OK Dinghy Northern Championship win to Nick Craig

by OK Dinghy UK on 24 Mar 2011 16 OKs turned out for the Northern Championships hosted in the Pennine Hills by Glossop Sailing Club.

The first three races on the Saturday were held in bright Spring sunshine and a reasonably consistent force 2. In the first race Tony Woods showed he meant business on his own water, sailing up the right hand side and consistently picking the shifts to open up a big lead, closely followed by Ben Steel, the only junior in the fleet. Nick Craig picked up well from a bad first beat, getting past Keith Byers (fourth) and Gavin Waldron (third) but couldn't catch Tony. Ben was OCS.

In the second race Nick Craig and Andy Turner arrived at the windward mark together and had a good tussle all the way round. Eventually Tony Woods arrived on the scene and managed an overlap on Andy at the last mark to finish second to Nick's race win.

In the third race there was no stopping Nick who sailed off into the distance with Tony finishing second and Neil Goodhead sailing very consistently to finish third and Gavin fourth. Mary Reddyhoff showed what can be done with a cut down sail to finish seventh in this race (juniors take note).

Day 2 dawned cold, wet and windy with white horses scudding down the reservoir. By the time we started the wind had abated somewhat but the drizzle kept coming. Simon Davis had turned up with his new North sail and promptly showed us all how to do it, although he was eventually overhauled in Race 4 by Nick, Tony and Neil Goodhead showing a good turn of speed so early in the season. Further back Chris Perry, a recruit from the Laser fleet, Martin Bower and Roland Gadsby all showed excellent boat speed at times, but need to look for greater consistency and better starts.

The last two races were held either side of lunch with Nick winning both, Dave Cooper and Gavin both testing the water temperature and Simon Davis surrendering a race win in Race 6 as Nick just got an overlap at the last mark.

Many thanks to all those competitors who travelled a long way to attend the event, particularly Brian Quayle from the Isle of Man and Marry Reddyhoff from the south coast.

Many thanks to Tony Woods for organising everything, including overnight accommodation, and to Glossop Sailing club for a great weekend.

sailno	helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	total	position
2134	Nick Craig	2	1	1	1	1	1	5	1
2124	Tony Woods	1	2	2	2	4	3	10	2
2135	Neil Goodhead	5	4	3	3	7	17	22	3
2123	Andy Turner	6	3	6	5	5	4	23	4
2084	Keith Byers	4	6	5	6	3	7	24	5
2085	Gavin Waldron	3	9	4	11	6	6	28	6
2107	Daz Prior	9	5	9	8	11	5	36	7
2141	Simon Davis	17	17	17	4	2	2	42	8
2096	Chris Perry	12	7	8	7	9	17	43	9
2119	Martin Bower	8	8	10	9	10	9	44	10
2088	Roland Gadsby	7	12	12	12	8	8	47	11
240	Ben Steel	17	11	11	10	12	17	61	12
2058	Mary Reddyhoff	11	10	7	17	17	17	62	13
2031	Dave Cooper	10	13	13	13	14	17	63	14
2062	Brian Quayle	14	14	14	14	13	10	65	15
1886	Andy Stewart	13	15	15	15	15	17	73	16

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