Dinghy champs continue with good conditions

A SMALL fleet took to the waters for the fourth day of the Point Yacht Club’s Dinghy Class Champs held in the bay on Saturday.

Six classes were represented with eleven boats enjoying the north-easterly wind. Race officer for the day, Kevin Bingham, set a NE dinghy course in the Esplanade Channel with the crafts having to sail around four massive harbour marks dotted in the channel.

The first race set off with the Lasers, Flying Fifteens and My Way, a keelboat, heading off first, and the two catamarans and solitary Mirror went off in the second start. Two laps around the meandering course took the first finishers just under an hour, which forced Bingham to shorten the second race to only one lap.

Leading the second race, Myles White and Charlotte Marshall, sailing in the Flying Fifteen class, missed the flag notifying the sailors of the shortened course and pushed on to the top mark, losing their top spot. The remainder of the fleet picked up the shortened course flag and drifted across the line.

“For race two, we managed to take a lead of around 200 metres by the end of the run – we enjoyed a number of puffs, which had us planing beautifully, but generally the wind was in the region of 10 to 15 knots – ideal for our weight combination. We started the second beat and focused on making the best of the wind shifts, never looking back. It was only after rounding the weather mark and hoisting the spinnaker that we realised that there were no boats anywhere behind us, and that another start sequence was underway. Oblivious to the fact that the course had been shortened we had sailed on to earn ourselves a DNF, with first place going to Simon,” Myles White said after the race.

Racing takes place this weekend for the fifth day of the series. For more information visit www.pyc.co.za or like their Facebook page.