Stride & Son Masters Regatta 2025 at Bosham Sailing Club

Tideways and scows closing on the finish line - Bosham Masters Regatta © Mike Hulme / www.boshamdrones.co.uk

In great sailing conditions, 54 boats ranging from classic National 18s, Yachting World Dayboats (YWDB), Devon Yawls to smaller Scows, Tideways, and Lasers competed in the recent 2025 Bosham Sailing Club Masters Regatta, kindly sponsored by local estate agents Stride & Son.

Held over three days and only open to sailors aged over 18, sailing was competitive, with two races per day for each class. The fast and medium fleets started both races from a committee boat in Itchenor reach, with the slow fleets starting from Bosham Quay before joining the rest of the fleets out in the harbour. Fleets finished the last race each day sailing up Bosham Channel to the quay line.

In sunny conditions throughout, the first day of the Regatta saw a fickle a NNE 4-5 knot wind for racing which was just enough for boats to get round. For the 18s the SW sea breeze did not fill in sufficiently to allow them to run home up the channel and they had a very close and tricky light wind beat home against the tide. The breeze did fill in from behind for the other fleets and there were some very close finishes.

On Saturday, racing was postponed for to allow for the sea breeze to kick in and at 12:30 on the dot it came in, providing a SW breeze of 8-10 knots for both races.

The final day of the Regatta was always scheduled to start an hour later and sure enough the sea breeze was in with starts in 9-10 knots from the SSW which eased for the second race.

Alongside the Masters Regatta, open meetings were also held over two of the three days for Yachting World Dayboats and Devon Yawls.

The racing was complemented by a packed programme of social events including a quiz night, DJ Mark Covell's Après Sail party night (kindly sponsored by ski company Peak Feeling) and a more relaxed jazz evening with dinner.

Category winners:

Masters Classic Dayboat (CDB) Fast : Matthew Gray - National 18
Masters Fast Handicap : Ian Swann - ILCA 7
Masters Medium Handicap : Gregor Grant - Fairey Falcon
Masters Yachting World Dayboat : Tim Wilcock
Masters Devon Yawl : Ken Harper
Masters Tideway : Peter Shaw
Masters Scow and overall Masters Winner : Judy Roberts
Yachting World Dayboat Open : James Hewitt
Devon Yawl Open : Ken Harper

Full results for each fleet: www.boshamsailingclub.com/results