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Trafalgar Trophy 18th October 2026

Published 11:44 on 19 Oct 2026

Trafalgar Trophy race overview 2026

Our thanks to OOD Chris Taggart, assisted by Carolyne Vines, and Andrew Craig. Patrol was Pete Konidaris and Jeff Buchanan.

With the wind blowing quite well for Tamesis the boats were carefully launched into the N/NE breeze of 10kn gusting 15kn.

The course was set as a port sausage with an upwind downstream start, Lensbury (P), Canbury (P).

In a Pursuit race, boats start in staggered waves based on their Portsmouth Number (PY) handicap. The slowest handicap class starts first, while faster boats start minutes later with the goal of hunting down the fleet. The position on the water at the finish time dictates the final results.

With several Juniors away there were no Toppers racing. The first boat starting was Junior Lily Faichney in ILCA 6, Radial, "Ellia" with a start time at 11:14. Second off was a club Laser 2000 at 11:16 helmed by Dom and crewed by Marie, both Social Sailors trying their hand at racing.

Capitalizing on a clean start, and the starting cushion of time the radial led the fleet through Lap 1 (16m 09s lap time).

Starting at 11:17 the ILCA 7 pair, Graffiti and Frogmarch, started 3 minutes behind. Graffiti sets a fast early pace with a 13m 20s opening lap, quickly eating into the lead.

On Lap 2, Graffiti laid down a 12m 56s lap to overtake the radial and claim the physical lead on the water. Frogmarch stayed glued to Graffiti's stern just 37 seconds behind in 2nd place.

With an 11:26 start the high-performance Merlin Rocket fleet departed 12 minutes after the radial start, led out of the gate by Passing Cloud.

On Lap 3, Frogmarch delivered a race-defining 12m 56s leg. As Graffiti slowed to a 15m 49s lap, Frogmarch passed Graffiti to take 1st position on the water—a lead it that held for the remainder of the race.

Passing Cloud's Surge: Passing Cloud posted an extraordinary 11m 43s second lap and 12m 59s third lap, tearing through the fleet to climb into 3rd position overall by lap 3.

Frogmarch sealed the win with a 12m 31s final lap (its fastest lap of the day). Passing Cloud sailed a dramatic final lap attack, clocking the fastest lap of the entire race (10m 54s). Passing Cloud caught Graffiti on the final stretch of the fourth lap, snatching 2nd place at 12:27:31—ahead of Graffiti at that stage by just 4 seconds.

In the mid-fleetMagician completed a steady drive to finish 4th, while the radial held off the rest of the Merlin fleet (Shoestring, Omega) and the lowest PY boat Zephyr captured a solid 5th place finish.

Congratulations to Dom and Marie for joining the race and learning more about the handling of the Laser 2000. Well done to Lily for posting a result which will count in the Junior Mixed Format Autumn Series. Eren was notably crew on the N18 as well, and is currently a contender also in the Autum Series becuase of his result in the Open Trowlock Trophy pursuit last week.