Ovington regatta

A one off event is to be sailed in memory of Dave Ovington on the weekend of the 5 November

The Ovington regatta sailed in memory of Dave Ovington is set to take place on the weekend of 5-6 of November. Racing on the Saturday is open to all classes and will follow a similar racing format to the Grafham Grand Prix, with the boats being split into fast and slow handicap fleets. Sunday’s racing will be exclusively for the dinghies more closely related to the Tynemouth boat builder who passed away earlier this year: The 29er, 49er, Musto Skiff, International 14 and B14 fleets. The combined results from both days racing will make up the results for the annual Ovington open meeting.

Entries have been limited to 200 boats - as this is the maximum amount of boats that Grafham can host for the weekend. Many have entered already and the organizers predict there will be a late surge, however competitors are urged to register as early as possible to guarantee their place. Entry forms are available at the Grafham Water Sailing Club website http:// www.grafham.org.

Taking an early lead, those that have entered so far include Olympians Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks, Paul Brotherton, and many of Ovington’s good friends from Tynemouth SC. The International 14 fleet is said to have entered en masse. Paul Brotherton will be giving a talk at the prizegiving in memory of the man who “just liked building boats” and there is due to be a disco on the Saturday night.

Originally there was not going to be a memorial event, but the amount of people that expressed a wish to do something in memory of him was overwhelming.

The event is to be a one off, so will not be repeated annually. There has been a trophy commissioned for the winner and there will be individual prizes for fleet winners.