In excellent conditions offering bright sunshine and a nice breeze and with a record number of participants, the Atlas Recruitment Trophy race went underway this morning. In two average lap handicap races, Optimists, RS Fevas and Laser Radials battled it out for the attractive wood and glass trophy sponsored by Atlas Recruitment.

“It's great to see the racing so well supported with all the young sailors coming out on the water”, says David Thompson of Atlas Recruitment. “And with the champagne conditions it does not get much better!”

In the first race, Sam Van de Velde in a Laser radial took charge followed by the first RS Feva with Adam Goddard and Hannah Rickards. Among the Optimists, Clementine Thompson established an early lead ahead of Sam Crosby and Poppy Rickards. Towards the end of the race, the wind dropped but the top boats all mastered the changing conditions well and held on to their positions.

The second race saw the wind come back up. Once again, Sam came off to a good start, this time challenged by Laser Radial colleague Nick Parkes. Adam and Hannah yet again took command in the RS Feva fleet ahead of Abigail Tanguy and Malin Asplund thus claiming revenge for the M&G Volvo Penta Summer Series where Abigail and Malin narrowly beat them to the line overall.

In the Optimist class, the battle was intense with the top boats shifting positions throughout. On the last downwind leg, however, Clementine established a narrow lead which she managed to keep to finish ahead of Poppy Rickards and Sam Crosby with only five seconds separating the three!

After some higher school gymnastics with the Portsmouth Yardstick, the overall results came through with Sam Van de Velde in his Laser Radial taking top spot, closely followed by Adam and Hannah in the RS Feva and last year’s winner Clementine in her Optimist in third.

The top three were followed by Sam Crosby in fourth, Poppy Rickards in fifth and Nick Parkes in sixth. Among the young and coming, Phoebe Lewis showed excellent form finishing sixth overall and fourth among the Optimists.

Next weekend , the junior sailors will be back in action on local waters in the PKF Junior Regatta and Admiral Robson Trophy offering two days of racing. 

Photos (from the top): Sam Van de Velde in his Laser Radial taking overall victory in the Atlas Recruitment Trophy; young and coming Optimist sailor Phoebe Lewis finished sixth overall and fourth among the Optimists; Clementine Thompson (5699) leading the Optimist fleet in the first race, ahead of Sam Crosby (6001) and Poppy Rickards (5787) (below).