Dell Quay Sailing Club

Dell Quay is a club which caters for all sailing interests and this was borne out at the weekend when forty members aged between eighteen months and seventy years, descended on the camp site at Cobnor for a weekend of cruising and camping whilst back at Dell Quay it was business as usual for the racers. Those who ventured down to the club on Friday for the start of the cruise were faced with gale force winds and so sensibly went to Cobnor by car. Undeterred, an intrepid group were up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and returned to launch their boats from Dell Quay and catch the last of the ebb tide for a day of cruising around the harbour, followed by a barbeque at Cobnor. On Sunday, the boats sailed back up to Dell Quay in time for tea and were able to watch the participants in the last two races in the Early Helm series. Mike Fitzgerald and Tim Dormer (Laser 2000) led from the start of the first race in the gusty conditions but Malcolm Buchanan was never far behind in his Solo and when the handicaps were applied to the finish times it produced a dead heat. Chris Ede (Solo) finished in third place. In the second race, Fitzgerald and Dormer again led the fleet from the gun and this time finished sufficiently far ahead to win comfortably on handicap from Buchanan; the latter fighting it out for second place with Ede who eventually capsized to let Chris Wood (Streaker) through in to third place. The series was won overall by Anne and Jim Norfolk (Laser 2000) with Fitzgerald and Dormer second and Buchanan third. Sunday saw the return of the Pursuit series races and the Solos of Chris Ede and Andrew Horne set off first but while Ede pulled away, it was the Laser 2000, sailed by Andrew Spiers and Ron Sanders, which closed the gap and overtook Ede to win the race. Third place went to Peter King and Rob Corfield (RS 400). The final race was also won by Spiers and Sanders with Bob Marshall and Neil Bryant (RS 400) second.