HSC RAR 2020 Report

HSC RAR 2020

What a great event! Even if I say so myself. The weather was way better than the forecast although there was always likely to be some rough waters around the north coast of Anglesey.

As the traditional Round Anglesey Race was not being held this year due to Covid-19 and had not been well supported over the last couple of years we had been discussing a different Round Anglesey Race [RAR]; a two stage race starting at Holyhead Harbour and sailing clockwise round to Menai Bridge on the Saturday; then sailing from Menai Bridge to Holyhead, again clockwise, on the Sunday.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdown features we’ve been trying to engage with more of our members on a regular basis and to get them interested in spending more time on the water so we’re keen to share the local knowledge of our long term sailing members. Over the last couple of years I had been in conversation with Matt Heald at LYC and Cris Miles from Conwy looking at the pros and cons of a modification to the race format. Whilst there is still a goal to have both races, the single race from Menai Bridge round ending at Menai Bridge and a 2 stage race the circumstances of this year gave us the opportunity to test the theory. Clearly this was a very late decision and a clash with the IRC Welsh Championships at Pwllheli so it was unrealistic to expect many entries from other clubs. Of course the issue of no marina for the visiting yachts at Holyhead makes it more difficult to get additional boats from other clubs at this time. For some reason many yachties are not in favour of swinging moorings even those with an efficient launch service like here at Holyhead.