This year’s Classic Channel Regatta is going to be the best yet, reckons organiser Bruce Thorogood. And the Mylne cutter Kelpie has entered.
Kelpie
Kelpie, the Solent One-Design designed by Mylne and built in 1903, has entered this year’s Classic Channel Regatta. The gaff cutter, measuring 57ft 1in (17.4m) LOD, is presently being worked on at the Fairlie Yard, the last installment of an intermittent programme of work carried out on the boat for enthusiastic British owner Pelham Olive.
The on-and-off nature of the work done up until now, allowed Kelpie a season racing in the Med last year. With her watersail carried under the boom, she cleaned the silverware cupboard out!
Kelpie is, in fact, one of around 60 classic yachts planning to race in the Classic Channel Regatta this year. And organiser Bruce Thorogood reckons it’s set to be the best year yet for the offshore racing regatta that’s been held biennially since 2005.
The entry fee is a record low £175 per boat for the whole regatta, thanks to increased sponsorship and having a French organising team led by Olivier Beau looking after the Paimpol end of things.
For boats not able to do the whole regatta, the fees for the separate parts are: Dartmouth weekend £52, Channel Race £52, Round Brehat Race £22, Paimpol-Guernsey Passage Race £27 and Round Sark Race £22.
Bruce Thorogood sums up the appeal of the regatta: “The Classic Channel Regatta is a unique event that offers you, in just one week, a combination of two days racing around the buoys off Dartmouth, two passage races in the Channel and two round-island races, one around Ile de Brehat at Paimpol and one around Sark in the Channel Islands.”
Add to that the great shoreside food, drink and parties, and you have an unbeatable opportunity to sail your classic where she was most probably designed to go – offshore.
For more information, visit www.classic-channel-regatta.eu
