By Sue Langford
From the Brading Haven Yacht Club: Mid May was pretty
miserable for sailing with only a force two to three breeze plus cold and misty conditions, but still thirteen dinghies turned up at
the Brading Haven Yacht Club for the Saturday race.
Roy Knight set a terrific course including the marks at Under Tyne, Old Church, Drumhead and Britten. Gareth Jones was the overall winner of the Fast Handicap class with David Cotchin and Gordon
Osborne in second place and Roger and Gill Herbert third.
The Scows had a slightly shorter course but still with a fair amount of travelling and had Graham Sutton as their winning sailor. David Earee made a close second place with Francesca Morgan in third.
Sunday’s racing was under the watchful eye of race officer Richard Coleman organising two races from the committee boat.
It was almost a dead heat in the Fast Handicap with Martyn Davies winning on corrected time in his Contender by a mere point zero seven of a second from the Europe of Chris Wilkinson. Steven and
Antonia De Boise made a close third in their 420.
David Earee had the Scow fleet eating out of his hand by claiming a fine win with Graham Sutton in second and Paddy Thompson third.
The fast handicap’s second race had Chris Wilkinson making a great start around the first triangle of the Olympic style course before Martyn Davies took over in his Contender to collect another win with Chris a very respectable second place.
Graham Sutton pulled out all the stops in race two of the scow class to romp home a winner with Paddy Thompson in second place and David Earee third.
Illusion Class - Season Finale, the Woodford Long Distance Race: The nine boats competing in the Woodford marathon had a good breeze, sunshine and reasonably flat water.
Bruce Huber, the dominant sprint specialist was surprised to be outperformed by both Alastair Speare Cole and Veronon Stratton on the first leg of the epic trans-Solent adventure. At the second gate Alastair was out front once again, with Bruce hot on his heels and Henry Cecil showing strong form with a third spot.
At the final stage of the third gate James Axtell who had lead for miles was pipped by Mr Huber.
On Sunday Philip Woodford powered through to win race one. The strong Speare Cole campaign held race two. Barnaby Edwards was ultimately out-paced by Alastair who won the day.
The final outing of the Illusion season ran more smoothly than a military march thanks to the commitment of the race officers.
These staunch, faithful, unwavering marshals have yet again provided a fleet of little boats with a big amount of fun.
From the Bembridge Sailing Club: Mid May saw few boats
sailing, there were five Redwings out on Saturday reducing to four on Sunday. Pete Landon sailing No 3 Prawn finished 2 minutes
ahead of Algy Morant in No 19 Ursula; Michael MacInness was
a minute or so behind in 3rd. On Sunday there were only three finishers. Nick Wakefi eld in No 13 Tarpon led the way home with Robin Ebsworth in No 41 Quintessence in 2nd and Hugo Peel in No 21 Redwing in 3rd.
The One-designs also had five starters on Saturday with a course of Garland-Tara twice round finishing in the harbour. Jos Coad in 5 came from the back of the fleet to overtake Mark Grz in 9 and
the others after staying out (offshore) all the way back from Tara and getting a good lift when beating up to Nainby. As he was at the
back, no-one thought to cover him. Third was William Bland in 12, with Anna Row (8) in fourth place. Martin Bonham (2) sailed the course three times round having followed the redwing course, not
realizing that the BOD course was twice round only.
On Sunday only three boats were out. Mark Grz in 9 came in ahead of D Orange (11) and James Row (8). On the Saturday evening the BODA/scow dinner welcomed other Club members and had an excellent dinner. The BSC have had their motor boat pontoon extended for 2006 by Walcon.