Parkstone Regatta
July 2007
For those of you who are not aware, the Parkstone Regatta organised and hosted by Parkstone Yacht
Club is held on a biannual basis and sponsored by Coleman Marine.
Thanks to Keith Lovett’s support of the club, Coleman has successfully sponsored this event for the
last 4 years.
This sailing event attracts many of the top class local sailors to compete in a 6 race series in Poole Bay spread over 2 days with two fun packed evenings for the participants and their families.
A tremendous amount of work is involved from the marine team to ensure the event is a success for
those attending and participating.
The final stages of the preparation for the event involved the team contributing their personal time to ensure banners were displayed at the club and to make local yacht clubs and businesses aware of the event. The prize giving was prepared and rehearsed at the club and sponsorship bags with sailing
instructions and lots of free goodies supplied by Coleman and Insurers were hand-delivered to the 25
plus yachts participating in the event.
Those of us involved in the weekend will remember the variable weather with the vast majority of
Saturday being extremely sunny with a frustrating lack of wind. On Sunday we faced the absolute
opposite with 35knot gale force 8 winds, driving rain and very lumpy seas in Poole Bay.
This extreme weather on day two resulted in many boats retiring throughout the day with some yachts
even sustaining damage to their rigs or sails.
As a crew member I can personally vouch for the horrendous weather and say that I was extremely
satisfied to have returned to the marina safely without any cuts or bruises!
Overall the weekend was a great success with participants commenting on the generous support from
Coleman, and relentless support of Poole’s marine fraternity.
Several clients even committed to place their insurances with us whilst collecting their award from
Coleman’s very own “chuckle brothers” (no, sorry, I meant “comperes”) Steve Risk and Darren Billington.
Several excellent articles were published in www.yachtsandyachting.com and in the local press. For
those that wish to see some of the pictures from the event, visit http://www.sailingscenes.co.uk
Steve Handy
