Wineglass Nationals at Fishers Green Sailing Club
by Brian Conroy 18 Jun 2008 06:31 BST
15 June 2008
Wineglass dinghy reaches 50 years
The championship was held at Fishers Green Sailing Club, Waltham Abbey, Essex, on Sunday 15th June. The Wineglass class association is celebrating the 50th year of the dinghy. It being designed by Trevor Kirby in 1958 and was the first production dinghy using glass reinforced plastic.
The breeze belied the forecast and gave the competitors a real mixture of both wind speed and direction. Three races were held and the first two were ‘back to back’ prior to a lunch. The first race started on a generous length start line and saw all but two boats choosing the classic inner end of the line. The outer end proved to be the best and those choosing it, Brian Conroy crewed by Ron Elston in (508 Moon Indigo) and Mo Allen in (501) Harvest Moon), crewed by his daughter, were ahead at the windward mark, followed by Dave Gascoyne and crew Terry Radford sailing (504) Demi-Sec, visitors from Swarkestone in Derbyshire. These three remained in front with Gascoyne passing Conroy and Allen third. However on the last lap Conroy had closed up on Gascoyne on the downwind leg and Gascoyne rounding the last mark didn’t tack for the line thinking he could not fetch it. This allowed Conroy, who tacking on the rounding mark, won by a boat length.
The second race followed quickly with a squarer line thereby not allowing a ‘flier’ and with a change of course. It was a well disciplined start, no boat over the line and no one really left out in the cold. The early leaders were Gascoyne, Conroy, the Suffields in (507) Veuve and Allen. The breeze was sharing its favours and places changed, especially on the downwind legs.
Conroy finished first with Gascoyne second and Suffield third.
Lunch was taken after the morning races and the crews enjoyed a rest and were offered a glass of ‘Bucks fizz’ in a way of celebration on the Wineglass Dinghy achieving it’s 50th Year.
Back on the water and a new course again saw the leading four boats vying for the lead, it was a long beat to the windward mark and a quickish downwind leg brought out some covering tactics from the chasing boats. However Conroy again crossed the line first, second was Allen and Gascoyne third.
So a very pleasant Championship and Prize presentation, along with a 50th year Certificate, marked the boat's fifty years – Congratulations!
Overall Result:
1st Brian Conroy & Ron Elston, 508, Moon Indigo (Fishers Green S.C.)
2nd Dave Gascoyne & Terry Radford, 504, Demi-Sec (Swarkestone S.C.)
3rd Mo Allen & Daughters, 501, Harvest Moon (Fishers Green S.C.)
4th Mike & Sue Suffield, 507, Vino (Fishers Green S.C.)
5th Roger Castle & Dick Reynolds, 421 (Fishers Green S.C.)