Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta - Day 4
by Keith Baud 1 Sep 2003 17:01 BST
SYMINGTONS COMMITMENT
When the 159th Dartmouth Regatta drew to a successful conclusion on Sunday night, John Symington emerged a clear winner in the premier IRC 1 category in Mustang Sally from a very competitive field. Although he is a Dartmouth regular, Symington was delighted to have finally scored such a prestigious victory in his new Corby 36. Although he had a complete whitewash of 4 wins from the 4 race series, he was kept on his toes by a close following pack that included Bare Knuckles (Robert Gateshill), Dignity (Rennie Miller), Exabyte (Shaun Frohlich) and Salvo (Peter Morton).
In the 35 strong IRC 2 fleet two boats made the pace. Although Sean Semmens and John Pollard took first blood in the opening race on Thursday in their X99 Xcellent, it was Tim Harrington who then completed a hat trick of wins to take the series in his Hod 35 Capitalism. Twenty-four craft sailed in the IRC 3 division and although Saturdays coastal race was effectively void when a sudden loss of wind becalmed them all off Torcross, Kingswear sailor Peter Johnson used all his local knowledge to take the series in Blues Xtra after a tie break with Frank Ellwood in his J29 Lingo.
PY1 saw victory for the second year in a row for Robert Fletcher in Major Clanger by just one point from the First 310 Confucious of David Oliver with Mike Moody in Pala third (Although this result is still subject to protest). Old rivals Nigel Daniel and Neil Ricketts had a ding-dong battle for the PY2 class, the verdict finally going to Daniel in his Evolution 26 Toroa of Axe with Clive Comber in Athena third. As they were sailing an Inshore course as opposed to the offshore course in Start Bay, the PY3 fleet were less affected by the loss of wind on Saturday and Stephen Dart was able to put in a trio of wins in Gordon Rose, his Mini Tonner, to take the series from Anthony Bradford in Vertigo and Martin Claymore in Red Sky.
The rapid J80’s were introduced to Dartmouth in 2002 and this year no fewer than 15 boats took the gun for an exciting series which included two races on some days. Finn champion Charlie Cumbley was pre-regatta favourite with Majic, but a dismasting on day 1, and a great mat of seaweed around the keel on day 3 – both whilst leading and in sight of the line, saw him trailing badly. Race wins were recorded by Stephen Hills in JSM, Simon Unwin in Jack, Daryl Conyers in Oceans Eleven and Roger Gerrish in Aqua J. However, only Roger Hollingsworth in Jeromino took the gun ahead of the pack twice and so took the series.
Keelboats and Shrimpers also raced on an Inshore course with Steve Mittler in Tamarisk taking two wins and two thirds to give him the Shrimpers title and Chris Hill in Sapphire winning the Scimitars after a tie break with Matt Reed in Bandido. The Devon Yawls were slightly down in number this year, Stephen Best coming out on top in Jess, whilst Plymouth’s David Wines whitewashed the increasingly popular Squib fleet in White Magic.
PY dinghy numbers were also a little down this year but they enjoyed good racing in the Range, a rare luxury for them. As expected Jonathon Weeks took four straight wins in his Albacore Adrenalin from Nick Prowse in Wild Track and Robert Thomas in his Wayfarer Pilliwinks. Young Alexander Woodfield took the PY2 dinghies in his Gull Kingdom whilst Simon Bennett won the Lasers in Sanity from James Stockbridge.
The Junior Toppers were very well supported this year with 15 boats racing in Dittisham Sailing Club waters up river. Henry Bomby scored a popular victory in Bucket after a tie break with elder brother Ross, whilst Mathew Millyard and Ed Leeming also took race wins.
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