Dell Quay Sailing Club

(Published in the Chichester Observer on Thursday 3rd December 2015)

A fortunate window in a stormy weekend allowed Dell Quay SC to complete the first two races of its open Frostbite Series – an hour later and the fleet would have been blown off the water by gale-force gusts.

As it was, after a comparatively quiet first race the squalls caused plenty of work for the safety boats in race two, with three competitors failing to finish. But the weather seemed not to matter for Bill Dawber (Solo). He came close to victory on the water as well on handicap each time, with only the fastest of the three RS400s heading him to the finish line.

Closer challenges came from the slowest boat in the fleet, the Pico of Andrew Morley, only 24 seconds behind on handicap in the first race, with a gap to the remaining competitors of three minutes or more. Morley was forced back to third in race two, as Ken Baker and Graham Evans (Dayboat) made a perfect start and stayed comfortably in contention though the two laps to finish third in a time which put them second on handicap.

Both Dawber and Carol Andrews made good use of the Solo’s manoeuvrability, each executing a neat first-race rounding of quay mark in front of shoreside spectators to overtake the RS400 immediately ahead. And Andrews’ decision to use a reduced rig on her Solo proved wise – she stayed in control to take third place in the first race and fourth in the second.

Despite a cautious approach of minimum gennaker use, two RS 400s (Rob Corfield and Jonathan Line, Peter King and Jamie Prescott) had bad capsizes and failed to finish race two, while Chris Rowsell and Jason Mortimer dropped to last place on corrected time though they crossed the line first. King/Prescott’s first place on the water in race one gave them a better result, though, of fourth place.

Report and photos by Liz Sagues

 Carol Andrews (Solo) makes a neat rounding of quay mark to overtake Rob Corfield and Jonathan Line (RS400)

Bill Dawber (Solo) hard on the transom of Peter King and Jamie Prescott (RS400)