Weymouth Dinghy Regatta 2015

Weymouth Dinghy Regatta 2015 © Richard White

Weymouth Dinghy Regatta 2015 © Richard White

Weymouth Dinghy Regatta 2015 © Richard White

As seems to be the happy norm for Weymouth Regatta, visitors arrived to bright sunshine sparkling across Portland Harbour, and a very decent SW breeze, basically looking ideal. For some this was after a nearly perfect bit of Friday practice, 10 of the Ospreys – a well-organized training day run by Adam Bowers, and for others – just some pre-regatta and pre-championship tuning (e.g. some nice mast-head footage available courtesy of MrNoble from two boat Contender tuning).

At the Saturday briefing – the 100 boats worth of competitors found out they would all be out in the Bay (helping avoid some of the Portland Harbour jellyfish fleet!), so the very long sail for some, and the long sail for others started early – fortunately a run. OD Woofy was on station on the far side of the bay for the Ospreys, Contenders and Assymetrics, while OD Billy Barker was hosting the Fast Handicap, Phantoms and Slow Handicap fleets mid Bay.

The forecast proved right, and everyone got a very full-on day of 18-27knts, WSW with some decent lumps to negotiate and surf. Although there were a large collection home at various early stages throughout the day with breakages of boat, body or will, for those that tuffed it out – some great action followed by the last vestiges of energy being used on the upwind miles home.

Vast amounts of tea and cake redressed the sugar levels, followed for those that didn't retire for early R&R, - by some good beers (and/or rum & shrub!) and talk of the days excitement.

As aching bodies got going on a full club breakfast - Bill's fleets were probably relieved to hear on the grapevine that they would be in the harbour, while the rest of us would be mid Bay.

Although slightly flatter in the bay, the breeze was properly back up where it was on Saturday, same direction, and those in the harbour even got a bonus few knots more! (as if they needed it!).

Although the photographers had a different challenge with sun being replaced with grey and light drizzle, they still had fantastic close racing to capture all-round on the two trapezoid, outer loop and windward leeward busy courses. By the end, the results sheets for most fleets had that telltale diagonal graph look – of increasing DNS/RTD's bottom left to top right, as more collateral damage, and tiredness depleted the numbers.

Big thanks to the race and rescue teams and the on-shore crew for a massive well-co-ordinated effort.

Fast Handicap

The Fast Handicap collection looked as if the Scorps, Fireballs and Merlins had been talking – as they all rocked up with 7 boats in each mini-fleet, supplemented with a D-Zero and Kestrel.

One of the Merlins fresh off the back of a challenging Salcombe Week was ever fast Jon Turner and Richard Parlsow – who looked like they were going to be a force to be reckoned with – scoring 1,3,2 on Saturday. They unfortunately had a very short Sunday with jellyfish plate damage, while locals Sam & Megan Pascoe did things the other way round and posted 2,2,1 on Sunday to add to a 3 from Sat. The top Scorpion looked like being John Mursell with guest high wind crew Adam Bowers, however his good results were not swim free, and we think he broke Adam. This left two consistent pairs, each with a rare full score card, close for honours – with ccsc's Alison Stephens & Chris Forrest just behind Simon Holden and local crew Cara Jones who came in 6th on handicap.

The Fireballs were mostly the boats to beat in the breeze, this included a starring single race appearance for locals Jeremy Beling & Alex Green who won race 5. The other local ball – legend Barry Grant sailing with son Mark, had a very short regatta due to injury – so couldn't show his DeLange downwind speed. Alan & Chrisie Tyler posted all top 3 numbers for day 1 but rested boat and bodies on Sunday, however Hannah Showell & Barry Smith continued their dominance throughout to win comfortably and Keith McDonald & Andy Brittain did enough to split the Merlins for 3rd.

Fast Handicap Results:

Contenders

The strong 20 boat Contender fleet included some proper experience throughout – getting in some pre-Medemblik Worlds practice, even to the extent that former World Champion Graham Scott, counted two bullets and two seconds but still got the pleasure of overall 4th place report writing due to some swimming. This is a very brief summary – as that report can be found at www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/184237/Contenders-at-the-Weymouth-Regatta

Apart from some close attentions from Carl Tagoe, and the slightly surprise but very well earned 2nd from tuning partner Nick Noble, the top places were filled by usual suspects, albeit maybe different order to rest of season. Gary Langdown resumed his winning ways getting rid of his only dodgy score in race 1, while Stuart Jones was very slightly less consistent than normal for 3rd behind Nick N.

Contender Results:

Slow Handicap

The star of the Slow Handicap, and definitely worth first mention – was Emma Bishop from ccsc. In addition to showing how to sail a Laser4.7 in the conditions – with a perfect scoreline (maybe time for a Radial challenge Emma?), she collected best lady helm and best Cadet and and probably something else by looks of her table haul.

The RS200 of Dave Stubbs & crew showed the other 200’s how to do it on Sunday with 2,2,3, but were a one day wonder. Unlike Weymouth junior Alexandra Stevenson who toughed it out in her Radial to get 6 top 5 places and 3rd overall, only 1 point behind visiting Enterprise Paul Young and Megan Ward, who discarded their only messy 6th to tidy their line of 4’s – placing them 2nd.

Slow Handicap Results:

Ospreys

The Ospreys seem to have some wordsmiths amongst their 16 boat fleet, and their report (some of which mentions the sailing!) can be found at www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/184217/Ospreys-at-the-Weymouth-Regatta

So again – this is a local super summary.

Although Kevin & Phil made up for missing race1 with a string of 2’s & 3’s thereafter, they were pushed hard by the downwind speed of Weymouth team Emma Stevenson and Tim Bowden only 2 points behind. ccsc’s Mike Street and Nick Frampton were out of the gate in super fashion with a 2nd to start, but couldn’t keep that performance up and then suffered game over collision damage.

Meanwhile Chris Gould and Nick Broomhill were posting 1’s and 2’s but not quite as many as Weymouths Terry Curtis & Peter Grieg who won again by 5 points, discarding a 3rd.

Osprey Results:

Phantoms

The 10 boat Phantom fleet were all square at the top after what must have been a hard graft Saturday hiking through the lumps in 25knts. John Wayling had 2’s and 1, and Mike Tustin two bullets and a 3, with Olly Hopkins in close attendance until retiring from race 3. The whole fleet voted with it’s trolleys at the end of Saturday by deciding for them that is was going to be a 2 race day, but not before Mike T had wrapped it up with two more wins. John and Olly secured the other podium places albeit with Matthew house only 1 point behind in 4th.

Phantom Results:

Asymmetrics

The Asymmetrics this year were a cocktail of 8 regular regatta attendees – the entertaining Cherubs, 3 RS100’s and a D-One and INT14 to taste. The weather was on or above Cherub limit for many and the score-card had a lot of letters, however Andrew Peters and crew managed to hold it together for a 1,2,2 and overnight lead. Day 2 didn’t happen for them, but Clive and Alex Everest (in brilliantly named A&E) only appeared on Sundays results and managed the same set of numbers.

Despite these, local RS100 Nick Griffin scored consistently enough to secure 3rd, with Laurence Milton really pressing for handicap honours posting two bullets in his full scorecard. Not quite enough however to displace Paul Croote and Ed Higham who were top Cherub and fleet winners by 1 point.

Asymmetric Results: