KYC Regatta Reports

2025-07 Shark Golden Horseshoe Regatta RHYC

This past weekend, Jonathan Livingston Seagull took part in the annual Golden Horseshoe Regatta held in Hamilton with host club Royal Hamilton Yacht Club.

16 boats registered for the event.  8 races were sailed over two days.

Saturday's race started at 1100 and the wind was SE blowing from the coal pile from the steel mill.   I remember the first time going to Hamilton and Don Ruddy said sail to the coal pile first and that advice many years ago still holds true.  One gets lifted on port tack heading up to the plant and then tacks over and gets lifted up to the mark.  Many boats sailed the right side of the course to take advantage of this.   After racing was done for the day, we sailed 4 races and JLS was sitting in second place behind local boat Rocket Appliance who had a really good first day.

Sunday we started at 1000 and waited for the wind to fill in.  It was almost 1100 when the wind filled in from the NW.   This wind was very shifty with winds swinging 30 degrees.  Patience and looking for the opportunities in the wind strength and direction were key to the day’s sailing.  

We had Matt Fair and James Fair calling the pressure and looking for the shifts, managing to navigate JLS on all the lifts to make our way to the front in all four races.   We sailed 4 races and finished with 3 firsts and a second only to hear that the boat who finished first had a protest in the race.  Later they dropped out of the race which gave us 4 firsts for the day.

Congrats to Matt, James and Peter for winning the Golden Horseshoe Regatta.