Class Association
The 2ndhanddinghies SW Ugly Tour made its first visit to Parkstone on May 19th and the 30 boats from 8 different clubs received a very warm welcome from the hosts with free bacon butties and cuppers on the water’s edge in at last nice May weather but worrying very little wind. On cue the wind started to fill in as the briefing was taking place and the fleet sailed out to the top triangle in Poole Harbour in enough wind to race.
Allowing for tide dropping by mid-afternoon it was a tight schedule to fit in 4 races particularly in the lightish wind. After setting one of the most interesting start lines for the first attempted start I have seen in a quite a while PRO Richard Havill and his team then did a first class job in constantly adjusting the course to keep it true, managing length of races well and smart turn a rounds so all 4 races were completed by 15.00. Although the wind was light it was better than forecast staying in the 6-9 knot band and never switching off allowing some good quality racing.
Race 1 and local guru Duncan Glen with daughter Kirsten crewing led at mark 1 to go onto comfortably win but unfortunately was a bit keen at the start and was OCS. Matt Mee/Emma Norris equally comfortable in 2nd throughout now won the race with the steadily improving Rusdens 2nd and Stephen Tiernan/Elizabeth Norton third. Mee/Norris were in control of race 2 from early stages and won from our match racing Olympians Lucy MacGregor/Annie Lush with Tiernan/Norton again 3rd.
Just to prove they had now got the hang of starting with more than 2 boats on the line MacGregor/Lush port tacked the fleet in race 3 to be in close company with Mee/Norris at mark I but lost out on a couple of light runs with the wind a little soft. This did not concern Mee/Norris who won from the Rusdens and Chews Tony/Zach Freer. Race 4 and Duncan/Kirsten Glen made up for race 1 disappointment by again leading and pulling away with the class act of Mee/Norris 2nd and the Freers closing in 3rd.
After 4 races better than we probably had a right to expect the fleet were greeted ashore by the fab Parkstone shore crew handing out burgers and free beers as you pulled your boat up the slip – now that is proper!!!
With Mee/Norris having demolished the fleet to win overall with a race to spare it was much tighter in the divisions. Nick Martindale/Lydia James from Chew were rewarded for 3 top ten finish by a narrow win in the silver division form home club Will Storey/Kate Davis and Bristol’s Claire Walsh/Darren McNamara. The home fleet provided the top 3 in the bronze division with Chris Bower/Lindsay Powell winning from Dennis Brophy/Oli Alcock and Peter Loretto/Josh Dack.
Very grateful thanks to Parkstone, excellent hosts- we will be back! Thanks also to David Harding of sailing scenes for supplying photos for report; many more good action shots of all boats at www.sailingscenes.com. Round 3 of the 2ndhanddinghies SW Ugly Tour moves to Penarth YC on July 15th, the day after the minor social occasion of Dave Hivey/Emma Clarkes wedding – it could be big!!!
Pete Vincent
