Raph Harvey storms to victory in Stormchaser regatta

(CISC): The Cayman Islands Sailing Club was host to the 3rd annual Stormchaser dinghy regatta last weekend and the weather proved to be suitably stormy. The Stormchaser regatta was introduced to mark the arrival of the hurricane season and takes place in June every year. Sailors had been watching the forecast all week, which was showing winds up to 20 knots and above. On Saturday, the first day of the regatta, winds were high and the North Sound was white with wave action. The youth event was called off but the more intrepid adults made their way out to the race course and revelled in the strong conditions. The first race saw the coaches, Raph Harvey and Kelvin Brown, take the top two places but Rob Jackson bounced back to take the 2nd race. 

Last year’s winner, Nick Taylor, had suffered equipment failure in the first race but after coming ashore to change boats rejoined the racing and took three third places. The course was fairly long and with the strong conditions there were some weary sailors on shore after racing was over. Raph was leading by just one point from Rob Jackson with Kelvin in third place.

Sunday saw no respite in the weather and the winds had actually become stronger. With three races still to sail the racers knew that they had to sail hard just to keep their rankings and harder still to overtake their opponents.

In the first race Rob Jackson had overcome a slow start and was storming through the field on the upwind beat when his mast broke and he had to be towed to land to replace it. Eduardo Bernal took advantage of the Jackson retirement to record a second place, his best result of the regatta. Christopher Delaney was also sailing much better and took two thirds and a second place. However there was no stopping Raph Harvey, who had come out determined to hold on to first place, and he sailed three great races, winning them all.

The trophy was presented by principal race officer Peta Adams, who made special mention of how dominant Raph had been. “The conditions were tough out there and fitnessplayed a large part but the skills of all the sailors had shown vast improvements over the past couple of years and it was great to see a good turnout.”

Stormchaser is sponsored by Cayman Distributors and Red Stripe and club manager Rick Caley expressed his gratitude to Frank Roulstone and his team who had supplied refreshments. “The sailors gave their all out there and appreciated the Red Stripe after racing”.

The Cat Boats have traditionally joined in the Stormchaser regatta but the conditions were just too much. Organisers hope to run a make up regatta for them in the near future. The Youth Stormchaser will be run this Sunday June 12th at 11 am.

For more information about the sailing programme at CISC, please contact us at 947 7913 or email admin@sailing.ky.