Yorkshire Dalesopen meeting

 
A small but enthusiastic fleet arrived at Yorkshire Dales to be greeted by warm sunshine, the smell of bacon butties and perfect racing conditions, what could be better?  The facilities at YDSC are truly superb, to get perfect weather as well was an added bonus.

The race team led by Andrew Stratton  set an excellent course using all of the significant space available and after a close start it was Andy McKee and Natasha Baxter sailing N3529 in the lead with Howard Chadwick and Helen Nicholson (N3356) in second place.  Andy broke clear and sailed into the distance whilst John and Allison Cheetham (N3468) and Patrick Hamilton and James Grommett (N3502) were close behind Howard throughout the race, also in close contention was Terry Pressdee (YDSC Sailing Secretary) with Evette Allum in a borrowed boat (N3313) and Neil McInnes and Rachel Dean in N3216.  Andy stayed well clear to win and with 100 yards or less to go Howard sailed into a hole letting John Cheetham into second place and Patrick into third place.

After a splendid Yorkshire Dales lunch and a tweak to the course the fleet were once again in hot competition although Andy, it seemed was using his Dead Cat Bounce and wings to fly and soon opened out another unassailable lead, this time however it was Patrick in hot pursuit in his recently acquired Big Issue 2 with Neil and Rachel in third place.  The double bottomed boats soon took up the lead positions however but hotly pursued by Terry Pressdee who was obviously getting to grips with Twelve sailing very quickly!  The finishing order was Andy, Patrick and John with Terry not far behind.

For race three the OOD added an extra downwind leg in the freshening breeze and the competition started again.  Initially Andy was being pushed hard by Patrick whilst the next group were all in close contention for much of the race however as the race progressed Andy opened out his lead again, John cleared the AC (single bottomed) group, Howard pulled out on Neil after Neil picked a bad shift and N3133 now sailed by her new owner was close behind.I can only echo Andy’s comments in his winner’s speech, we had a fantastic days racing with perfect conditions, excellent courses and superb food from Pam, Emily and Kate.  Our grateful thanks go to the committee and members of YDSC for hosting an excellent meeting.  Please can we come back again next year?

Overall results