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2025 Dinghy Autumn Regatta

Published 15:24 on 15 Sep 2025

Although a dire weather forecast caused the early abandonment of the second day of racing at Coombe Cellars for the Autumn Dinghy Regatta 16 sailors turned up bright and early on Saturday September 13th with helms ranging in age from 12 to mid 70's. Normally this is a 2 day event with 3 races each day but race officer, Steve Pocock, took the wise decision to get in 4 races on day 1 knowing the weather was due to deteriorate and no sailing would happen on the second day. And so Saturday dawned bright and sunny with a gentle breeze from the south west. This built as the morning progressed and was very unstable with numerous and irregular wind shifts.

Race 1 got underway with 15 of the 16 starters on the water, the one straggler (yours truly) madly searching around for a replacement mainsheet shackle. And so the bulk of the 6 Solo's led off the start line around a simple irregular polygon style course having 5 marks - not a pentagon as it was so irregular. Gary Molton sailing Solo 5893 established a good lead which he never relinquished. Tim Martin in Solo 5808 was second and a really tight finish for third meant Grant Simmons and Paul Heather could not be separated on the line. John Sharp in his ILCA4 was first junior home in 5th place.

The next 2 races saw the same 4 helms in the top 4 in both races, Tim winning from Mike Commander in K1, #193 followed by Gary and Grant. It was great to see our juniors and youths on the water sailing a variety of club boats including James Upton, Tom Barnes and Olly Tweedie in RS Quba's, with Emilia Upton in a RS Feva and John Sharp in the ILCA4. Some of our less experienced ladies also sailed with John's Mum Nicky in another RS Quba and Fiona Hedworth in her ILCA Radial. As race 3 progressed the sky darkened dramatically and some huge wind gusts came down the river keeping the two safety boats and their crews busy as they kept us all safe on the water.

Those that stayed out for race 4 expected the wind to continue building but in the event it moderated somewhat and somehow Mike managed to steer clear of the huge weed clumps that were plaguing the river. This allowed him to sail away from the fleet and record a win with the remaining 3 sailors, all Solos making up positions 2, 3 and 4 (Tim, Gary and Grant).

Full results on the club website by clicking here with top 5 shown below:

1) Tim Martin, Solo #5808

2) Gary Molton, Solo #5893

3) Mike Commander, K1 #193

4) Grant Simmons, Solo #5133

5) James Stevenson, Solo #3965

First Junior and 8th overall John Sharp, ILCA4

Author: Mike Commander

Photos & Videos: Roger Pike