THE National Redwing Sailing championships were held in Looe, Cornwall recently.

In extreme sailing conditions described as ‘brutal’ by the Cornish sailors the Redwings battled their way through four races despite mast and gear breakages.

Despite challenging windy weather conditions all competitors fully enjoyed the championships.

Bill and Nan Dowell sailing Redwing 228 from Tenby brought home the ‘Neville Stace Trophy for first Tenby Redwing’.

Tenby sailing Club has long had a fleet of Redwing sailing dinghies which is now growing again.

Next year Tenby will once again be hosting the Redwing Championships, their previous visit being 2022.

Friday 13 September, saw the penultimate race of this season’s Redwing series.

A lovely South Westerly 3-4 greeted the fleet for three laps of a port triangle course.

As the season draws to a close, points are valuable which saw two boats sporting beautiful new sails for the outing.

Bill overhauling Dan on the downwind leg
Bill overhauling Dan on the downwind leg (Supplied)

A hotly contested downwind start line allowed 241 Dan and Steve Stubbs to lead the fleet on the first reach out towards Pendine.

Some tide on the second leg allowed 228 Bill and Nan to sneak through to leeward of R178, Jules and Michelle, as things hotted up.

On the upwind leg there was a shift in the wind to the right which allowed R190 Alex and Peter Prosser to get on the inside of 178.

On lap three, R228 brutally stole the wind of R241 on the first reach which was now a dead run, coasted past and sailed away looking hot with her new sails.

On the beat back to the finish 241 tacked some beautiful shifts to repass 228 and take the win.

The race for third hotted up as 178’s new sails came into their own, closing the gap on 190 but it was too little too late. If only there was another lap!

Results: 1, R241; 2, R228; 3, R190; 4, R178.

Cruiser Racing: After a season of disappointments with not enough wind, Sunday came up with a SW force 5/6 for the last race of the season.

Seren and Slipstream took advantage to sail to Giltar, North Highcliff, and back in 50 minutes, but had a thoroughly good soaking in the poor visibility and driving rain, with Seren in first place

October 4th has been set for the Annual Lift Out.

Junior training: The end of season social and awarding of qualifications is taking place this evening (September 18th).

Clubhouse: As the summer season closes, members can enjoy an end of season party on Friday, September 28th, and the return of Terry Evans’ brain teasing quizzes, the first being on Saturday, 5th October at 8pm.