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Dragons racing at the Aldeburgh Regatta 2022

The Aldeburgh Regatta took place this year between 21st and 26th August with six days racing, rather than the usual five because the Aldeburgh Carnival had already taken place a week earlier.

The format was unchanged. Class racing in the morning, a convivial lunch, followed by largely handicap racing in the afternoon. Very relaxed and social. What is more the races almost always start at the scheduled time whatever the weather or wind direction.

Six Dragons took part, all of them local. The fleet divided between three at or near the front including the current BDA Vintage and Classic champions in Basilisk (Patrick Gifford) and Harkaway (Tim Hannon). The third in this group was Naiad (Mike Hayles) Panther(James Hunt), Inditine (Hugh Rich) and Nooka (Andrew Barlow) made up the chasing group with good, sometimes very close, racing between them.

dragon keelboats with pink and blue spinnakers on the water in Aldeburgh

The weather was mostly benign with winds of about Force 3 and rain only on the Thursday, though even then we were spared the worst deluges. There were quite big shifts as thermals asserted themselves through the day but it was only on the final day that the race was sailed for the first hour in a very erratic gradient versus thermal fight. Very testing for nerves and temper!

Most of the time Basilisk, very well crewed by Jonathan Penn and Martin Spall, seemed to have a slight edge in speed so that she won five of the six races. She lost the other (first) race in a grandstand finish under the club by about four feet having come from some distance back on a long run.

The opposite happened to Harkaway on the Wednesday, who had led Naiad all the way in a tussle for second place only to lose it by a similar margin. On two occasions Panther only narrowly prevailed over Nooka in similar finishes. Overall, Basilisk won from Naiad with Harkaway third.

Dragon keelboat Harkaway sailing in Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh Regatta 2022 Dragon Winner Harkaway GBR151

In the personal handicap competition Harkaway won easily and it is clear that her rate of improvement has easily outstripped the handicapper’s efforts to keep up.

RESULTS

AYC Regatta Mornings 2022

Sailed: 6, Discards: 2, To count: 4, Rating system: PY, Entries: 6, Scoring system: Appendix A

RankFleetBoatClassSailNoHelmNameCrewNamePYSUN
2022-08-21  
MON
2022-08-22  
TUES
2022-08-23  
WEDS
2022-08-24  
THURS
2022-08-25  
FRI
2022-08-26  
TotalNett
1stDragonBasiliskDragon515Patrick GiffordMartin Spall, Andrew Jones, Jonathan Paul1018(2.0)(1.0)1.01.01.01.07.04.0
2ndDragonNaiadDragon764Mike HaylesChris Roberts10181.0(2.0)2.02.0(3.0)2.012.07.0
3rdDragonHarkawayDragon151Tim HannonTom Chalker, Noah Di Paolo1018(3.0)(3.0)3.03.02.03.017.011.0
4thDragonPantherDragon581James HuntEd Hunt, Rob Jones1018(4.0)(4.0)4.04.04.04.024.016.0
5thDragonInditineDragon64Hugh RichSarah Davies, Tammy Owens10185.0(6.0)(6.0)5.05.05.032.020.0
6thDragonNookaDragon797Andrew BarlowKeith Ballintine1018(6.0)5.05.0(7.0 DNC)6.06.035.022.0

AYC Regatta Loch Long & Dragon Personal Handicap 2022

Sailed: 6, Discards: 2, To count: 4, Rating system: PY, Entries: 6, Scoring system: Appendix A

RankFleetBoatClassSailNoHelmNamePYSUN
2022-08-21  
MON
2022-08-22  
TUES
2022-08-23  
WEDS
2022-08-24  
THURS
2022-08-25  
FRI
2022-08-26  
TotalNett
1stDragonHarkawayD 151 Harkaway151Tim Hannon933(1.0)1.01.01.0(2.0)1.07.04.0
2ndDragonBasiliskD 515 Basilisk515Patrick Gifford903(4.0)(2.0)2.02.01.02.013.07.0
3rdDragonPantherD 581 Panther581James Hunt9522.0(4.0)(4.0)4.03.03.020.012.0
4thDragonNaiadD 764 Naiad764Mike Hayles9053.03.03.03.0(4.0)(5.0)21.012.0
5thDragonInditineD 64 Inditine64Hugh Rich955(5.0)5.0(6.0)5.05.04.030.019.0
6thDragonNookaD797 Nooka797Andrew Barlow933(6.0)6.05.0(7.0 DNC)6.06.036.023.0
  • Report: Patrick Gifford
  • Photos: Fleur Hayles