Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta - Day 2
by Keith Baud 30 Aug 2003 16:02 BST
WET ‘N WILD
The terrace of the Royal Dart Yacht Club fairly hummed with excitement yesterday evening as sailors returned, wide eyed with excitement, after a cracking second days racing at this years Dartmouth Royal Regatta. With winds gusting to force 7, and 15ft seas, broaches and torn sails abounded amongst the 280 strong fleet of some of Britains best yachtsmen and women.
The race committee took the prudent measure of sending the dinghies to race in the safety of the river Dart, whilst the keelboats raced on an inshore heavy weather course later in the day once the winds had abated and the weather improved. The yachts however, had the full force of the open sea in Start Bay to contend with.
Mustang Sally again proved to be the boat to beat in IRC 1, with Bare Knuckles taking runner-up spot for the second time and Rennie Miller in Dignity – fastest in the race by a long way – third on handicap. A difficult to identify mark led to some yachts being given redress, whilst others decided not to brave the conditions and sought the safety of the Club bar!
In IRC 2, Tim Harrington and Sean Semmens continued their battle in Capitalism and Xcellent respectively, but a fine third fell to Colin Baldwin in Alchemist. This boat has been chartered by Abbey National to give West Country dinghy sailors a chance to crew on “big boats”, six new racers joining the crew each day.
Blues Xtra, the X302 of Pete Johnson, again took the IRC 3 category from Lingo and Red Fox whilst the J80’s had a new winner in the shape of Daryl Conyers Ocean Eleven after favourite Charlie Cumbley retired for the second day in succession, this time with a great mat of seaweed around the keel on Majic.
Many of the smaller and slower PY boats decided not to risk the conditions leaving a surprised but delighted John Webb and Lyn Evans to win PY1 in Plane Sailing ahead of series leader Chris Hitch in Nightowler. Nigel Daniel in Toroa of Axe finally bested old rival Neil Ricketts in Mew Gull for the PY2 category. Only three boats finished in PY3 with Stephen Dart again winning in Gordon Rose ahead of Chris Harman in his Mcgregor Spesai with Zoe Ann third.
In the Keelboats, Chris Hill in Sapphire won the Scimitars whilst David Wines took his second Squib win in White Magic. Jonathan Weeks, Adrenalin, and Simon Bennett, Sanity, took PY Dinghy and Laser classes respectively.
Racing continues today in calmer conditions with the Marchand Petit Coastal Race.
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