Sailing: Dell Quay celebrates 90th birthday in style

The opening ceremony, which included unveiling a commemorative plaque, was completed by the club’s junior members cutting the ribbon. None of this would have been possible without the leadership of Tim Applewhite who designed, project-managed and built the pontoon and balcony, with an army of willing volunteers.

There followed a fun packed day comprising a fancy-dress relay race for the juniors, fun races, a sail-past by the club’s cruisers close to the quay, a celebration pursuit race and a hog roast.

A large fleet of 30 boats took to the water for the celebration pursuit race. With so many boats on the water, the very experienced race team of Alison and Gordon Barclay together with Jean and Liz Sagues chose to set a course staying close to the Western shore. The weather provided a fabulous day for mid-September with glorious sunshine but very light winds.

A pursuit race allows the slowest boats to start first, a full 30 minutes ahead of the faster boats for this 90-minute race. The light winds meant a relatively short course with plenty of tactical sailing, to make best use of the tide and wind, with the faster boats rapidly catching the early starters.

At the finish Dell Quay’s top sailors had come to the fore with Lee Sydenham and son Max in first place sailing a 2000, closely followed by the Solos of Bill Dawber and Richard Ede in second and third place, leaving Anne and Jim Norfolk in another 2000 to take fourth.

Dell Quay’s sailors took to the water again the next day to enter Bart’s Bash, the worldwide sailing event in aid of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation. With sunshine and a steady wind it was a perfect day’s sailing for both the keen racers and those that sail just for fun.

Results: 1 Lee and Max Sydenham (2000), 2 Richard Ede (Solo), 3 Chris West (Laser).

CHICHESTER

Chichester Yacht Club’s dinghy section again joined in Bart’s Bash, incorporating one of the Autumn Series races into the event.

A fine day and a force three to four wind presented lovely conditions. While records were unlikely to be broken, the 23 competitors enjoyed taking part in the world’s largest sailing race.

The Bart’s Bash race followed a race four of the Autumn series, which was run as fleet races with fleet stats.

A single start was set for Bart’s Bash, enabling all competitors to sail against each other and join in the fun.

Having won race four in the Classic fleet, Richard Anderton got off to a blistering start in his Laser and kept the pace on throughout the race. The only competitor who got ahead of him was Andy Conway in the RS100, but handicap meant Conway finished ninth overall.

It was a day for the single handers with Richard Anderton a clear first, but Ian Lissamore in his Solo gave him a good run, and while finishing well behind on the water was only about 15 seconds behind on corrected time.

Third place went to Oliver Randall-May in a Topper, with Lucy Boreham in a Europe coming fourth. The first placed two-man boat was Al and Manu Jenkins in their Laser 2000 in fifth.

Timings have been submitted to Bart’s Bash over the 6,330m course.

A great afternoon’s racing combined with donations to the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.

Bart’s Bash is run by sailing clubs all around the world on behalf of the foundation.

All the funds raised will help support the development and delivery of the foundation’s charitable programmes nationally and internationally. These programmes, conceived with Bart’s and the Olympic values at their heart, are being developed and tested at the Andrew Simpson Sailing Centre, which was opened in 2014 on the Olympic waters of Weymouth and Portland.

Full details at www.bartsbash.co.uk

Chichester Yacht Club had a perfect day for the Commodore’s Cup with warm sunshine and a light breeze. The club filled with pirates and the event began with the dinghy section leading the way. 

Some fun challenges were set involving cannon balls - aka black balloons - and rum cocktails.

The fun continued after sailing with a fun quiz and Funky Junction playing live music.

The dinghy section emerged victorious and the Commodores Cup is to be engraved and placed above the bar.

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