Class winners were:
RS800 - Steve Irish / Martin Gotrel
B14 - Nils Jolliffe / Jon Branch
I14 - Paul Brotherton / Zeb Elliott
29er - Dylan Fletcher / Rob Pertridge
Musto Skiff/RS700 - Ian Turnbull (MS)

It seems that the meeting of the Musto Skiff and the RS700 in the Holt Tide Ride caused some speculation as to who came off best. I have therefore added the full results sheets for all the races to the results pages - go to the Tide Ride results and follow the links there. This is for all the classes racing not just the Musto Skiff and RS700.

The Holt Tide Ride at Hayling Island Sailing club attracted a strong fleet of 24 29ers. As usually the tide was ripping and provided a great challenge to the 9er fleet who were sailing over winner bank. Saturday consisted of 4 races making up the ranking series. Everyone was expecting it to pay to go left into shallow water to get out of the tide but this was found not to be the case. Race 1 saw 7-8 knots with Sophie White and Catherine Alton taking first. The 2 gates downwind caught a lot of competitors out making tight and exciting racing.

Sophie and Cat got a good start in race 2 and got the tactics right winning their 2nd race of the weekend. The Team Holt pairing of Dylan Fletcher and Rob Partridge came in 2nd, followed by Ed Chapman and Gemma McIntyre in 3rd.

By the 3rd race most of the fleet had realised it was paying to play the shifts up the middle of the beat and this time the result was Dylan and Rob coming in 1st with Phil Walker and Matt Gotrel in 2nd.

Again in the last race it paid to start on the starboard end of the line and get the consistent lift on starboard. Dylan and Rob started on top of the fleet on starboard and got the first shift, they then kept their lead for the entire race.

At the end of day 1 Phil Walker and Matt Gotrel were the leaders being the most consistent throughout the day. Dylan and Rob were in 2nd on equal points with Sarah Martin and Nicola Groves in 3rd. Mixed results after the first days racing showed how tight the racing was and everything was still to play for on Sunday.

For Sundays racing the fleet was split into 2 groups for the semi-finals with the top 6 boats from each race going through to the Final race. The rest of the fleet sailed the Repecharge race to decide their overall standings. After a postponement due to lack of wind the 9er racing took place to the North of Sandy Point. 8 knots and a strong incoming tide soon built up to 10-12knots for the Finals in a slackening tide.

The Semi-Finals brought some new faces to the front of the fleet and pushed some back. The qualification series winners Phil and matt didn't make the top 6 in their semi-final race leaving the door open for someone else.

The Final was by far the most exciting and close race; after the start Sarah and Nicola had to take a penalty after they tacked too close to Dylan and Rob. This put Sarah and Nicola to the back but they managed to gain some places back by the windward mark. David Hall and Mari Shepherd got the best start of the fleet and with good speed and tactics they lead round the first windward mark. There were some more position changes downwind with some very tight racing and plenty of gybes to get through the 2 tight and closely placed downwind gates.

The top 5 were very close together rounding the windward mark for the 2nd time, but with Dave and Mari still ahead, there were some big position changes downwind pushing Dave and Mari back to 4th, bringing Sophie and Cat to the front to win the final race. This was followed by James Peters and Neil Jones who sailed an excellent race coming 2nd just behind Sophie and Cat with Oscar McVie and John Mather in 3rd. Coming in 5th was Dylan and Rob. Overall Sophie and Cat were on equal points counting a 6th and a 1st with Dylan and Rob counting a 2nd and 5th. However the tiebreak system for the tide ride was highest position in the qualification series (much to the disappointment of Sophie and Catherine!).

So 2005 29er tide ride champions are; Team Holt- Dylan Fletcher and Rob Partridge, closely followed by Sophie White and Catherine Alton in 2nd and Dave Hall and Mari Shepherd in 3rd.

Thanks to Holt for Sponsoring the event and Hayling Island Sailing Club for hosting the event. It was an exciting and close Tide Ride, that threw up a few surprises and was a great event once again.