Dragon Pursuit at Glossop Sailing Club

Dragon Pursuit at Glossop © Dave Morris

Dragon Pursuit at Glossop © Dave Morris

Boats took to the water on Sunday for Glossop Sailing Club's annual open event, the 'Dragon Pursuit' which consists of two 90 minute pursuit races.

Competitors were greeted by some beautiful dry, sunny conditions with a challenging, shifty and gusty F3/F4 breeze which funnelled down the Woodhead Valley from a WNW direction.

Race 1 saw Alan Bennett in his Blaze take an early lead, closely followed by Sam & Lisa Woods in their RS200 and a pack of three Supernova's helmed by Richard Hawson, Phil Hewitt & Roger Tolman. Around the halfway point of the race Bennett, who had pulled out a good lead suddenly found himself becalmed and had to sit and watch whilst the chasing pack caught him. The second half of the race saw the Wood's dominate, managing to maintain & extend their lead to take first place. Bennett finished in a comfortable second and the experienced Tolman made the most of the shifty conditions to finish third.

Suitably fortified after a lunch of Thai Green Curry the competitors took to the water for Race 2. The wind had filled and the course was changed by OOD Dave Morris to avoid the eastern end of the lake where the wind had proved the most fluky during the morning session. Benefitting for the stronger breeze, the early leaders were Peter Day & Dermot Dwyer in their 2000 but it wasn't long before they were overhauled by the Woods and Bennett. Hot in pursuit of the leaders was Jimmy Ruddiman in his RS300, making excellent progress through the fleet to take the lead 10 minutes before the end of the race. Behind Ruddiman a close battle was underway between the Wood's and Bennett, with Bennett eventually taking second place only a few meters ahead of the Wood's. Behind the three lead boats saw close competition between the Supernovas of Hawson and Hewitt and Danny Monaghan in his Phantom

Overall Results: