Designed by Uffa Fox in 1947 on the Isle of Wight, Flying Fifteens are still being built and sailed at various clubs around the UK as well as in Europe, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand, but one of the biggest fleets is based at Bewl. They can be seen racing on Sundays throughout the year.
The first round of open events organized by Bewl Sailing Association in this anniversary year, with prizes sponsored by Hoad's, was sailed at Bewl Water over the weekend of 8th and 9th April. Visitors from as far away as Nottingham and Bristol joined some of the home fleet in the five-race series spread over two days.
Under beautiful sunny skies, the fairly light winds produced some challenging but exciting racing. Ian Cadwallader and his crew Dave Sweet from Chew Valley Sailing Club took the winners’ trophy home, with Robert Hogben and Glyn Morgan best Bewl boat.
The results are shown at http://bewlsailing.club/Results and a full report appears on the Yachts & Yachting website at http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/195311.
Photographs courtesy of Claudette Povey and Martin Dennant.