Dell Quay Sailing Club

(Published in the Chichester Observer on Thursday 30th June 2016)

Race 3 of the Dell Quay Sailing Club Longmore Series took place in a light force 2 Westerly wind. As the name implies the Longmore races are a series of races stretching from Dell Quay to the Longmore racing mark, situated south of Chichester Marina.

10 boats took part in the race, including 6 Solos. Most of the race consisted of a series of reaches between Hook, Monkey, Quay and Copperas East with a long beat to Longmore involving very few tacks. Once the race had started there were very few changes in position due to the difficulty in making tactical manoeuvres on the reaches.

The RS400 of Chris Rowsell and crew led the fleet around the course and finished first on the water, followed by the Solo of Roger Puttock. After application of handicap calculations to the results, Roger Puttock came in first, followed by Dave Maltby (Solo) and Rowsell and crew in third place. Maltby now leads the series, with Nikki Buchanan (Solo) second and Sue Manning (Laser 4.7) third.

The annual Harding long distance race took place the following day. This is a long distance race starting at Dell Quay and finishing in the lower reaches of Chichester Harbour. The race officer decided to split the race into a series of three shorter races.

The first race started in a force 3 South Westerly wind which stiffened to force 4 as the race progressed. First place in the race was taken by Graham and Fiona Dalton in their 2000, with Gordon Barclay (Solo) coming second and Sue Manning (Laser Radial) third.

By the second race the wind had strengthened to almost force 5, enabling Gordon Barclay, who relishes these conditions, to take first place, followed by Manning second and the Daltons third.

By the third race half the fleet had retired due to the challenging wind conditions, leaving the Dalton’s to take first place once again, followed by Barclay in second place and Fred Hilgers (Solo) third. On combining the results of all three races the overall winner was Gordon Barclay, with the Daltons taking second place and Sue Manning coming third.

Compiled by Andrew Horne, with contributions from Roger Puttock