Whitsun Regatta Dragon report 29 May 2017

Five dragons, including our Scottish visitor, Kestra, took to the water over the bank holiday weekend. Luckily the thunder and rain passed through before racing, so Saturday was a dry, but windy afternoon race upriver to Crossrail 1 twice with the race going to Beauty and the Beast.

Sunday morning started sunny with very little wind (the forecasts were accurate for once!), a short town course was set and the fleet got underway. After rounding number 11 (the first mark), the race became who could get the anchor out fastest. Hands Off decided they didn’t fancy drifting backwards to Fambridge for lunch so called the launch for help, and the rest of the fleet decided to join the tow.

After a longer lunch break than planned, another short town course was set. Luckily, the wind cooperated this time giving a good race over the turn of the tide which was again won by Beauty and the Beast.

Monday was another bright, light wind, morning with only one race scheduled and a course was set out to Holiwell, TWICE! It proved a slow and testing day of short tacking, with 3 out of 4 competitors finding some mud. Avalanche and Beauty and the Beast had a close battle, but the race eventually went to Avalanche, with Beauty in second, which made them the overall winner of the weekend.