (home-crafted model boats), along with the surprise return of the Odd Job Boat Race, which garnered much interest from the tourists as well as local support - being won by the Howells Family from Tresaith.

The prizes were presented by regatta president Susan Noormohamed, a long-time volunteer on the CBR Inshore Sports Committee, like her parents before her.

The Hawk dayboat fleet consisted of seven boats: Sprite (Crawford McLeary), Ettie (Rosie Davies), Bobble (Steve Berry), Laughing Jackass (John Tildesley) , Vixen (Martin Wood), Aeshna (Martin Lloyd Evans/Peter Heard) and Blue Tack (Nick James) who had a right old ‘ding-dong’ over the event, with Bobble emerging as top dog overall on IRC and Laughing Jackass under Byron.

However, the IRC boats, along with Chris Seal’s Brainstorm (Super Seal 26), Mark Willis’ Katabatic (Beneteau FC8), the Evans family’s Rev Band (Parker 27) and young Henry Powell’s Avoceta (Parker 275) with all crew sub 20 years also had three tough races, along with NQYC Commodore Rees-Tom Jones’ True Companion (Fulmar 32), Drycin Bach and Harlequin .

The main day races for two ‘big cups’ under IRC were won by Brainstorm (who had been OCS at the start and made a fine recovery to win from Katabatic) and Bobble.

The ‘windy and lumpy race’ on the last day, in a most-confused sea, was also won by Brainstorm.

However, Brainstorm had been on Dinghy Race Committee duties for the second race on the main day and had to count a DNS (no discards in CBR – hard rules here) for the series, so, Bobble, who had been the most consistent performer overall, pipped Katabatic and was crowned IRC champion, Drycin Bach was also first bilge-keeler and Aberaeron yacht.

In the non-IRC fleet, using the Byron system, Jones family’s Cadenza (Super Seal 26), Carl Rich’s Blythe Spirit (Parker 285) and the Davies family’s Horizon (Jeanneau 2000) all enjoyed the racing alongside the Hawks that were not IRC rated.

John Tildesley/Huw Jones Williams in Laughing Jackass (DYC) came out on top of this fleet, beating the newest addition to the Hawk fleet, Aeshna (Martin Lloyd Evans/Peter Heard) who, sadly, had to count a RTD after their main halyard gave way in windy conditions on Day 2.

Aeshna was, at the time, looking highly likely to win the second race and was, probably, the fastest Hawk in the fleet.

But, as there was no Hawk level-rating trophy, NQYC ran a theoretical boat-for-boat series after the event - with one discard (as per RYA recs) for a three-race series. As it happened, Bobble still won by one point from Aeshna, with Laughing Jackass third.

In the dinghies, both days enjoyed big waves and a cracking 15 knot westerly breeze, increasing to 20kts on the afternoon of Day 2 and for Day 3 - but the sun seemed to shine mostly and it was ‘champagne’ conditions.

In a break from tradition and the exclusive use of pierhead with fixed line starts, the final dinghy race of each day was run off a committee boat start (using Brainstorm) using windward/leeward laid courses and gates, a concept which was widely complimented, even if the wind was very shifty.

The ‘3 Amigos’ from Pembrokeshire YC (Alan Watkins, Julian Owens and Christian Smart) in their smart Hartley Boats’ Blazes dominated throughout, but Jonny Everett, a Welsh Topper/Laser Youth Coach, in a smoothly-sailed Phantom (Llandegfedd) and Verity and Jono Cunliffe (Helford River) in a very well-handled (if ageing) club Laser 2k gave them a good run for their money at times.

The silverware was mostly shared amongst the 3 Amigos but the winner overall (and over 45 Master) was Christian Smart.

There were plenty more competitors, all who had a great time. Verity Cunliffe was Ladies Champion and in the ‘Young Rock Star’ category, her son, Ruben Cunliffe won the Youth Helm (6th overall) in a borrowed Topper, with Henry Parker, handling his Tera Sport with skill and aplomb, winning the Most Improved Young Sailor.

There was super work done by the safety crews, the race committee at the end of the pier (and on Brainstorm), along with their support teams ashore over all three days which was much lauded by the competitors, while the New Quay’s pubs and restaurants benefitted from NQYC clubhouse being shut after a fire earlier in the year.

The inshore sports provided a thrilling spectacle, the event ‘merch’ was in high demand and Regatta Dinner/Dance was a fitting finale to the 150th anniversary of this immensely popular town regatta.

Results by SailWave.

Overall IRC: 1, Bobble - Steve Berry (Hawk 20) – NQYC/CBYC; 2, Katabatic - Mark Willis (FC8) – NQYC; 3, Brainstorm – Chris Seal (Super Seal 26 – NQYC

Overall Byron (non-IRC): 1, Laughing Jackass - John Tildesley (Hawk 20) – DYC; 2, Aeshna – Martin Lloyd-Evand and Peter Heard - NQYC; 3, Cadenza – Justyn Jones - NQYC

Hawk 20 (NQYC Level Rating): 1, Bobble; 2, Aeshna; 3, Laughing Jackass

Overall Dinghies: 1. Christian Smart (Blaze) (Pembrokeshire YC); 2, Alan Watkins (Blaze) (PYC); 3, Julian Owens (Blaze) (PYC); 4, Verity and Jono Cunliffe (L2K) (Helford)

1st Youth (u21) - Ruben Cunliffe - Helford SC

1st Master - Christian Smart - PYC

1st Lady – Verity Cunliffe – Helford SC

Most Improved U21 – Henry Parker