Aldeburgh Week Report

22 September 2009

This year Aldeburgh Week took place in good winds and lots of sunshine with courses that tested crews' abilities to cope with the difficult decisions that the Alde estuary poses. The end result was convincing revenge for Rory Bowman for his narrow defeat the previous year at Patrick Gifford's hands. Nine Dragons participated, a really enthusiastic turnout for a small fleet. 

Rory's success was not without incident, and Patrick should have made it harder for him than it turned out to be. Going into the last race Rick Gillingham had a small statistical chance of winning but...

Race one appeared to be decided by an interesting windward-leeward match race between Patrick and Rick near Blackstakes which was won by Patrick who then built up a such a convincing lead that he failed to observe the Q(second elbow) mark and had to retire after finishing. He should know better by now. Ultimately Rory passed Rick to win the race. The second race had a reaching start which was won by Rory who then stayed ahead all race despite a prolonged challenge from Patrick, who ultimately faded into third place behind Rick. Race three was won by Patrick after a very tight short tacking duel between Rory, Rick and Patrick had ended with Rory and Rick firmly aground.  A starting line rule infringement meant that Patrick had to take a 2% time penalty placing him second behind Rick. Orford day was processional. Rory won followed by Rick then Patrick then Mike Hayles, an order established at the start. The main incident in the race was Jonathan Hunt's trial of strength with the Dove Point mark which was convincingly won by the mark to the loss of his mast.

Going into the last race Rick could still win overall if he won and Rory had to count his fourth from his long spell aground in race three. It was almost immediately clear that this wasn't going to happen. A difficult "fetch or not fetch" down the Home Reach produced Rory comfortably in first place from Mike Hayles with Patrick and Rick second last and last, rather unexpected for both of them. Rory ultimately won easily, Mike remained second, Patrick scrabbled up into third but Rick ultimately went hard aground and retired in disgust.

The results on the personal handicap were close but ultimately it was won by Rick as a consolation prize for his failure in the main event. He was closely followed by Rufus Gilday in Orion who won two races but lacked consistency. This event has ensured that a small fleet doesn't lose interest even if a six-times winner of the Edinburgh Cup wins most of the races.

Several Dragons turned out for the afternoon keel boat handicap and preserved the class's reputation. Alan Krailing, who had crewed  in Basilisk in the mornings won the series from the combination of Mike Hayles and Richard Bailey in Nereid. Patrick did the foredeck in clear breach of the helmsmans' trade union rules. Alan is the current Lark class champion as this was an obviously relevant way to practice Dragon sailing ahead of taking Nereid to the Worlds in Medemblik with the team that took Basilisk to the 2008 Edinburgh Cup in Plymouth.

Aldeburgh Week is a real holiday week. It is great fun, pretty competitive(Rory is hard to beat playing at home) and yet it seems to be a closely guarded secret from the rest of the Dragon class. We really would like to see you and can promise that you will enjoy it and that it is different from twelve mile windward leeward courses in the sea.     

Patrick Gifford
BDA Vice Chairman
E-mail Patrick@gifford97.fsnet.co.uk

 All photos courtesy Fleur Hayles, E-mail fleurhayles@aol.com

Fiona Brown
Press Officer
Fiona.Brown@fionabrown.com