Posts by Matt Salt

• A feature article was published in the official Cowes Week programme, which you can read through the link below.
• The Victory Class was featured on the cover of the Sis.
• Cowes Week produced an official video celebrating the Class, including interviews with Matt and MC, along with stunning aerial footage of our races. Watch the video here
• On Friday, our start was signaled by the firing of a large RYS cannon!

Sailing Today - Yachts and Yachting also published an article about the Class in their July 2024 magazine

Victory Class celebrates 90 years

Celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2024, the Victory Class is a Cowes Week classic having taken part in the regatta as early as 1938.

The earliest of these sturdy, black-hulled, 21ft clinker dayboats trace their pedigree back to the gaff-rigged Bembridge one-designs, penned by eminent Solent designer Alfred Westmacott (also X One-Design, Mermaid and Sunbeam) and later modified by Sydney Graham – their shallow draft, speed and ease of handling under an updated Bermudan rig ensured a swift rise in popularity as the boat was readily adopted for club racing in and around Portsmouth Harbour. A spinnaker was added, along with the ‘Z’ insignia on the mainsail, and the class forged ahead as a strict one-design. The fleet numbered 29 boats by 1939, many sailed by naval officers, resulting in a number of boats being shipped to Gibraltar; a fleet still exists there today.

By the 50^th anniversary in 1984, there were 32 boats racing for the celebrations in Cowes.

90 years later, and the Victory class has maintained that competitive reputation (a busy calendar sees around 90 races run from Portsmouth in the summer months) and the Class has had no fewer than seven different winners in the last eight Cowes Weeks!

Celebrations for the 90th are set to be memorable, with a BBQ planned on the Monday night in Cowes to celebrate the Westmacott Trophy, followed by a special Class dinner on the Thursday evening.

Even as it celebrates its many years of successful racing, the Victory class is also embracing its future. Since the launch in 2007 of a GRP Victory, developed by the Class association and built by David Heritage Yachting, numbers racing have shown an upwards trend, with several new boats bolstering this very active and much-loved fleet.

Six Victorys raced over to Seaview on Friday afternoon in quite bouncy conditions. First to finish on the SVYC line was Zilch (Z75) helmed by John Scammell; second was Zelia (Z54 - Geoff Dixon) and third was Zada (Z79 - Nick Benham). Z48 Isabel helmed by Jim Downing tacked early only to find himself rather close to the swimmers on Seaview beach! Subsequently they were joined by Zircon (67 - James Jopling) and on Saturday morning by Seagull (Z73 - Jim Page). After a very jovial informal supper at SVYC on Friday evening, crews met up on the staging mid morning on Saturday and as planned had a relatively short one round race around the SVYC buoys.

Victory Start 1 Saturday - https://youtu.be/o3z4pSx7na4

Looking completely in control, and making their spinnaker work well on the run to the leeward mark, Zilch (Z75) was the first to cross the finish line ahead of Zada (Z79) second and Zelia (Z54) third. With the fickle SSE’erly breeze coming and going, the third race was essentially a passage race to Under Tyne - a challenging beat as it turned out.

After a tight start close to the inner distance mark. it was soon evident that the front three were going to be the same boats (in the same order) as the previous race.

The final race of the day was another ‘round the cans’ race, making use of Tara as the windward mark, Fitzwilliam as the wing and Britten as the leeward mark; set three times round with the requirement to go through the line to complete each round. After a clean start (just) it was again Zilch (Z75), Zada (Z79) and Zelia (Z54) who lead the fleet as they located the correct buoys in unfamiliar waters.

Victory Start Race 4 Saturday - https://youtu.be/Wcqi1MbOg7o

Although the front group seemed to make light work of the fickle breeze, the bottom few boats struggled to stem the increasingly strengthening tide taking boats, against their wishes, back to Seaview. Indeed Dolphin (Z9) realised that they were on a looser so sensibly decided to retire and use their outboard to help them to the overnight moorings at Under Tyne. As the leaders had already taken an hour and a half as they came to complete the second round, the third round was abandoned and the S Flag (shorten course) was displayed.

After an excellent bbq at BSC on Saturday evening, it had been agreed that crews would meet at BSC the following morning at 10:15 to be ferried out to the Under Tyne moorings with the aim of the passage race back to Portsmouth starting at 11:00 so as to be off Seaview at 11:30 when the Red Arrows were doing a display over Ryde Sands. In the event it took a couple of boats a bit longer to rig but with the breeze holding and despite the very biased line, the seven Victory’s (Zada Z79 having returned the previous late afternoon) and although it was a beat all the way, good progress was made and they were treated to their own display overhead! Also a timely reminder for some of how far out Ryde Sands stretches! Self finishing off Suffolk Sails, the front three boats were Z48 - Isabel; Z54 - Zelia and Z70 – Unity who finished within three minutes of each other after a two hour race.

A fun weekend which it is hoped can be repeated again soon. Its been too long since the Victorys were regular visitors to the Eastern Solent.

The final results for the weekend were:

1. Z75 - Zilch

2. Z54 - Zelia

3. Z79 - Zada

4. Z48 - Isabel

5. Z70 - Unity

6. Z9 - Dolphin

7. Z67 - Zircon

8. Z73 - Seagull

Additional photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBxzAm

Words by Mike Samuelson