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Dartmouth Regatta 2008

The Royal Bank of Scotland Dartmouth Week 2008, part of the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, was its usual exuberant end of season party for the race crews, even if it was a somewhat muted affair on the water. After an August of strong winds and rain who could have anticipated a light winds regatta and a story of lost races? For the first time in over a decade a whole day’s racing was lost due to a complete lack of wind. On the Friday there was no racing for any of the 13 classes of yachts, sports boats and day boats; local Dartmothians opined they had never seen Start Bay so still and glassy. Highlight of the day was the size of the mackerel catch – an estimated 100 fish in one cockpit.

Never-the-less the race officers made best use of what wind there was and over the 3 remaining days managed a total of 51 yacht races. The dinghies meanwhile had enjoyed good winds and excellent racing earlier in the week.

The total of 330 regatta entries, just one short of last year’s record entry, included 9 Farr 45s racing for their national Championship. The yachts were divided onto 2 courses with 150 IRC yachts sailing with the PY1 fleet on the Western course and 86 yachts, sports boats and day boats on the inshore Eastern course. The latter included 15 local Squibs, the biggest of the one design classes, 6 Devon Yawls and 5 Scimitars.

The dinghies commenced proceedings on Sunday August 24th sailing from Dittisham SC. The Toppers were dominated by Lucy Castledine of Stoke Gabriel Boating Association, who won with four firsts and two seconds. In the 16 strong Laser fleet Sam Moggridge from the home club was equally dominant discarding two fourths to leave himself 3 points clear at the top of the table. Two well sailed Phantoms sat at the top of the PY dinghy fleet with David Guthrie comfortably winning with a total of 7 points from the series of 8 races. The Optimist fleet of 5 boats was entirely a Royal Dart Yacht Club affair. Daniel Bovey made it look easy counting first and one second in his final score. Five Solos came to the line and Jonathon Weeks of Dittisham SC managed bullets in all eight races. And finally, in the Laser Radials Patrick Bromley discarded a 3rd and a 2nd to lead home the other five entries.

The RBS Dartmouth Week for the yachts was preceded by the traditional passage race from Brixham to Dartmouth on the Wednesday sponsored by Baltic Wharf. In bright, ideal conditions the 80 strong fleet set off on a spinnaker run from the Brixham YC line heading East out of Torbay and round Berry Head and then South to Dartmouth. Tony Mc Bride’s Beneteau First 50 ‘Novus Arca’, took line honours but Rennie Miller’s J122 ran out winner on corrected time in the IRC division from Sean Semmens/John Pollard’s X99. Only 17 minutes behind was Phil Boden’s Beneteau 42.7 ‘Ingo’ which comfortably took first overall in the PY yachts. Second was ‘Impi’ the Elan 37 of Charles Quartley. Peter Polley in his classic Bermudian Sloop took the non-spinnaker PY class.

Thursday dawned bright and virtually windless for the first of four days of racing in Start Bay. After a delay of three quarters of an hour the Farrs finally hit the start line only to be recalled – a case of first race nerves possibly. They eventually got away at the end of the start sequence which meant they had the IRC and PY1 boats to contend with up the first beat. Great for the spectators! Race 1 went to Stewart Whitehead’s Rebel by 30 seconds from ICAP Mephisto X4 (Kevin Sussmioch & Jonathan Butler). Over the next 6 races (11 were scheduled) there were 5 different winners and only 2.5 points separated the top three boats. Simon Henning in Alice II eventually took top spot and the 2008 championship from second, Werewolf (Jerry Otter) and third Rebel.

The IRC1 class ‘Apollo’ a J133 owned by Nigel and Donna Passmore had a storming run. They sailed an immaculate series in difficult conditions, discarded a 2nd from race 3 and ended with a total of five points, eight clear of second placed ‘Quokka 7’ a Corby 36 sailed by RORC Commodore, Peter Rutter.

The 35 IRC2 yachts managed a five-race series and the X99 ‘Xcellent’ (Sean Semmens/John Pollard) continued their good performance in the Passage Race by taking firsts in races two and three to give them a 1.5 point margin over runners up ‘Astarte’ the Beneteau 34.7 of Nick Jones.

IRC 3 were one of the classes to suffer badly from the light weather, the time constraints on Sunday and the considerable difference in elapsed times from first to last yachts – 1 hour and 17 minutes in race 3 - meant they only completed 3 races. Never-the-less Matt and Michelle Dodd in their Hunter Impala ‘Dreadnought’ were impressive, recording three straight bullets to end the series 12 points clear of runner up ‘Per Elisa’, Robbie Tregear’s Half Tonner.

The PY1 cruising yachts were only scheduled to sail one race per day and in the end only managed a race on two of the four days. Even then may of the 40 entries failed to finish Saturday’s Noss Marina Coastal Race. Consistency in the difficult conditions paid off for Martin Wilson and his crew on the Dehler 39 ‘Renaissance’ which made the trip from Portsmouth. A fourth and a third gave them a one point victory over the J24 ‘Italian Job’ (John Gorman).

On the Eastern course closer inshore the Race Officer had an even more difficult time with a mix of light, variable and no wind. Even so the fleets got some racing even if of questionable quality. In the PY2 fleet the two Hunter Formula 1s had things to themselves. Stephen Pirnie’s ‘Whisky Mac’ was rewarded with two firsts and a second to be well clear of the sister yacht ‘No Name’ sailed by Jeff Van der Borght.

The 21 yachts in the PY3 fleet had a tortuous time; the commodore of the RDYC, reported they spent at least an hour and a quarter trying to sail 50 metres against a foul tide in race two. ‘Samurai’(Adrian Bishop) a GK24 from Royal Western YC overcame the odds to record two firsts and a third to give them a clear advantage over runners-up the Parker 21 of David Mettam. Special mention must be made of the winners of race 3 who were Dart Sailability in their Hawk 20; they finished a creditable seventh overall.

David Petitt the current national champion in the Devon Yawls made few mistakes to take the series in the seven strong Yawl fleet. There is a rumour there may be more next year. Similarly, Matthew Reed, had a very good run to record four firsts in the Scimitars.

Fifteen Squibs came to the line and completed a five-race series. With a different winner on each day this was a hard fought competition. Eight points only separated first from fourth with final honours going to Peter Johnson in ‘Atom’. His consistency at the top was the telling factor – never out of the top three. Runner up was Simon Unwin with his crew Judith Thomas in ‘Mimosa’, just 2 points behind.

The J80s combined with the sports boats to make a fleet of 10 boats. Honours were evenly divided with the 1720 of Julian Cook just pipping the J80 of John McLaren by one point after an eight race series.

If conditions on the water were difficult for all, then the entertainment on shore more than made up for it. The competitors’ marquee was the centre of some great post-race music and with Dartmouth full to bursting with regatta revellers, the event certainly lived up to its billing as the end of season regatta to be seen at. The sponsorship from the Royal Bank of Scotland bought a new and welcome dimension to the event. At the well attended prize giving on Sunday evening Jerry Otter, the Farr 45 captain congratulated the race teams on coping with such difficult conditions. He said they were already looking forward to returning next year. It is to be hoped that the weather will be kinder.