2026 RG65 TT1 at Bournville RS & MBC, Saturday 21st February.

An impressive 18 boats entered for the first round of the 2026 RG65 TT Series held at Bournville RS&MBC on Saturday 21^st February. With 2 no-shows, 16 boats representing 8 different clubs from as far a field as Fleetwood, Etherow, Datchet and Woodspring gathered in fine and mild conditions. The sheltered position of the Bournville pool meant the fleet were untroubled by the high 30+ mph gusts forecast, the light predominantly SW wind blowing diagonally down the pool from the clubhouse bank. Full height swing rigs were the order of the day.

RO Peter Court initially set a three-buoy course beating to a starboard rounding windward mark in the bay near the clubhouse, followed by a wing mark and then a run down to a starboard leeward mark in an effort to optimise the beat in the skewed wind direction. A short finishing line was set between a shore post and the windward mark with a course length of 2½ laps by the end of which there was still much place changing. To alleviate congestion at the leeward mark, the course was later changed to use a leeward gate which later had to be skewed to encourage proper functioning.

In the first 4 pre-coffee break races, Alan Bennett (Ivy) continued his strong performances of last season by showing his mastery of the challenging conditions on his first visit to Bournville recording 3 wins and a 3^rd, closely followed by Tobias Laux sailing his own 3D printed design (Proto 1) and the ever-consistent Dorian Crease (Uno). This trend was to continue throughout the day with these 3 showing the greatest consistency followed by Rohan Williams who led the chasing pack. Apart from these 4, race wins were also recorded by Paul Middleton (2) and Roger Hopper (1).

By 3.15pm, 13 races had been completed and in a rapidly dying wind, the skippers agreed to call it a day, fortuitously as rain then began to descend.

Final overall prizewinning results were 1^st Alan Bennett 21pts, 2^nd Tobi Laux 26pts, 3^rd Dorian Crease 36pts, 4^th Rohan Williams 46pts.

Full set of results are here: RG65 TT1

Thanks are due to the PRO Peter Court and his hard-working race team of Ian Green, Martin Taylor and Bill Green who kept the proceedings running smoothly.

Report by Roger Hopper.

Pictures by Bill Green.