Prometheus Race Weekend October 2025

This was the first and last Prometheus (formerly Sunsail) regatta for HOEOCA in 2025, with mixed results from 2nd to 4th in a fleet of five, never last but not winning either. As usual, our local completion was Shustoke. We were led excellently by Keith Harding, with a further crew of nine HOEOCA members (Stephanie on the Saturday, Roisin on the Sunday, together with Paul Russell as first mate, Stuart Jones, Mark Parker, Peter Dunn Kate Bould, Pingping Liu, Ben Hudson and Bex Silver, a newbie to racing).

On the back of early pre-event conversations, the focus was on sending out a crew who enjoyed, and could commit to a racing program for 2026, to help once again add more frequent racing activities to the HOEOCA calendar, supported by the appropriate training programs and other club members keen to partake in Round The Cans weekends.

The weekend began with very light wind forecasts and everyone was encouraged to pack their' fairy feet' to help extract the most out of the anticipated conditions. The weekend started with our traditional pre-event dinner at the O Sole Mio Italian restaurant, after which Mark Parker assumed responsibility to taxi our female contingent to their on shore accommodation, as the Prometheus yachts really only cater for 8 sleeping in a degree of comfort.

On Saturday, the winds were super-light – happily more than expected and sailable – at between 2-6 knots, mostly from the North East, including some cyclonic conditions (you know, when the Windex does a gentle circle all by itself). Aside from Shustoke, our competition included the ever-present Neil Pritchard.

Keith had the difficult job of race starts, strategist, skipper, and tuition all in one. The rest of the crew were assigned positions as to their liking and competence. So, we had Stephanie doing nav, Mark, Ben and Paul at the bow, and the rest as pit crew and ballast, where needed. A lot of the time this meant sitting on the rail to leeward. Due to the light winds and tides, short courses were set, typically a single sausage with marks barely a mile apart, but this still took an hour! With Keith making the starts, we were in safe hands. Once the always challenging start line receded, Stuart was given the helm, with Keith offering advice, like keeping the rudder straight more often (difficult given the flukiness of the winds).

In our first race on the Saturday, we got a 3rd, then a second, and then what would have been a first. But the third race was abandoned as it would have been severely over time as the winds dropped. This was a real pity as we were so far ahead! Shustoke gamely tried to reach the upwind mark against tide. This had two consequences. Firstly, it took them three hours to reach the mark, every time thinking they’d make it before tacking yet again. Secondly, it persuaded the race officer it was time to finish for the day. So, off to Cowes for a meal and drink at The Duke of York, followed by a trip to The Anchor where the ladies were going to stay the night.

Wind-wise, we faired a little better on Sunday, with winds up to10 knots, dropping as the day went on nearer to 5 knots. The race officer gamely set 4 races crawling back to Portsmouth. The first race was uneventful, with us coming 3rd. The next race was rather more interesting, as Shustoke decided to ram us in a classic port/starboard on the start line. Another 3rd. At the start line of the second race of the day, we had the extraordinary spectacle of someone else racing, in a small wooden boat, also on port, shouting we should 'get off their race track!!' We politely, but loudly shouted that we were also racing and the open water wasn't solely their race track, and by the way, we are on starboard!!'. We politely explained their error, leaving them still like an angry wasp disappearing very slow into the distance. Again, we got a third. Not too bad.

Our spinnaker work varied from wonderful (where it flew well directly from the upwind mark), to not so good (the occasional foul or slow set), so we think a bit more practice would be in order next year. For the 3rd race of the day, we got a second, not bad in fluky and temperamental winds. By now the most important thing was to just keep moving as the wind dropped to almost nothing and the tide dominated again. Overall, we came fourth, narrowly missing a second. Shustoke upped their game to win. But we never came last!

As usual, we all had a great time. We were a bit over-crewed at ten, but the aim was to get the keenest racers together, ready for 2026, when we plan to compete more in the Prometheus series. Our aim is to build interest to the point where HOEOCA can charter two boats, and we can then do a little team racing of our own as practice.

As an after-event debrief, it was clear that with the scoring margins being so small (only two points separated 2nd and 4th places) sharp spinnaker work is critical. The ability to fly, gybe, drop, repack and represent to the bow team is a key separator between all the teams. Our work was generally workman-like but in two races we dropped at least one if not two scoring positions trying to sort some spinnaker issue out. This was not helped by the fact that when tripping the spinnaker to make a gybe, the guy wouldn't lift out of the beak allowing a smoother and efficient dip pole gybe to be completed. It is crucial to any future racing success that competent spinnaker work is delivered, and all those who attended are in favour of a spinnaker training session to help grow confidence, allow others to partake in bow and pit duties and to deliver a winning performance.

Watch out for further training details but importantly, if anyone has an interest in these fun racing weekends, please come an join us on our next outing early in 2026