Report by John Dowling

Sunday was grey and cold but with a Southerly breeze that promised good sailing for the 7 boats that braved the conditions for the penultimate dinghy races of the 2007 winter series in Port St Mary.

A triangular course was laid for the first race, and Mike Pridham (Laser) took full advantage of the port-biased line to pull out an early lead, leaving confusion behind him on the start-line. Mike Wilson in the RS400 overtook him on the water, but lost a lot of time with a capsize and let Pridham win handsomely. Back down the fleet Simon Pressly eventually pulled clear on the water of a fast Ali Hinds in her Laser Radial, with the other Laser Radials of Ben Swindlehurst and Chris Hill bringing up the rear.

A windward- leeward course was set by the doughty OODs for the second race and there was a much closer start, Pressly snapping at Pridham’s heels for much of the race in the moderating breeze. Hill made a much better start, and had a big lead over the other Radials until he went for a long tack over to the breakwater and lost a huge amount of time, letting Hinds slip past him and not being able to redress the balance before the end. Hinds would have done better yet if she had not mistakenly thought she was over the line at the start and returned to start again. The RS400 had a better race after being caught on the wrong side of the start-line and came in third, with Roberts in his only race of the morning, in the Fireball, bringing up the rear.
Many thanks to the OODs for a very cold morning’s work, and the equally cold safety-boat crew, whose cheer when the race-end flag went up at the end of the second race was truly heart-felt! Never was the Commodore’s Christmas lunch more enjoyed!

Last race of the series is this coming Sunday 23rd.

Results

First race
1. Mike Pridham (Laser)
2. Ali Hinds (Laser Radial)
3. Simon Pressly (Laser)
4. Mike Wilson (RS400)
5. Ben Swindlehurst (Laser Radial)
6. Chris Hill (Laser Radial)

Second race
1. Pridham
2. Pressly
3. Wilson
4. Hinds
5. Hill
6. Swindlehurst
7. Roberts

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 8:10 am and is filed under Race News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.