59er Open at Draycote Water Sailing Club
by Dave Hall, Ovington Boats 26 Apr 2006 12:34 BST
22-23 April 2006
A small but very well matched 59er fleet met at Draycote over the weekend of 22nd / 23rd April for the first of the 59er circuit this year. On Saturday, the conditions were light and very shifty which led to a 3 ‘interesting’ races where big gains and losses were the norm.
The first race saw Russell Smith crewed by expert RS 200 sailor Paul Dorer win a close race from Dave Hall and Mark Collingwod. In the second , John Bennett crewed by son James built up an impressive lead in the early stages, only to see it disappear at the end with Russell Smith again taking the win. In the third the pattern was the same but this time John Bennett managed to hold on to take the bullet from Dave Hall.
On Sunday whilst there was more wind but it remained patchy and progressively moved around the compass giving the Race officer a tough job get the races off. Unfortunately, Dave was forced to sit on the sidelines leaving a match race between Russell Smith and John Bennett. All three races were very close with never more than a few boat lengths between them and the lead changing frequently. In the end Russell Smith won 2 of the 3 to take the overall win.
The next meeting takes place in July at Ullswater.