The slow handicap fleet comes in from Thorness Bay. Picture by Jennifer Burton.
DINGHY WEEKAS POPULAR as popular as ever, Gurnard’s annual Cowes Dinghy Week regatta went off to a flying start last Sunday with a full entry list of 120 boats sailing in ten classes and a cracking breeze.
And after the first few days of action, there are only a handful of clear leaders across the ten classes.
Out of the ten classes racing, only a handful have a clear leader, Ben Gibson and Richard Ellis in the Lasers and Chris Gillies in the medium handicap being among the consistent front runners.
After a briefing by race officer Mark Harrison, the racing started with the competitive cat class, followed by the other nine groups, which included RS400s and Lasers, as well as state-of-the-art speed machines in the fast handicap class.
The light and variable wind on Monday gave the race box some headaches but after a short postponement all fleets were eventually on their way again as the sea breeze took hold.
With a good wind forecast for the rest of the week and social events in the evenings all seemed in place for another successful event.