A brief glimpse of the white water from the A68 whilst fighting to keep the car on the road in the gusts was enough to surmise that it was, indeed, rather windy – and that was looking at the sheltered end of the reservoir. Dogs were flying past, blown off their leads, shortly followed by their owners, so prospects for sailing last weekend at Derwent Reservoir SC were looking pretty grim. Still, experience said that they always race at Derwent, whatever the conditions, so optimism and excitement at the prospects of a good blast about prevailed amongst the hardier competitors – at least those who had dared to try putting their masts up.

Others chose to leave their boats safely tucked up on the road trailers, giving the likes of Nigel May and Nigel Goodhew their first ride in the front end of a Twelve for many years. Hence the crew weights of those taking to the water ranged from a rather brave flyweight 15 stone in Jimmy Whitehead and Tim Goodhew’s boat to something that might have challenged the Tubs Trophy scales’ weighing capacity.

The racing on day one was around a figure of eight course, avoiding the need for any such foolhardy behaviour as gybing. In race one Graham Camm and Zoë Ballantyne in N3492 followed by Jon Ibbotson and Sarah Edwards in N3445, and Stevie Sallis and Tressa King in N3436 had some close racing down the first reach and pulled clear from the rest of the fleet. Disaster struck Sallis and King on the next beat as the rudder jumped off, bending the pintle, allowing Camm to win In the second race Ibbotson took an early lead from Sallis continuing until the finish with Ibbotson just prevailing over Sallis’s fine all-round boatspeed.

On Sunday, Geoff Camm and Amelia Hall in N3488 were first at the windward mark in both races 4 and 5 going on to win both.

Overall Results

1st N3445 Jon Ibbotson and Sarah Edwards

2nd N3492 Graham Camm and Zoë Ballantyne

3rd N3436 Steve Sallis and Tressa King

4th N3488 Geoff Camm and Amelia Hall

Admiral’s cup

N3217 Phil David & Nigel May