Grafham Water Sailing Club hosted the Gill Dart 15 Inland Championship 2023 over the weekend of 14th & 15th October, with a turnout of 19 Dart 15 sailors drawn to GWSC given a sunny & sometimes breezy weather forecast leading up to the event.  The ever efficient race officers & Dart 15 aficionados were Fiona & Nigel Denchfield assisted on the water by the renowned Grafham mark layers and rescue boat drivers/crews who between them put on a superb race course with swift race turnarounds and optimum racing angles.  6 races were scheduled with 3 each day, however the softening breeze made it an easy decision for race management to elect 4 races on Saturday & 2 on Sunday.

Started with a whimper and finished with a roar

The first day of the Dart 15 Sport National Championship started in perfect sailing weather with a flat, dark blue sea, force 4 and wall to wall sunshine.  Twenty-nine boats entered including eighteen from the host club.

Eight Dart 15 travellers joined four members of the home club to compete in the picturesque setting of Carsington Water on the edge of the Peak District. 

August had been a wet and often wild month across Derbyshire but this race weekend saw baking hot sunshine but with it very light winds.  This led to testing conditions out on the racecourse with changes in wind direction, small pockets of breeze that competitors hoped to exploit and a high degree of concentration required to cross the finish line.

This year is the forty-fifth anniversary of the UKs best loved small cat and also heralded a welcome return to the name Dart 15.  The National Championships were held at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club in Essex and saw a very healthy entry of forty-six boats, including a strong showing from the home fleet.

With a fairly early start on Saturday morning due to the tides, the majority of the fleet arrived on Friday and some took advantage of a Coaching Session provided by Tom Phipps from Windsport International on Friday morning.

Twenty two competitors travelled to the coast of North Devon to race in the Southern Championship in the Dart 15 Summer Series.

Dart 15 Association, Annual General Meeting 2023

Date 15th July 2023

Venue: Thorpe Bay Sailing Club 5.30pm unless advised otherwise

Thirteen Dart 15 travellers joined the one local sailor at Rutland for our May TT as part of the wider Rutland Cat Open comprising six fleets and nearly 70 boats.

After a long, wet spring, competitors were finally greeted with two days of sunshine with a very fresh breeze from the north or north east.  Champagne sailing conditions with a very healthy breeze, plenty of gusts and some tricky shifts across the weekend allowing many competitors to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over the six races.

The Dart 15s are celebrating their forty-fifth anniversary as well as a welcome return to the name Dart 15 this year.  Their first Summer TT under both banners was held at Marconi Sailing Club on the beautiful River Blackwater on the Essex East Coast.

The Gill Dart 15 Winter TT got underway in near perfect sailing conditions for the 13 hardy competitors braving a cool, fresh mainly South Westerly breeze with a steady 22 knots on the start line for race 1 of 3 scheduled back to back races.