Dell Quay Sailing Club 2022/23 Frostbite Open Series concludes

Dell Quay Sailing Club 2022/23 Frostbite Open Series race start © Mike Dicker & Sue Manning

The final races (races 11 and 12 in the series) for the Dell Quay SC Frostbite 2022/3 open meeting were sailed on the 18th Feb 2023.

The hardy competitors were faced with a good 18+ knot breeze from the WSW, and with a good turnout both of adults and Juniors, they were rewarded with superb beat from Crouchers mark, close the club, to the CYC Bowling race mark in the Chichester Lake area, course as set by Race Office for the day Chris West.

The 12 series race was dominated by the Dell Quay Solo class, taking the first 4 places overall. The Solo class at DQSC offers some of the closest class racing, with Mark Harper, Roger Puttock and Bill Dawber all taking at least 1 race win during the series. On one race day, the racing was that close that seconds over the water resulted in a tied points between the 3 of them on the 24th December 2022 races 5 and 6.

Mark Harper (Solo 5836) wins the Dell Quay Sailing Club 2022/23 Frostbite Open Series - photo © Mike Dicker & Sue Manning

Special mention must go to the young Laser 4.7 racers of Amiee Morley, and Alessandro Schmitt who qualified and sailed well on the last windy race day. The first visitor (again in the Solo Class) was awarded to Noel Wright from Mengeham Rythe Sailing Club (and now also DQSC!) who sailed consistently well, (4th overall) and sailed every race of the 10 race series.

Also, the RS400 of Jon and Alex Wilburn had a well-deserved race win in the last race of the series, just beating Stephen Holcroft (Solo 5168) by 14 seconds. Stephen had another consistent series with several second places to give him a well-deserved second overall in the series. Overall 3rd went to DQSC Solo Fleet Captain John Purdy (Solo 6060)

However, it was Mark Harper (Solo 5836) who took the 1st podium spot in the Winter series, with a perfect qualifying score of 6 race wins, to claim for the second time the DQSC Frostbite Open series tankard for 2022/23.

Dinghy Racing at DQSC re-commences with the Breakfast Breeze Race 1 on the 1st April 2023.

Overall Results: