The 2019 VPRS Nationals were organised by Chichester Cruiser Racing Club on Sunday 26th May. Competitors converged on Cowes with the contingent from Poole and the contingent from Chichester each holding passage races on their way to take part. The VPRS handicap system is now used by some seventeen clubs and six of these clubs were represented – though this is complicated by some being members of multiple clubs. Competitors had handicaps varying from 1.16 to 0.773 so the fleet was divided into two classes.
The night before the races the crews came together for a dinner attended by over 70 people at Island Sailing Club and this was concluded by a briefing for the next day.
Sunday morning came with the promise of some fresh breezes but nearly all those booked headed out to a start line east of Bramble Bank. Here the two classes had three races each with those in class 2 having slightly shorter courses. For class 1 the first race was some 7.6 miles rounding 5 marks plus the start and finish; class 2 had a shorter version of this course and started 5 minutes later. The second race was a simpler windward/leeward course with class 1 repeating it three times to make a distance of 8 miles; class 2 completed this only twice. The third race, but which time the wind had strengthened to be frequently 25 knots, for class 1 was more varied again and 5.3 miles long; with class 2 again having a slightly shorter variation.
By 4:15pm all had finished racing and were returning to Cowes.
All competitors then gathered in Cowes Corinthian Sailing Club for the prize giving with the whole list of positions announced and prizes going to the first three boats in each class of the series (single race discarded).
Full results are published here but notable (for CCRC) were Intrepid coming second in class 1 and Folkdance coming third in class 2.
Next day the Poole and Chichester contingents each had passage races to return home.
Our thanks to Pam and Richard for organising the event.
Pictures from Anne Bonwit and there are more on the web site https://www.ccrc.co.uk/vprs-nationals-2019-report/
