Swallows Return - Must Mean Evening Racing!

The first week of evening racing has already been and gone, with 9 boats competing in Class 4 on Monday evening in 8-13 knots of SW wind. Phil Samways and team on 'Evisa' judged the conditions to perfection to take the first evening win of the 2016 season in Class 4, while In the Squibs Iain Jones, in 'Aldebaran', took the win from 'Mayfly' and 'Squibble'. The dinghies finished a very closely fought race with Tim and Emma on 'Able To' just beating Phil Norris in his Wayfarer by a mere 2 seconds on handicap followed by the Ashworths in their Merlin Rocket and Keith Howarth in his Laser. Big thanks to Race Officer Chris Olding and team who managed the race and enabled everyone to get sailing.

On Thursday evening, competitors were greeted by 10-15 knots of wind from the SE. The wind direction had produced a swell and chop which meant that port tack was the slower of the two tacks with the boats having to drive straight into the chop. In the dinghies Tim and Emma took a 3rd straight win (though in 3 different series) with Alexandra Stevenson coming 2nd and the Ashworths 3rd in the Merlin Rocket. Iain Jones and Mark Bugler took the win in the Squibs with Jim and Anne Chalmers in second place followed by 'Mayfly' and then 'Seahorse'. Don't forget the Squibs are working up to their Nationals in June which is being hosted by Weymouth Sailing Club.

In Class 4 the 'Scoline' crew showed their collective experience to take the IRC 4 win with Evisa grabbing the NHC 4 win.
Passion, in Class 3, won the race showing some great spinnaker handling around the course - and who could miss that great big spinnaker! Another big thanks to Race Officer Robin Clifton-Dey and his team for putting on some great racing for us all.

This Saturday sees a parade of boats to celebrate the Queen's Birthday http://news.dorsetforyou.com/2016/04/18/boats-set-to-parade-in-celebrati...

Squibs and Dinghies are racing on Saturday afternoon and cruisers will be out on Sunday morning - it is a Weymouth Sailing Club start line this week.

See you on the water.

Submitted on 22nd April 2016