Snowflake 2026 concludes with close racing to the end.
Published 08:31 on 9 Mar 2026
The final day of the 2026 Snowflake Series delivered a welcome break from the winter rain, even if the sky remained stubbornly grey. A light easterly breeze of 7-10 knots settled across the harbour, setting the stage for two tactically demanding races.
Race Officer Steve Samson set a trapezium course with the committee boat just south of the Birdham Channel and the windward mark tucked up toward the clubhouse. With the start line laid across the channel and the tide rising, Steve warned competitors to treat the line with caution. It proved wise advice: the Fast Fleet bunched tightly at the committee boat end for Race 9, the tide pushing them perilously close, but after some sharp boathandling they all escaped cleanly. The Medium Fleet were equally eager, with one boat forced to return after crossing early.
Fast Fleet Close Racing at the Sharp End
In Race 9, Jack Holden & Rob Gullan in the RS400 showed excellent pace to take a clear win on corrected time. Behind them, the battle for second was exceptionally tight: Henderson & Videlo in the RS200 and Yeomans Merlin Rocket 3777 were separated by just seven seconds on corrected time—remarkable after more than forty minutes of racing. The Hadron H2s also produced a photofinish, with Blackmore and Kelsall only two seconds apart both on the water and on corrected time.
Race 10 followed a similar pattern, with Holden & Gullan completing a dominant double. Once again the fight for second was close, this time with Yeomans Merlin edging the RS200 by just nineteen seconds on corrected time. The midfleet Merlins and H2s also finished in tight clusters, rounding off a day of impressively close racing.
Medium Fleet Tight Corrected Times Throughout
The Medium Fleet produced some of the closest correctedtime spreads of the entire series. In Race 9, Adrian & Roz Stell in the 2000 took a confident win, but the pack behind them was tightly compressed. The RS Aero 7 of Mark Riddington and the ILCA 7 of Charles Porter were separated by just over two minutes on corrected time, and the two Solos of Harper and Butler finished less than a minute apart on the water.
Race 10 saw Alex Butler in the Solo take the win, with the Stells close behind. The correctedtime spread from second to sixth was barely more than a minute and a half, with the 2000s, Aero, ILCA and Solo all finishing within sight of one another. It was a fittingly competitive end to a wellsupported fleet.
Series Overview
The Fast Fleet attracted an impressive 35 entries, with a broad mix of classes—Merlin Rockets, RS400s, RS200s, Hadron H2s, Finn, Blaze, Tasar and DOne among them. The series was ultimately won by Gullan & Holden in the RS400, whose midseries run of wins proved decisive despite early DNCs. Henderson & Videlo in the RS200 took a wellearned second with a string of consistent topthree finishes, while Yeomans Merlin Rocket completed the podium.
The Medium Fleet, with 26 entries, was equally varied, featuring 2000s, Solos, RS Aeros, ILCAs, a Graduate, Vareo and others. Adrian & Roz Stell were the standout performers, winning the series with four race wins and never counting worse than second. Alex Butlers consistency in the Solo secured him second overall, with Riddington in the Aero 7 completing the top three.
Prizegiving
After racing, competitors gathered for the prizegiving, where Helen Green kindly stepped in to present the awards on behalf of the RC Dinghy, currently away on his Clipper Round the World Race adventure. A highlight was the presentation of the Red Merlin Trophy to George Yeoman, fittingly the nephew of Nick Yeoman who was instrumental in introducing Merlins to CYC, As Biddy Colbourne noted, the Merlin Rockets have always enjoyed a warm relationship with CYC, and their strong turnout this year was a welcome continuation of that tradition.
