Southern Championship Open Dinghy Club TT : Summer Series
Saturday 23rd - Sunday 24th June 2007

Report by: Keith Bartlett
Pictures By: Isabella Sandells & Keith Bartlett

Making a welcome return to sample the unique charms of ODC, (no bar and no showers!) ten Sprint 15ers travelled to East Preston in Sussex, to join six boats from ODC to take part in the Windsport Catparts Sprint 15 travelers series, for a weekend of close racing. New to the event were Stuart Pegrum from Queen Mary SC sailing 1918 (Gordon Goldstone’s old boat) and Cedric Clemerson from Pevensey SC, bravely getting to grips with his first outing at an open event in 1201.

The forecast for the event was F4-F5 winds interspersed with heavy rain showers.
Saturday morning saw the ten travelers well into unpacking and rigging before the ODC brigade sauntered down to the boat park. With low tide due at 11.56am, and a South-South Westerly wind, Race Officer Pete Roberts needed to take care that there would sufficient water behind the start line for a starboard tack start. With an F4 wind and some watery sunshine, Race 1 got underway, despite some strange sound signals from the committee boat, who later confirmed that they had “horn problems” – don’t we all! Sport mode Kevin Dutch started right on the button and immediately punched his way to a small lead, closely followed by fellow trapezer Dave Casal, with Frank Sandells sniffing at their heels. Sadly Casal’s race only lasted part way up the first beat before his port trapeze wire parted company at the top of the mast, and Dave took an unplanned swim. Meanwhile Dutch was reveling in the conditions, and was going round the diamond shaped course in a determined fashion. However he was having trouble shaking off Sandells who was tracking him about 300 yards behind-with the rest of the pack starting to get strung out. Newcomer Cedric Clemerson, having only his 3rd sail in a 15, was having problems tacking in the chop, whilst some of the ODC crowd were discovering that maybe some more time ought to be spent in getting fit in the gym, if they were going to keep up with the travelers over 5 laps. Despite finishing with a screaming, spray flying reach, Dutch hadn’t done enough to keep out Sandells, who took first place by 8 seconds on handicap, with your Sprint 15 Treasurer, Gordon Goldstone, coming in third. First placed ODC helm was Chris Rickard coming in 5th.

Race 2 was sailed back to back, but in the period of waiting for all the fleet to finish the first race, both the wind and the chop increased. So it was blowing a pretty steady F5, when the horn went for the start. The first beat saw many helms having problems getting good boat speed in the chop, but that man Dutch trapezed his way to the front, and steadily increased his lead over each lap. Back on the water, having jettisoned his jib and redundant trapezing gear, Dave Casal was making up for his disappointment in Race 1, and was chasing Dutch all the way round, having established almost a leg’s lead over the next pack of Sandells, Goldstone and Rickard. Sandells had already survived unscathed a T bone incident on the way to the windward mark, whereas ODC’s Terry Nowell had a nice junk missing from his bows and wisely decided to retire. Elsewhere on lap 1, Keith Bartlett was having problems with his rudder bar coming adrift twice, and dropped to last place whilst fixing it. However it was all in vain, as “FREDDIE” did a graceful snow plough close to the gybe mark, breaking two battens in the process- so another ODC helm was forced to retire. Meanwhile Dutch was keeping up a relentless pace, and lapping several of the other boats. At the gun, it was a victorious Dutch with over a 2 minute lead on handicap over second placed man Dave Casal, who was over 2 minutes in front of Frank Sandells in third place. A total of five boats retired, reflecting the conditions. So after two races, Sport mode and Sprint mode had each won a race.

During the lunch break, which was interspersed with showers and more wind, R/O Roberts and ODC’s organizer Bartlett, conferred with the helms and decided that with a rising tide, and highly unpredictable weather, that the afternoon’s race would be cancelled. Thus many competitors were well into several beers by the time the traditional ODC BBQ, got underway around 5 pm. Chef and Sprint15 helm, Terry Nowell supervised the cooking in spirited style, with the competitors and helpers almost cleaning Terry out of stock. Correction, or was it just Kevin Dutch putting on some extra lbs in anticipation of Sunday’s racing.

Sunday saw more wind, rain, plus some hung-over helms. With the forecast again uncertain, it was agreed to drop both the Pro Am and the 5th race, and just run a rapid 3 lapper around a diamond shaped course. There were only 6 starters, with several of the ODC boats deciding to sit this one out. Dutch once again had the measure of the conditions, and drew out a steadily increasing lead on each lap over Sandells, with Rickard and Goldstone battling it out for 3rd and 4th places. At the gun, Dutch had done enough to beat Sandells by over a 1 min 30 sec on handicap, with Rickard just pipping Goldstone on the final beat to take 3 rd place.