Dell Quay Sailing Club

(Published in the Chichester Observer on Thursday 13th July 2017)

The 4^th race in the DQSC Longmore series was set against the prospect of a building sea breeze and high temperatures. Winds varied from force 1 to force 3 with the sea breeze coming and going throughout the race. 

The excellent course set by the race officer took the fleet up to Longmore via Monkey and then on a zig-zig route back to Hook. Two laps were set and on the second lap the course was shortened to finish at Quay.

Racing was close and tactical with not only the strength of the breeze but also wind shifts and empty pockets continually bunching up the boats. There were changes in fortune throughout the race with a number of different boats contesting the front runners.

The fleet started well with the Solos of Roger Puttock and Mark Harper again enjoying extremely close racing, whilst the Solos of David Maltby, Simon Verrall, and Mike Shaw all swapped places during the race. Not to be outdone the Finns of Steve Sampson and Andrew Buchanan also had a close tussle.

Puttock took the lead at Chichester Lake, when the wind died and then filled in from the east, leaving Harper on the far side of the channel in no wind. Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet caught up and the race got going again at the Longmore Mark.

The final race time was well over 2hrs 20mins and in the end the Solo class took the first 3 places on corrected time with less than 2 minutes separating the first 3 boats. First place went to Puttock with Harper second and Verral third. 

Mark Harper leads the series overall with Simon Verrall second and John Purdy (also Solo) third.

The final race in the series takes place on Sunday 6^th August at 10:45