Dovestone Sailing Club Christmas Plate 2024

Dovestone Sailing Club Christmas Plate 2024: (l-r) Mick Scholes, Tim Allen, John MacDonald, Iain McNeill, David Cheetham © Nik Lever

Dovestone Sailing Club's last sailing day of the year is the annual open day trophy, the Christmas Plate. This year the event was held on 14th December. It was great to see so many visitors to the club with boats from Leigh and Lowton SC, Hollingworth Lake SC, Scammonden SC, Pennine SC, Rossendale Valley SC, Elton SC and Etherow Country Park SC. In total there were 26 boats competing.

As the competitors arrived the reservoir set amongst hills of the Peak District National Park was glass smooth, not a sight sailors are eager to see. As a result of the lack of wind the Race Officer, Mark Rahn, postponed the first of 3 races by 30 minutes. Thankfully by 11:30am, the delayed start time, there was just enough breeze to propel the boats around the course.

In the first race, Martin Knott, a visitor from Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club, had a great start in his Phantom. With Ian Jones, DSC’s most successful sailor, sailing a Laser, not too far behind. The races were held using the Royal Yachting Association’s (RYA) Portsmouth Yardstick scheme which assigns a number to each boat class. The number allows the race organisers to calculate an adjusted time for each boat. Using this scheme means faster boats can be first on the water yet not first after adjusted time. A Phantom is a faster boat than a Laser, but Jones was just too far behind Knott and after adjusted time Knott was still ahead by a few seconds.

Dovestone Sailing Club Christmas Plate 2024: Martin Knott & Ian Jones - photo © Nik Lever

After the first race competitors returned to shore and the clubhouse for a lunch of soup and sandwiches created by the galley team led by Anne Webb.

Racing continued in the afternoon. The course was unchanged but the wind was significantly stronger. Again Martin Knott in his Phantom led the fleet but this time after time was adjusted by PY handicaps he was in 6th place, with Ian Jones in 1st, D. Neild 2nd and Wendy Jones 3rd. In the final race Knott took first place.

The young F. Smith deserves a special mention for doing all three races in his Optimist. With a boat that has a speed of only just over half the leaders, he did an excellent job competing.

Dovestone Sailing Club Christmas Plate 2024: F Smith - photo © Nik Lever

The competitors returned and were greeted with mulled wine and mince pies on the slipway. After derigging and changing many stayed for prize-giving, drinks and carols in the clubhouse. A very happy end to a great season at Dovestone Sailing Club.

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