(photo: Border Photos)

The week before the August Bank Holiday Janet and John Woffinden took Albacore "Blackadder" to the Royal Torbay Regatta.  With the Albacore National Championships at the end of the same week, it was an ideal tune up regatta, especially as Janet (who learnt to sail just last year on a MSC Level 2 course) had only a couple of weekends experience on the sea.

After an number of late nights working on the boat during the previous two weeks, the boat was ready, the kids were dropped off at their Aunt's in Poole and we set off for Torquay.

The welcome at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club was very warm, they even laid on the Red Arrows just for us!  This was followed by the Commodore's reception at the Yacht Club where we met up with others in the Albacore fleet.  The regatta had attracted 7 Albacores who had been given their own class start.

Despite a mix up over class flags on the first day Blackadder got off to a flying start and, aided with a little local knowledge of the tidal flows (gleaned from a friendly native in the dinghy park), took the gun for her maiden win. Race 2 consolidated our position with a second place, not being able to match the pace of Jean Simmonds in "Supersonic".  That night Torquay laid on a fantastic firework display especially for us to celebrate our win.

The start of the next days racing was postponed as we waited for the wind to settle, perhaps it was the lighter winds or maybe it was the result of the previous night's celebrations but we were unable to match the pace set by Jean as she took two bullets, with Blackadder taking a fourth and a second. 

The final day of the regatta saw Albacore "Dog Woof" at last get the better of Blackadder after some very close racing all week, however we took third place in the fifth race to secure second overall.  With second place in the bag, a more risky strategy was adopted in the final race with the aim of another bit of silverware, but with a 720 penalty behind us we ended the regatta the same way we started - with a gun. However this time it wasn't for winning - it was to tell the rescue crews they could head for home as we were the last boat of all to finish!

Full results on the RTYC site here.

Overall we had a fantastic time and would recommend taking the time out to pack your boat up and head of for one of the many regattas held around the coast during the summer.

Photos from Border Photos and cj-nautical-imaging (More Torquay Albacore Photos here.)