Dirty Dogging brings big rewards!

Day 4 at the Hornet Nationals and the South Coast was back into autumnal conditions. It was grey, drizzly and breezy – enough wind to catch out the unwary, not enough to allow the real heavyweights to dominate.

With the situation so tight on points at the front of the fleet, the opportunity was there for one of the teams to stamp their dominance onto the fleet. Apart from the usual small shifts found in any breeze, the conditions were as fair as any could be for racing, this was all about who could make the most of the day.

From the outset Dave Edge and Martin Arnison from Weston Sailing Club decided to make their challenge from the front. They had the weight to power upwind and the nerve to hold the kite down the reaches. This last point proved significant, as the Race Team had once again set the fleet a course that was a very close call on ‘do we or don’t we’ go for spinnakers. A visiting trawler who decided to carve through the fleet didn’t help some of the front runners, nor did a lengthy capsize for Strangler and Pippa. Peter Bennett and Toby Barsley-Dale slugged it out for 2nd place, with the extra crew weight of John Shelton proving the deciding factor, as the wind picked up even more.

None of this mattered to Edge and Arnison in their home built boat ‘Dirty Dog,’ who thrashed their way around the course to take their third win in the Championships. With overnight leaders Richard Garry and James Beer suffering something of a wardrobe malfunction in the spinnaker department on the tight 2nd reach and slipping to 5th, the top prize now hung on the result of the final race.

Far from increasing further, the wind felt as if it was starting to soften, but the change in conditions were not going to deny the ‘Dirty Doggers’. Peter Bennett's efforts to keep Toby Barsley-Dale at bay in Race 9 cost him dearly, as his rudder self-destructed in the countdown to the final race. As Edge and Arnison stretched out to take their second consecutive win and with it the Championships, behind them 14 year old Youth squad member Toby Morsley was proving to be a real pain for his namesake, Toby (Barsley-Dale). In the end the greater experience of the North Sails team, with their devastating downwind speed, was sufficient to pull them through to second, though by then the leaders had long gone!

So, after many years of trying, Dave and Martin have taken a well deserved Championship win and with it, the hopes of the Hornet Class into their 60th Anniversary year. In a breezy and at times difficult 4 days of sailing, that was only decided on Race 10, the Hornet fleet can be proud of their efforts ashore and afloat. Congratulations went to the organiser, Netley’s Tom Guy and to all at the Club who had worked so hard to make this Championship a classic event for a wonderful fleet.

Overall Results: