Flying
Dutchman Class
Open Meeting for the Oxford Tankards
Oxford
Sailing Club 4th April 1999
The FD Class always get together at
Oxford Sailing Club at Easter for a relaxed Open Meeting to start
the season. Saturday is usually a social day to talk and try boats, but this year there
was NO wind! The pleasant evening meal in the Club went ahead as normal.
For Sunday’s racing for the Oxford
Tankards there was only a little more wind, although it did build during the day. The
racing was very close despite the lack of wind.
In the first race Julian and Cathy Bridges,
who had travelled down from North Wales as usual, fought it out at the front of the fleet
with Peter Doran and Richard Phillips. Light airs specialists Andy Moss and Steve Rockey
struggled to find the small patches of wind and Hugh Myers and Mike Williams eventually
pulled through to third after an awful start.
The second race saw more wind and this suited
Soling sailor George Barker. George was sailing with his father, event organiser John
Barker, and was starting to get John’s wooden boat closer to the front of the fleet.
Moss led in the early stages from Bridges and
Doran, but Myers and Williams came through on some generous shifts to take a nice lead.
Bridges and Moss faded a little in the latter part of the race, so Doran scored another
second.
This meant that three boats were on 4 points
going into the last race, which was sailed in the best breeze of the day, although it
could still only be classified as light!
Doran and Phillips started best and, in fact,
led throughout. The chasing pack was never far behind, especially on the first lap with
the Barkers competing well with the other front runners. Myers and Williams settled into
what seemed to be a clear second place until a spinnaker snarl-up on the last close reach
let Moss and Rockey through on the line.
Results
1 377 Peter Doran/Richard Phillips
2 374 Hugh Myers/Mike Williams
3 380 Julian Bridges/Cathy Bridges
4 360 Andy Moss/Steve Rockey
5 327 George Barker/John Barker
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