Dorset Police Open DinghyRegatta
Wednesday, 2nd July, 2008
Venue: Poole Y.C.

Thirteen boats made it onto the water for this year's regatta; down on the previous Dorset regatta held in 2006. On a day that dawned grey and threatening, the sun came out for the afternoon and the promised wind eventually arrived. John Yonwin, Poole YC, who controlled last year's Police Nationals was again the Race Officer.

Race One: After the 'Olympic' course had been set up and the countdown commenced the wind decided to alter direction to give a distinct bias to the port end of the start line. Nevertheless boats got away well enough with as usual, the RS700 of Rob Jones leading the fleet and Andy Welch/Rob Gillespie following in the Osprey. Also well to the fore was David King representing Hampshire, sailing a Laser. As a result of the change in wind-direction, the position of the windward mark was changed during the race. At the back of the fleet, the Avon Comet Trios were having their usual close battle with Mike Beresford just keeping ahead of Rose Broad. With the tide high and a light wind, there was little to choose from which side of the course to sail up the beats and Ken Daniels in his Phantom cut through the light chop to win the race by some 10 seconds on corrected time from King with Welch gaining third place.

Race Two was sailed back to back and again, there was a distinct port-end bias for the start which caught out a few boats arriving too early at the pin end. Dick Sivers sailing a Laser Radial managed to tack on the buoy to get the best start, but soon overtaken by the faster boats. Wind conditions had remained the same and the threatened rain slowly commenced. A longer race this time with the fleet ending well stretched out. This time King managed to beat Daniels on corrected time by just 9 seconds with Jones third.

After two races, King and Daniels were on equal points; the result of the last race would decide the overall winner.

Race Three after lunch - and not only had the skies brightened but the wind had stiffened creating white horses. With the wind altering, it took a while to set the buoy positions and this time there was an equal spread along the line for the start. Boats spread out widely across the course for the first beat where Jones was first to round then Welch, closely followed by the two leading Lasers. On the first wing leg, the Osprey with spinnaker found themselves overpowered and tipped over followed by Bob Trevis in the Sussex RS400 also coming to grief with spinnaker flying. Thus positions changed early on with the leading Lasers vying closely with the Phantom whilst Jones flew ahead in the RS700 to record his best result. Whilst some boats did not start and others did not finish, Tim Whittle in the GP 14, Mike Scrivener in a borrowed Laser and Mark Fordham in the Avon RS Vision all managed to complete the race without mishap. On the finish line, the three Hampshire boats took the honours on corrected time with Jones first, King second and Andy Williams in a Laser recording his best result, third.

The most difficult part was returning home downwind across a vicious tidal chop to the safety of the yacht marina.

Organiser: Rob Gillespie, Dorset Police Sailing Section,
Port of Poole Police, New Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 4AJ.
Tel 01202 229301
rob.gillespie@dorset.pnn.police.uk