Page 51 - Folk Boat Year Book 2022

Folkboat Week 2021 by David Fox Chairman of the Association

The 56th Folkboat Week was sailed all week long under a very big and slow moving
Northerly high-pressure centre that fortunately had plenty of spacing between its
isobars. This gave us north winds which can produce cold temperatures, but we had
some sun in the middle and end of the days and a sailing breeze that rose and fell
across the day.

The biggest challenge to both competitors and the Race Officer team were the huge
spring tides and just how fast and when they were changing through the days. It
made for plenty of good tactical planning to make the most of the tide.

The opening Saturday night registration and dinner was very well attended and gave
people the chance to meet old friends, unlike last year’s strict COVID constraints. The
change of the social start time to 6 pm made it possible, for those using the ferry from
Lymington, to catch the last one home! After a fabulous evening.

Also New this year was the use of “WhatsApp” to help keep competitors advised of
what was happening. It also produced some lovely on the water racing photos in
addition to requests for crew needed, spare Spinnaker Pole, battens and a chance to
say thanks or contact fellow competitors wherever they were.

We were also pleased to welcome some new boats to the fleet for the first time and
sailed by crew that had family history to this event many years ago. Although the
current boat names had changed the sail number gave us the history of the boat.

Sunday gave us two races in a 11-17 knots breeze with wind in the northwest and a
Bouldnor Bay Committee boat start line with 28 Nordic and then the 6 classics on the
start line. With the
fleet all desperate
to make their mark
at the beginning of
the week there was
a general recall if
you could hear it
above the shouting
for water!
The restart under
Black Flag produced a much more controlled line. The second race was seriously
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