Dell Quay Sailing Club
Dinghy Racing Race Reports
Early Helm 1 and 2 Race Report
Races 1 and 2 of the DQSC Early Helm series took place on Saturday 5th April 2014
The race report was published in the Chichester Observer on Thursday 10th April 2014.
The report was provided by Graham Dalton, with contributions from Peter King, and edited by Andrew Horne.
See below for a full transcript of the report:
A breezy, overcast day greeted races 1 and 2 of the DQSC Early Helm handicap series at the weekend, with a good turnout of boats including several attempting their first race of the season. A steady force 4 from the south meant race officer Paul Barber could set a long beat down the harbour, and a good downwind leg back towards Chichester - a course particularly enjoyed by the asymmetric spinnaker boats in the fleet.
Graham and Lucy Dalton enjoyed a first outing in their new 2000 dinghy. In race 1 the Daltons quickly drew away from the other 2000s and found themselves chasing the RS400 boats of Rob Corfield, Chris Rowsell and Peter King and the Finn of Andy Gray.
Gray played the adverse tide better on the upwind leg to cross the line narrowly ahead, but the Daltons were close enough to secure an overall win on handicap, with Roger Francis and Kane Brown (Graduate) coming in second and Warwick Hoddy and John Denyer (2000) taking third place.
In race 2 the fleet got a clean start and took advantage of the slack tide to spread across the channel and look for the best of the breeze. Francis and Brown had a late start but were able to catch up when the other boats dropped into a wind hole further down the course. King got his spinnaker trapped under the bowsprit cover allowing Rowsell to pass through and finish the race ahead of the other RS400s.
After swapping places with Hoddy and Denyer the Daltons got in the groove once more, focussed on boat speed, and drew ahead to pursue the 400 and Finn. Finishing ahead of the Finn this time they scored their second victory of the series and came ashore to face the toughest challenge of the day - choosing a name for the new boat! Second place went to Chris Wood (Streaker) and third place to Hoddy and Denyer again.
