Back from Oz

A relieved OK fleet arrived at Dabchicks SC to be greated by their boats in a container from Australia

The first OK Dinghy qualification event took place over the weekend 22-23 April. A relieved group of OK Dinghy sailors arrived at Dabchicks to be greeted by the long waited container full of boats arriving back from the Australian World Championships. An hour later the container was unpacked with no damage to report.

After a short postponement the 21 competitors found their way to the starting area for race one in a Force two and flat sea. Simon Childs at his first event in the OK lead around the windward mark before losing his way up the second beat, Jon Fish found his way to the front and held the lead to the finish with Alex Scoles taking second just in front of Bill Bradburn in third and Neil Goodhead fourth.

In race two Goodhead found the conditions to his liking sporting his new Ctech/Gale rig, overhauling early leader John Ball up the second beat and holding on to take the win. Fish clawed back after being recalled at the start to take second position and Terry Curtis pulled through the fleet to take third from Ball.

Fish lead the fleet round the windward mark on the final race of the day. As he headed off down the reach the wind backed causing the rest of the fleet who had been on the layline to fight their way to the windward mark. On the second beat, Curtis came through to second and started to reel Fish in, but after a short tacking match Fish held on to win from Curtis in second with Rob Deaves snatching third from Bradburn at the finish.

After much needed refreshments, ably supplied by our hosts, Sunday dawned grey and drizzly. A light breeze filled in and the race officer took the fleet to sea.

The first race of the day got underway in the most fickle of breezes leaving the fleet fighting their way through the tide upwind. Andy Turner showed impressive light wind pace to lead at the windward mark, followed by Fish and Scoles. The race was shortened after the first round, but unfortunately the finish boat dropped the mark below the starboard layline causing much confusion. Curtis won from Turner, only for the race to be abandoned retrospectively due to the hooked finish.

Race five was started shortly after in equally dire conditions with the wind shifting and dying on regular occasions. Up the first beat Turner had too much height and pace for the rest of the fleet to hold a comfortable advantage at the windward mark, and took a deserved win when the race officer shortened at the bottom of the run. Mike Edwards took second comfortably from Deaves in third.

Results:

Pos	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1	Jon Fish	1	2	1	6	4
2	Neil Goodhead	4	1	6	4	9
3	Terry Curtis	5	3	2	DNF	10
4	Rob Deaves	9	10.5	3	3	15
5	Alex Scoles	2	6	9	DNF	17
6	Bill Bradburn	3	14	4	10	17