2014 British Weekend Regattas

British Winter Championship 2014, Ardleigh Sailing Club, 16th March

A video of the day was also made and can be seen on Youtube
More photos on the OK dinghy Facebook page

Star studded line up for the OK Dinghy Winters

It was not exactly typical British winter weather as 20 sailors rigged their boats under brilliant blue skies for the 2014 OK Dinghy Winter Championship at Ardleigh Sailing Club in Essex. The fleet dusted off the winter rust in spring like conditions with three furious races sailed in a testing 15-16 knot breeze, with three former national champions and two former world champions complementing some new members to the class. Nick Craig dominated the day winning all three races, but he was made to work for it.

Dan Ager led for the first two laps of the first race before Craig and Jim Hunt came past. On the next downwind Robert Deaves did turns after fouling Simon Cox, and dropped to eighth, but later, on the tricky leg past the club, Cox took the bunch high while Deaves went low and passed them all to move into third, which he held to the finish.

Jonathan Fish was the early leader in race 2, gaining from a big left hand shift on the first upwind. Actually the whole day was typically Ardleigh with big frequent shifts keeping everyone on their toes. One again Craig and Hunt soon found their way through to the front to build a nice lead with Fish defending third place to the finish.

After a break for a two course lunch, included in the £10 entry fee, the final race started with a few sailors staying ashore. Fish had miraculously survived the day with no capsizes,nothing broken and had not even lost his spectacles, so decided to quit while he was ahead. Also Cox lent his Synergy Marine works boat to former national Champion Lee Child to try out, though he already has one on order. Child was the early leader after a manic top mark with shifts coming in from all directions. Hunt rounded in second just ahead of Deaves. These three dived low and left the rest of the fleet behind, with Craig now down in eighth.

On the next beat Deaves took the lead and then rounded the top mark the wrong way, letting Hunt take over the lead. Craig was by then up to third and perhaps it was almost inevitable that two laps later he ground down the leaders to take his third win of the day. Hunt got his third second place while Child just hung on to third from Deaves, who recovered to fourth in the race to take third overall.

The OK Dinghy Winter Championship has been running for about eight years now and this year the class was delighted to be able to offer a perpetual trophy for the first time, a half model of an OK Dinghy donated by Synergy Marine.

The 2014 Nationals is also being held on the East Coast, at Dabchicks Sailing Club on West Mersea in August. All early entries (before May 18 at the East Coast Championship at Brightlingsea Sailing Club) will go in a prize draw, the star prize of which is a new Synergy Marine rudder. Other prizes will be announced later.

Easter Egg 2014, Waldringfield SC, 18/19 April

waldringfieldsc.com
Fotos on flickr

by Daniel Ager

If competitors were hoping that the late easter would make for a warmer event than in recent years, they were, certainly on the first day of the two day event out of luck.

Three boats from Waldringfield were joined by three visitors for six close races over the Friday and Saturday of the Easter weekend.

An ambitious plan to hold three races back to back coupled with long courses in a strong and cold northerly wind tested the resolve of the competitors on the Friday. Despite the length of the courses, racing was close between the first three boats and the second three. Robert Deaves ended the day with two wins and a second. Jonathan Fish getting the other win.

On Saturday the sun shone and the courses were shorter which made life much more pleasant. Fish comfortably won the first race of the morning, essentially a windward leeward course. The middle race of the day was won by Dan Ager, Fish second and Deaves third. This left the final race as the decider for the weekend. Deaves had to beat Fish and Fish had to beat Deaves. In the end after another close race it was Deaves who prevailed.

A tough couple of days racing left the top three with easter eggs to take home to their nearerst and dearest and the rest with enough time to get to the supermarket.

Easter Egg Results

Pos	Sailno.	Club	Name	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot	Net
1	2156	WSC	Robert Deaves	1.0	2.0	1.0	2.0	3.0	1.0	10.0	7.0
2	2151	WSC	Jon Fish	2.0	1.0	7.0 DNF	1.0	2.0	2.0	15.0	8.0
3	2120		Dan Ager	3.0	3.0	7.0 DNS	3.0	1.0	3.0	20.0	13.0
4	2137	DYC	SIMON SHAW	4.0	4.0	7.0 DNF	4.0	4.0	5.0	28.0	21.0
5	2065	Brightlingsea SC	Paul Aldridge	5.0	7.0 DNS	7.0 DNS	6.0	5.0	4.0	34.0	27.0
6	1966	FFSC	Tim O’Leary	6.0	7.0 DNS	7.0 DNS	5.0	6.0	7.0 DNS	38.0	31.0

Brightlingsea SC, 17/18 May

sailbrightlingsea.com/
Fotos on flickr

by Alex Scoles

Hunt back in the groove!
It’s nearly 10 years since Jim Hunt became the first Brit to ever win an International OK Dinghy World Championships and he’s now back! Having dominated a class international field at the Spring Cup in Medemblik, Holland two weeks ago, Jim was hoping to continue that form as the class arrived at Brightlingsea.

The British fleet were keen to go racing again. With a notable absence from some of the local boats, 23 OK’s rigged up on a warm sunny morning, all hopeful that the weather forecast of 1 -2 knots would prove to be inaccurate!

Race one started in light wind, at least enough to sit on the side deck. The windward mark was positioned to the right of the main channel with the wind in the same direction as the tide. Those that had sailed here before knew it was a race to the right-hand corner, followed by a well judged tack on the lay line. Hunt showed good speed and judgment to round in first, followed by Alex Scoles, with Lee Child and Will Turner in hot pursuit. Hunt opened up a small gap on Scoles and maintained it for a comfortable win, with Child 3rd and Turner 4th.

Race two started in similar conditions, with another pin end bias start and then head off to the right hand side. Hunt again rounded the top mark 1st with Scoles close behind hotly pursued by Julian Burnham and Dave Bourne occupying the next places. Hunt and Scoles opened up a gap on the fleet until the last beat, by which time the tide had turned and the left worked well for Bourne as he gained significantly. However, the race finished with Hunt taking the bullet, from Scoles, Bourne and Burnham comfortably 4th. Battling for 5th place were Turner and Child having passed the lay line to the leeward mark, they gybed onto starboard and Turner using some of his team racing skill to sail Child past the mark. Child gybed back only for Turner to force a penalty, reducing Child to 9th as he did his turns on the short leg to the finish!

A cold beer (or 2) was then enjoyed by most, followed by food laid on by the club, or into town for a (disappointing) curry as some opted for. The usual banter after a few beers with Jim and Dave talking of some unfinished business, as Tom Lonsdale sat uncomfortably between them and something about an ice cream van!

Sunday morning dawned with a clear sky and the chance of a sea breeze building.

Race 3 started with Hunt and Child first to the top mark followed by Turner and then Terry Curtis back at the sharp end. Positions did not change much with Hunt taking another win with Child going well again to take 2nd. Curtis finished in 3rd with new to the fleet Charlie Chandler showing good speed to take 4th. Also showing good speed was Toby Ramsey in 5th.

Race 4 with the wind increasing, was led to the 1st mark by Turner, but it unfortunatley turned out he was OCS and Hunt took the lead, with Child close behind. Positions remained unchanged with Curtis 3rd and John Ball, working well up the beats to take 4th. Scoles just managing to sail over Tony Woods and Bourne on the last leg to take 5th.

Race 5 Hunt did start race 5 but pulled out to let the rest fight it out for a win, which Child happily took, followed by Bourne then Curtis. Scoles held on for 4th and sailing very well Charlie took 5th.

So, at the end of a great weekend Jim Hunt had won another OK event with a race to spare with championship winning form. Asked if he was finding it a bit boring Jim replied that he was really enjoying it!

It has been another great event, with Jim showing he is the man to beat this season. Could he win his first OK European Chamionships in Germany in July? We will have to wait and see. Lee Child finished a well deserved 2nd, Scoles 3rd, closely followed by Curtis then Bourne, with a good 6th for newcomer Charlie.

Thank you to Brightlingsea Sailing Club for once again hosting such an enjoyable event

Results

Rank	SailNo	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total	Nett
1	2162	Jim Hunt	1	1	1	1	DNC	28	4
2	2167	Lee Child	3	9	2	2	1	17	8
3	214	Alex Scoles	2	2	6	5	4	19	13
4	2118	Terry Curtis	6	6	3	3	3	21	15
5	2157	Dave Bourne	5	3	10	7	2	27	17
6	2071	Charlie Chandler	9	8	4	8	5	34	25
7	2101	J Burnham	8	4	7	9	10	38	28
8	2158	John Ball	16	13	9	4	7	49	33
9	2100	Toby Ramsay	10	10	5	12	15	52	37
10	2147	Tom Lonsdale	7	16	8	DNF	12	67	43
11	2163	Gavin Waldron	11	11	17	13	8	60	43
12	2169	Will Turner	4	5	11	OCS	DNC	68	44
13	2145	Tony Woods	14	17	13	6	11	61	44
14	2149	Martin Bower	13	15	19	11	6	64	45
15	2139	Ken Carroll	18	7	20	10	17	72	52
16	2084	Keith Byers	15	14	15	18	9	71	53
17	2155	Bob Bourne	12	19	12	15	DNC	82	58
18	2130	Deryck Lovegrove	19	21	14	16	13	83	62
19	2065	Paul Aldridge	17	12	16	19	18	82	63
20	2028	Finn Gheury	20	18	18	17	14	87	67
21	2144	Rhys Lankester	21	20	21	14	16	92	71
22	2080	Paul Pike	23	22	22	20	20	107	84
23	2032	T Hurst	22	23	23	21	19	108	85

DNC, DNS, DNF, OCS … etc 24