Windsport Sprint 15 Southerns at the Open Dinghy Club

Competitors in the clubhouse during the Sprint 15 open at Angmering-on-Sea © Keith Bartlett

Ten Sprint 15ers travelled to East Preston in Sussex, to join six boats from ODC to take part in the TT series, sailing in either Sport mode – main, jib and trapeze, or Sprint mode - una rigged, no trapeze.

With an F4 South Westerley wind, Race 1 got underway, with Sport mode Kevin Dutch immediately punching his way to a small lead, closely followed by fellow trapezer Dave Casal, with Frank Sandells sniffing at their heels. Despite finishing with a screaming, spray flying reach, Dutch hadn’t done enough to keep out Sprint mode Sandells, who took first place by 8 seconds on handicap. Race 2 followed on, but by the start the wind had increased to an F5. The first beat saw many helms having problems getting good boat speed in the chop. Dutch however was keeping up a relentless pace, and lapped 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. So after two races, Sport mode and Sprint mode had each won a race.

With a rising tide, and highly unpredictable weather, the afternoon’s race was cancelled.

Sunday saw more wind and rain. With the forecast again uncertain, it was agreed just run a rapid 3 lapper around a diamond shaped course. Dutch once again had the measure of the conditions, and drew out a steadily increasing lead on each lap over Sandells. At the gun, Dutch had done enough to beat Sandells by over a 1 min 30 sec on handicap.

The Windsport-Catparts vouchers went to George Woods, Chris Rickard and Dave Murphy

Overall Results: