CYC Cruiser Fleet Report 2018

The 2018 season started well with our Easter Series attracting five boats. Mehala took the first race and the Habit Cup for the first win of the season and went on to win the series.

In general, series races this year have not been as successful as I would have liked despite opening our races up to any local boat. We have not succeeded in attracting as many boats as we hoped and on many occasions races had to be abandoned after only one boat declared an interest to race. On the positive side we have now attracted a core of smaller cruisers to racing and they have taken on some challenging sea states at times. Pip has been the most consistent boat since Pete Harrison purchased her just before the Autumn Series. We now need to encourage him to join CYC! The most successful series this year was the Quay Marinas race series with ten boats competing overall over three races with at least five boats in each race.

The Llandudno race attracted a fleet of nine boats including four cruisers and five CODs. Margaret II regained the trophy after Minx 2 managed to sail into a hole showing the fleet where to avoid!

After failing to attract enough entries to run the Conwy River Festival in 2017 the CRF committee adopted a new format for the Festival this year, with CYC organising the races over one weekend and NWCC the Lala rally the weekend after. The weather caused some frustration for our race officers on day one but they managed to put a race together and after an extended lunch in the sun the fleet got away. With more wind the next day the fleet enjoyed great racing. Twenty three boats competed across four fleets joined by five Nobbies and Classics.

On behalf of the Cruiser fleet I would like to thank our race officers for setting the courses and running our races throughout the year.

Here’s hoping for fair winds and healthy fleet numbers in 2019

Karl Quirk
Cruiser Fleet Rep