Eight Dragons turned out at Aldeburgh Yacht Club from 26th to 28th June, for a three day event for the Aldeburgh Dragon Open, BDA Vintage trophy and leg two of the East Coast Windward Leeward series on what turned out to be the hottest June day in Suffolk.
Three visiting boats from the Medway Yacht Club; Whistle GBR560, Hands Off GBR760 and Taniwha GBR823, joined five home Aldeburgh boats.
The plan was for three races on Friday and Saturday and two on the Sunday. At the briefing on Friday, the breeze filled in at 10-12 knots straight up the river allowing PRO Patrick Gifford and his team to set the stat line some 500nm from the moorings giving a 3/4 mile beat on a true windward leeward course down river.
Three roughly 45-minute races were closely fought with much position changing on both the up and downwind legs. The first lef of the first day saw difficulty for Andy Moss who arrived at the spreader mark, and found it a little closer than expected or inteneded to the mud, forcing the rest of the fleet to thread the needle between the mark and Hands Off. Friday places were dominated by Quentin Strauss in Whistle who scored two firsts and a third, followed up by Rick Gillingham’s Navaho GBR764 and Andy Moss’ Hands Off.
Saturday morning provided another very consistent wind 8-10 knots with a little more east in it. Patrick took the fleet another mile down river and again set a windward-leeward course for three more races where the tide and shallow water played a bit into tactics. Whistle and Navaho dominated again managaing consistent result with a 1,2,3 each, with Tim Hannon’s Basilisk GBR515 managing to find some speed and tactics to take a 1, 2and 5. In all the races again there was frequent position changing right through the fleet with competition still very hot on the water. Saturday evening saw a supper hosted by the club for most of the competitors.
Sunday saw an earlier start time of 10 am. As the boats headed down to the start area the breeze was freshening the whole time and fairly consistenly about 20 knots with some prolonged gusts of 24 knots. Two boats had taken the decision not to race through injury and wind strength, leaving six starters. Patrick again set a fair windward-leeward course of three rounds.
The racing was tough in a strong breeze with boat handling really tested, with frequent position changing on each leg. Whistle again dominated the results with two wins. Basilisk scored a second and third, while Navaho took third and fourth and Hands Off secured fourth and a second (just beating Basilisk on the line by about 500mm courtesy of a torn genoa).
The return to the club saw the visitors quickly craned out and put on trailers, followed by prize-giving. It was great to manage to fit eight races into three days with a broad variety of conditions.
Results
Aldeburgh Dragon Open and leg two of the 2026 East Coast Windward Leeward Series
1. GBR560 Whistle Quentin Strauss, Sarah Burgess-Strauss, Philip Catmur, Jamie Blair
2. GBR764 Navaho Rick Gillingham, Will Anderson, Chris Brunsdon
3. GBR515 Basilisk Tim Hannon, Martin Spall, Tom Chalker
4. GBR760 Hands Off Andy Moss, Teresa Wilkes, Tim Wilkds
5. GBR823 Taniwha Howard Patterson, Bill Barker, Jeff MendZil
6. GBR797 Nooka Andrew Barlow, Steve Dewberyy, James Hunt
7. GBR710 Windy Will Gibbon
8. GBR449 Hugh Rich, Jeremy Halfhide, Charlotte de Mille
BDA Vintage Dragon Championship
1. GBR560 Whistle, MYC
2. GBR764 Navaho, AYC
3. GBR515 Basilisk, AYC
- Tim Hannon
IMAGES: Fleur Hayles