Heron Open at Huddersfield Sailing Club

by Paul Thomas 16 May 2013 17:45 BST 12 May 2013

Whilst an unpromising forecast put some off travelling, two visitors made their way to Huddersfield Sailing Club to join five home boats for their annual Heron open meeting. Competitors were greeted with a shifty force 3 to 4 sprinkled liberally with much heavier gusts which would lead to a number of capsizes as the day progressed.

The first race was won by Tony Dufton with Roger Stephenson second, Paul Thomas third and John Dearnley fourth; all the other boats having retired including one with a broken centreboard.

Lunch was taken and from the club house it seemed that the wind had eased a little but on launching for race two it was clear that it had not. The race was won by Andrew O'Connor followed by Tony Dufton, Roger Stephenson and Paul Thomas with the other two starters sailing the wrong course.

Sailing the wrong course seemed be catching and continued into the final race which was abandoned when all the starters ended up either retiring or sailing the wrong course. So with just the first two races counting, Tony Dufton was the overall winner with Roger Stephenson second and Paul Thomas third.

Thanks go to Huddersfield Sailing Club for putting on another memorable event.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	Pts
1	108	Tony Dufton		Yeadon S.C.	1	2	3
2	9866	Roger Stephenson		Huddersfield S.C.	2	3	5
3	10032	Paul Thomas		H.D.C.A.	3	4	7
4	10079	Andrew O'Connor		Huddersfield S.C.	DNF	1	9
5	10021	John Dearnley	Eric Moyers	Huddersfield S.C.	4	DSQ	12
6=	10317	Jim Robison		Huddersfield S.C.	DNF	DSQ	16
6=	1712	Allan Brooks		Huddersfield S.C.	DNF	DNC	16