Page 26 - Folk Boat Year Book 2023

Folkboat Week 2022 by David Fox

Folkboat Week held at Yarmouth IOW, embraces both the strict one design Nordic
boats along with the cruisers and other derivatives like the Mariholm. They race in
separate classes with appropriate handicaps for the cruisers.

As always, it is the mixture of the camaraderie, racing, daily prize giving and the social
program, that makes this event the highlight of the Folkboat calendar.

The week starts with a Saturday night opening buffet and the chance to catch up with
old friends, getting ready for the racing to begin. The mixture of round the cans,
Windward Leewards and the longer 6-hour races provides something for everyone
including the cruiser division that have their own starts.

So, did we have a stunning summer regatta or was it not the best sailing weather of
the year?

The Christchurch Ledge race with the always difficult choices around Hurst Castle to
decide when to head out to the Christchurch buoy. Trying to spot a really small white
mark has its challenges! This year the strong tide pushed both fleets down to Hurst
with the wind providing a fast broad reach to the mark saw the fleets returning in the
shortest time ever, 2 hrs 16 minutes by the winner Ed Donald, in F 707. Unusually,
there were no big seas once past Hurst Castle, just the normal channel swell that so
suits the Folkboat design. The cruisers also sailed free and fast with the winner
finishing ahead of some of the open Nordic division boats! The winner F461
“Mistress“ with Colin Eales showing his mastery of the open sea.

This year is the 80th anniversary of Folkboats, so with a special race that started with
a mist over the Solent so that the first mark was not even visible until very close! With

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