OK Dinghy Northern Championship during the Filey Regatta
by Simon Cowood 2 Jul 2018 20:39 BST
23-24 June 2018
The forecast wasn't promising but with wall to wall sunshine the first race started in 10-15 mph. Jim Hunt was first round the windward mark with Simon Cowood and Tony Woods close behind, for a while. Jim extended his lead to win with Simon 2nd and Tony 3rd.
In race 2 Jim found his way to the front again, closely followed by Keith Byers and then Tony. On the second upwind leg the positions changed with Tony up to 2nd and Simon 3rd. At the finish it was Jim 1st, Tony 2nd, Simon 3rd, Keith 4th, Karen 5th Alan Robinson 6th, Gavin 7th and Paul 8th.
The evening was spent in Filey's very own micro brewery and it was drinks all round when Karen informed Tony that he was the overnight leader. Jim Hunt was down as DNF in the second race.
Sunday dawned with Keith telling us he had a word with the RO and told him that Jim was about 150 metres in front of the fleet and that he must have missed him passing through the gate.
Race 3 started in a dying breeze with only one tack required to make the windward mark. Jim rounded first with Tony just behind then a gap with Alan, Simon, Karen and Keith all bunched up. The first two must have got a couple of lucky gusts as they left the rest of us fighting it out for the remainder of the race. It was noted that Alan sailed the whole beat standing up, not sure if his decks were baking hot or it was a wetsuit issue. The race finished with Jim 1st, Tony 2nd and Simon 3rd after just sneaking past Alan on the last tack to the line.
With the breeze leaving the race course for the last race of the day so did the OK fleet.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm Name | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 11 | Jim Hunt | South Staffordshire SC | ‑1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2nd | 2179 | Tony Woods | Glossop SC | ‑3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3rd | 3 | Simon Cowood | Rutland SC | 2 | ‑3 | 3 | 5 |
| 4th | 2176 | Keith Byers | Morcombe SC | ‑5 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 5th | 76 | Karen Robertson | Loch Earn SC | 4 | 5 | ‑6 | 9 |
| 6th | 100 | Alan Robinson | Severn SC | ‑8 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| 7th | 2163 | Gavin Waldron | South Staffordshire SC | 6 | ‑7 | 7 | 13 |
| 8th | 2045 | Paul Duton | South Staffordshire SC | 7 | 8 | (DNS) | 15 |