1998 British Regattas

Waldringfields Easter Egg

April 11th – 13th
Report by Andy Turner

Eleven pseudo eskimos turned up for this OK open meeting over Easter weekend. Nearly everyone had a swim at some time or other, some two or three. The weather was bitterly cold with a fresh northerly and snow flurries allied to the usual Easter brain numbing water temperatures. Very few competitors completed all five races.

Both Dave Carroll and Dave Rose showed excellent boat speed and in four of the races ended up chasing each other. In the end Dave Carroll won three races to Dave Rose’s two. The rest of us picked up the scraps.

It was good to see three juniors in the fleet, with Chris Morgan coming out ahead of Will Turner and Pete Turner.

Highcliffe S.C

April 25th – 26th

Frensham Pond, OK Junior & Master Nationals

June 13

The OK Junior & Master Nationals took place at Frensham Pond on June 13 in light to medium winds and lots of rain!

The lst race was dominated by Adrian Dumbleton to score a win in the Juniors section, although Sarah Brewer led briefly. Malcolm Wenman led the Masters until he tipped it in the gusty weather to let Chris Biscomb lead for the rest of the race. Wenman came back to 2nd but lost it to Alan Atkin on the finish line.

Dumbleton led the 2nd race all the way, and Biscomb also dominated the Masters, for both to win their titles with a race to spare. Brewer held off a strong challenge from Rachel Howe to come 2nd again in the Juniors. Rod Tidd pushed Biscomb hard in the Masters only to be caught by Alan Atkin at the end.

No-one really knows what happened in the last race because everyone was helping Dumbleton and Biscomb celebrate at the bar. However the results in the Juniors were Brewer won from Howe and the Masters Atkin won from Tidd.

Overall

Frensham Pond

June 14

The 36th OK Dinghy open meeting for The Frensham Porringer Trophy was held on Sunday the 14th June.

The event was the penultimate meeting in the Thames Valley area series and attracted local helms as well as entrants from as far away as Lancashire and Norfolk.

The first of four races held mainly in light winds was convincingly won by Frensham sailor Nick Craig who led the fleet from start to finish. Second was Mike Edwards who made the most of the beat to the finish to overtake Alan Atkin. Chris Biscomb was fourth and Rod Tidd fifth.

Race two was led almost entirely by Garth Thompson from Henly S.C. who having made a very good start only succumbed to the persistence of Nick in the final stages. Mike took third with Gavin Waldron fourth and Sara Brewer fifth.

During the break for lunch the sailing conditions took on an ideal look but by the time the third race started the wind had already degenerated into a fitful whisper. Those fortunate enough to get away at the start reaped the benefit when the race was shortened to one lap. Once again that man Craig came out on top to clinch the event. This time Alan picked up second place from Mike with Chris fourth and Garth fifth.

Fortunately a light breeze returned so that race four could take place and this was initially led at the first mark by Alan Atkin, by the second Garth and Mike had forged a substantial lead. Eventually near the end Mike gained a short lead to the finish closely followed by Alan and Sarah with Adrian Dumbleton fifth.

Tees and Hartlepool Yacht Club

June 20th & 21st, OK Northern Area Championships

After a number of years away, the OKs returned to Tees for the Northern Area Championships and the first open meeting to be held at the superb new clubhouse. This was only opened in April and has large comfortable changing rooms, a large bar with cheap beer and pool tables and an area of grass for camping.

A heat wave and light wind was forecast but during the briefing the wind shifted and increased to a force three gusting four, creating a sharp chop. In the first race Gavin Waldron heaved his belly over the side, led from the start and was not challenged, pulling out a long lead to the finish. Apprentice fat bloke Mike Edwards was also unchallenged in second with Chris Biscomb, newly crowned Veteran Champion working hard for third.

The wind increased over lunch, but started to die down by the start of the second race. Edwards got the best of the start but tacked off too soon. Waldron still had the advantage upwind, but Biscomb was close behind after choosing the right side of the beat. Edwards showed superb downwind speed and was on Waldron’s transom by the leeward mark. In the dying wind Edwards and Biscomb were gaining but couldn’t quite catch Waldron and the first three places repeated the first race result. Sarah Brewer and Richard Stead had a very close race for fourth with Stead’s final beat tactics giving him the edge.

After a couple of drinks in the bar an expedition into nearby West Hartlepool set off to see what they could see! The town was only five minutes walk away and it seemed like every other building was either a bar or an eating place of various flavours. Atthough it was early, the town was starting to get very lively it seemed like an excellent place for a serious night out. After a wander around the town it was back to the club for more beer and a short crawl back to the tent.

Sunday morning dawned with strong sunshine and even stronger wind. A few ventured out of the harbour and decided that the beach was the best bet. Waldron once again led around the trapezium course with Edwards Biscomb and Stead fighting for the places Mike came through on the reach and Chris hung on to third, which made the last race largely academic with the first three places already decided.

Thanks must go to Keith Barker for his hard work in organising the event and for making a complete set of trophies for the Northern’s which were presented for the first time. Also to Tees and Hartlepool YC for making us feel so welcome and for setting some good courses in some testing conditions.

All in all an excellent weekend and a great place for a meeting. Lets hope we can go back next year and that a few more people decide to taste the delights of Teeside.

First Over 45 : Chris Biscomb
First Junior : Sarah Brewer

Henley

July 5th

The final open meeting of the series for the Thames Valley OK Dinghy Trophy took place at Henley S.C. on Sunday 5th July.

A good turnout of boats ensured that some close racing would be assured. The weather conditions were very favourable with a good breeze blowing down the river from the direction of the rowing regatta in the town.

The start of the first race was rather fraught due to the arrival of a flotilla of large river boats. Despite this most boats made a clean start with Terry Curtis, Gavin Waldron and Steve Gent being best placed at the first mark. After rounding this course was a long run down the river and the advantage of being in the lead disappeared as a strong gust propelled the chasing pack up to and through the leaders. Eventually four boats broke clear of the rest but on the next circuit Steve capsized which left Terry in the lead from Gavin and Alan Atkin. Each of these took turns leading but on the final leg Terry gained a small but decisive lead from Gavin with Alan third. Graham Pearce got through to fourth after a bad start and Steve recovered to finish fifth.

After lunch the second race got underway in similar conditions the fleet were away and very closely bunched. On the run most boats opted to go for the starboard bank to get out of the main river flow, Alan chose the other side and gained a useful lead chased by Terry and Graham. Alan held a good lead for a while but in what was a feature of the event eventually had the lead whittled down and near the end Graham sailed through to win with Alan second and Terry third, Garth Thompson was fourth and Steve again fifth.

The final race bought a course change which cut out the particularly difficult section of the river but the result was that it seemed easier to get in the lead than to stay there so that once more a lot of people took a turn at the front. The main contest was between Terry and Graham and each had a spell in front. At half way Steve came from nowhere and looked the likely winner until he faded to fourth near the end. First was Terry closely followed by Graham with Garth third and Gavin making up ground to fifth.

Waldringfield Cartoon Trophy

September 19-20th, Waldringfield SC

Light and variable conditions on the weekend of September 19th/20th meant that there was no racing on Saturday and three races held on the Sunday at the annual Cartoon Trophy Weekend.

Racing was made additionally difficult by fleets starting at three minute intervals so that there were some unholy mix ups as clumps of National 12s, OKs and Wayfarers all rafted round the leeward marks together, with precious few 7200 turns attempted.

Race 1 for OKs saw Will Turner lead at the windward mark and for most of the first round until eventually overtaken by Andy Turner who held his lead to the finish. Alan Price was third.

Race 2 saw Dan Agar first to the windward mark closely followed by Simon Shaw and Tim O’Leary, starting with the OKs this time instead of the Squibs. Andy Turner came out of the leeward melee in the lead only to get stuck on the marsh letting Dan Agar through. Andy eventually pulled through on the beat to finish first with Dan second and Chris Morgan third.

Race 3 was lead by Alan Price for most of the first round until overtaken by Dan Agar who went on to win, with class newcomer Paul Jewby hanging on well to third place.

Southport 1998

by Nick Craig. UK OK National champion and owner of formerly quiet a nice Enterprise.

Southport is a mega event held every year where teams representing their home clubs or their own class of boat sail a 24 hour race – a sort of Le Mans race for dinghies. Teams can choose to sail either Enterprise or GP14 dinghies. There is a huge party going on on the lake side and a rumour that one of the top teams bans its members from getting totally sloshed. Last year the British OK fleet caused a stir having sailed through the fleet from their unranked starting position to about 10th before the effects of alcohol took their toll and a final position of about 20th was achieved. This year benefiting from a higher starting position great things were expected of the boys and girls – which included the truly “international” OK sailor Birke over from Germany for a quiet weekends sailing!! So how did they do?

Southport 1998 proved to be even livelier than last time, which was a pretty hard thing to do!

I had a horrible feeling the previous week with it blowing a force 8 all week. This feeling got worse after huge beers on the Friday night lots of random goings on – how are your scratches John? And apparently Hedley needs some Viagra to stay awake!! I was worried that my poor boat was going to become a squashed pile of fibreglass and wood!

So with a hangover and a force 5, it was me & Annabel to start – with all this wind I was beginning to regret getting the lightest crew I could find. However, the wind direction meant it was mainly reaches so we pulled through from the 20s to 2nd before we came in. It was a pretty exciting sail with a force 7 squall coming over and 2 boats wiping out right in front of us with their mast just missing us by inches!! I then did a perfect changeover by sailing the boat up the concrete whilst shouting “you lot be careful with my boat”!!

Fat Boy Fletch then went on and found conditions to his liking, holding on to 5th against all the full-time Ent and GP sailors, whilst not even having to lean out ! Ding (my sisters boyfriend) & Sheena (my sister) went on and also stayed 5th. Terrytubby was obviously taking it seriously because he wasn’t drunk and he too stayed 5th!

Keith then went on, I can’t remember who with because the world was a blur at this point. But he did very well because he was 2nd in the fastest lap after 8pm prize. And I think he stayed 5th, as did Birke and Adrian.

Neil and Mandy drew the short straw with a 3 hour night sail in very light winds. They sailed well to take distance and stay 5th. Me & Annabel then went on just as the bar shut so we don’t remember most of the sail but we stayed 5th – sailing drunk in the dark in a force 4 is a very odd experience!!

We were doing so well that Mike Edwards was scared to go out in case he sailed like usual and dropped us down the pan! It was then that Terrytubby & Jo got on and Terrytubby decided that after practising his capsizes on tacks last time, he’d try it again and dipped it in the drink. Luckily, everyone else had sailed so we only dropped to 8th.

Birke and Annabel then went on for the ladies race and won it!! Well done to them. Keith took over for the last hour because Annabel was tired after 6 hours of sailing and finished us in 8th out of about 70 boats! A great achievement considering only 1 of us sail Enterprises.

We could probably have done even better if some idiot hadn’t sailed the boat up the concrete so we sailed round with water in the front tank all race!!

Team members: