Scow Challenge Cup – Race 5 Saturday 16th May 2026

Nine boats came to the line on a light south-westerly that behaved like it was trying to be helpful, but kept forgetting what it had just decided. A very classic Beaulieu situation: enough wind to race, just not enough to trust it for more than about 90 seconds at a time.

The course for the day was Fs – Cp – Fs – Pp – Ds, set by Andrew Duncan, with Nigel Bolton assisting and quietly accepting that the river will always do what it wants anyway. Gerry Marling-Roberts got the fleet away cleanly, and Bill and Helen Vance followed in the safety boat, enjoying what turned into a pleasantly steady afternoon on the water, provided you didn’t take the wind too seriously at any point.

From the start, the fleet did its usual Beaulieu routine: split up, regroup, then realise the regroup was in a slightly worse place than before. The wind shifts were gentle but frequent enough that nobody could really settle, which is exactly how the river likes it.

At the front, Red and Cleo Johnson set a strong early pace and stayed consistently well placed throughout, always looking like they were roughly where they meant to be—which is harder than it sounds on this river.

Just behind, Karl Liebat & Zoey Liebat stayed right in the mix from start to finish, keeping things tidy and making steady progress whenever the wind briefly agreed with them. Not dramatic, just effective.

The rest of the fleet kept everything nicely compact, with John and Lindy Morgan, Mike Doherty, Mary Montagu Scott, Tim Robinson, Rupert Scott, Darren Firth, and Lucy Markby & Simon Gibbs all trading places regularly as the shifts came and went. It had that familiar Beaulieu feel where you could be first one minute and wondering what happened the next, without actually doing anything wrong.

By the final run, the tide had properly joined in and started offering its own suggestions about finishing order. Some of them were helpful, some were not, and the fleet arrived back in slightly different moods but all fairly convinced they’d had a proper race.

Race Report by Zoey Liebat

1.  589 Red and Cleo Johnson
2. 421 Karl and Zoey Liebat
3. 599 John and Lindy Morgan
4. 565 Mike Doherty
5. 600 Mary Montagu Scott
6. 530 Tim Robinson
7. 457 Rupert Scott
8. 598 Darren Firth
9. 252 Lucy Markby and Simons Gibbs

On Sunday 17th May we had the Junior Regatta