Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club

Wednesday 22nd July saw sunshine return &  along with good winds the dinghies were set a longer than normal course which saw the fast handicap & asymetricc fleets having a mammoth beat to their windward mark at New Grounds !! – bet your legs ached John

The Slow Handicap & Enetrprise fleet had a decent beat to Melampus which along with a short chop  and the start of a flood tide made it a very into a tactical windward leg with many competitors cover each other to avoid any mistakes.

The fast handicap fleet was won by John Bower in the Phantom with Jon Couch in his laser radial in second place after a very close race with Dan Ellis in his Laser who finished third.

The Asymetric fleet saw Marcus Sim & Laurence Greenough take first place in their RS800 ahead of Jordan Squires & Craig Peters in their Laser Vago

The Enterprise fleet also enjoyed some very close racing with Pete Ganderton & Alan Scarlett taking first place in Tacamahaka ahead of Dave Mitchell & Neil Roach in Hell Bent with Peter Hickling in Dyskenetic in third place.

The Slow Handicap fleet saw Martin Ley sail an excellent race & led from the beginning in his Solo. Hugh Spencer sailed an excellent first lap & was comfortably ahead of Jon Buckler’s Solo but on the secondbeat the solo tacked on a wind shift to reach the windward mark on Starboard just ahead of the lightening on Port tack. Jon Buckler then spent the rest of the race trying to consolidate his lead & close on Martin Ley’s Solo. In the end it was a Martin LeysSolo who won with Jon Buckler in second place & Hugh Spencer in third place.

Many thanks to all that took part & to the line a safety boat crews.

For the full results please click here

Firstly apologies for the mistakes in the Fast Handicap & Asymetric Fleet results – these have now been verified & the correct results are listed below – thanks to all that have highlighted these problems.

Wednesday 15th July saw 33 dinghies turnout to race in a gusty WSW wind which saw the boats have windward beat from the start line to Asia. Once round the buoy there was a fast reach to Ash where the dinghies had a testing gybe in often gusty conditions. The next leg was a tight reach often flat out to NW Winter followed by a run back to West Mallard.

The fast handicap fleet was dominated by Jon Couch’s Laser  who managed to beat Chris Hampe’s International Canoe which circulated at warp speeds but was unable to beat the flying Laser Radial on handicap despite all his valient efforts. In Third spot was Dan Ellis who had close battles with Jon Couch’s Laser Radial to give each other some challenging racing along with Liam Arrowsmiths Laser Radial who finished fourth.

Fast Handicap Start - Photo courtesy Nikki Buckler

The Asymetric Fleet saw Plymouth Youth Sailing’s Marcus Sim in an RS 800 take first place with Chris Tooze & Emma Dolton in their Xenon in second place ahead of Russell Brown in his Laser Vago.

The Enterprise fleet saw Pete Ganderton’s Tacamahaca win ahead of Peter Hicklings  Dyskinetic with Martin Bevan in third place in No Handles.

The slow handicap fleet saw another masterful display of sailing by Martin Ley in his solo who managed to fight his way to the lead and draw out enough of a lead to beat Bella & Dan Fellows who sailed an excellent race & finished 14 seconds behind the Solo on corrected time in their RS Feva ahead of  Jon Buckler’s Solo who finished in third place.

Enterprise & Slow Handicap start - Photo courtesy Nikki Buckler

For the full results please click here

It was a typical offshore kind of sail with some punchy gusts coming off the Hoe to make things interesting.  The course for all fleets was the South Mallard to port, Dunstone,  South Winter and West Mallard to starboard.

The dog leg to South Mallard to port for the start provided a DSQ trap for some who left it to starboard on subsequent laps but not as many last month.  Hopefully Jon’s article at the time helped explain the reason behind the course set. 

In the slow handicap fleet Martin’s Solo masterclass continues with Neil Roach sailing,  Jon’s Solo for the first time,  joining the learning curve.  Neil finished a credible 3rd. 

 Hugh played the shifts expertly,  according to his post race debrief,  and lead the Lightening class round to finish 2nd overall. 

If you have a report for the other fleets please email sail@rpcyc.com

Results here

34 dinghies had some of the most challenging conditions of the year on the second race of the Rooster Sailing Summer Series with light variable winds  doing  their very best to confuse the competitors. First to suffer was the Lightning sailor Hugh Spencer who was caught out by a wind shift & ended up swimming following a capsize to windward. With holes in the wind appearing all over the course the early leaders were soon caught & in the combined second start of enterprises & slow handicap fleet the rounding of the second buoy saw ten boats side by side rounding the mark all at the same time !!

The winds continued to be fickle with constant changes taking place to keep the crews on their toes. Eventually the wind filled in toward the last quarter of the race which even saw some boat planning in the better winds.

All told it was another great evening on the water with good numbers racing    Thanks to all that took part & to all the line & safety boat crews.

For the night results please click here