Dell Quay Sailing Club

(Published in the Chichester Observer on Thursday 17th July 2014)

The fine weather continued to provide good racing for Dell Quay Sailing Club over the first weekend in July.

In the second of the middle distance Longmore series the course was set to the Longmore mark via Copperas East and Monkey and then back to Fishbourne, essentially following a windward/leeward course. A major problem in the Northern part of the course was thick clumps of weed, necessitating several stops in order to free the boats.

Malcolm Buchanan was first off the start line in his son's RS300. However, as this was the first time he’d sailed it, he wasn’t able to maintain the lead once he needed to tack this challenging boat.

Chris Wood (Streaker) and Rob Corfield (RS400) then took over and maintained the lead. The main issue for Corfield was trying to pull away on the downwind leg, whereas Wood in his Streaker was able to run from leeward to windward whilst Corfield had to put in several gybes to avoid capsizing.

Once again the Solos dominated the racing with 4 of the top 5 places on handicap going to this class. 1^st was Wood followed by Nikki Buchanan (Solo) in 2^nd place and John Purdy (Solo) 3^rd. Purdy currently leads the series followed by David Swift (Solo) and Mike Shaw (Solo).

With the wind blowing force 5 to 6 at times, race 5 of the Evening series saw the long awaited return of Chris Ede (Solo) to DQSC. Chris comes from a family of keen Solo sailors, with father Richard an experienced and very successful racer at Dell Quay and brother Steve enjoying racing success at national level.

Race Officer Simon Bell set a course between Hook and Bowling marks giving a long downwind leg. The gusty conditions led to several capsizes but all competitors completed the course. First on the water and with a clear lead on handicap was Ede, coming 1^st in this race, with John Purdy (Solo) 2^nd and Roy & Beryl Dyton 3^rd in their 2000.

Series leaders are currently Anne and Jim Norfolk (2000) with Peter King (RS400) 2^nd and Rob Corfield (RS400) 3^rd.

Report written by Andrew Horne, from contributions by Rob Corfield and Peter King