OK easter egg

There was mild weather for the OK Easter Egg Regatta in Waldringfield

An unusually mild Easter Egg Regatta at Waldringfield Sailing Club attracted a small fleet of OK Dinghies, while most of the fleet were still in a container on their way back from the worlds in Australia.

An easterly wind on Saturday brought the coldest conditions, with two races led from start to finish by Robert Deaves. Choosing the correct end of the start line he led at the first mark and extended over the next lap to build a considerable lead. However Ian Harris found second gear and made a late charge to close the gap on Deaves to less than a boatlength at the finish. It happened again in race two. Deaves built up a large lead, only to see it evaporate on the last downwind leg to Harris to set the scene for 20
tack tacking duel up the last beat for a finish only seconds apart.

Sunday morning brought a stronger westerly wind. Deaves made the best of the start and sailed away to another sizeable lead. Harris caught him after the second downwind leg and the two were again locked together until the final beat when Deaves stretched out to win by a relatively large four boatlengths. The afternoon race suffered from a falling wind and strong ebb tide and brought new races to the front. Daniel Ager led for much of the race, while Harris again pulled through after a bad first beat into second. These two steeled a march on the fleet and looked to have it sown up with Deaves rounding the downtide leeward mark some 300 metres behind in third. However Waldringfield is never that simple and while Ager and Harris tried to find less tide inshore, Deaves tacked on the mark in the tide and found enough pressure to take the lead and win the weekend with a day to spare. Simon Shaw eventually found a way past Ager to finish third.

The final day brought a stronger breeze and some challenging courses. Deaves led away in race five but was again caught by Harris again offwind with John Ball in third. Harris moved ahead but it wasn’t over until the finish with Deaves recovering to within a boatlength. The final race was round the island with the major concern being avoiding traffic from the other fleets. Deaves again led out of the start to lead down the first reach. After a lot of confusion with other boats over the next lap, Shaw finally found some clear air and sailed away from the fleet, never to be headed. Harris came second again followed by Ball.