Corinthian Otters Cadet Open Meeting 25 Jun 2005
The Corinthian Otters Cadet Open meeting consisted of 6 races over the two days, with a discard after 4. The weekend thunderstorms forecast earlier in the week had fortunately cleared by Friday night, leaving sunshine and a cool ENE breeze.
The entry list of 25 was down on previous years due to a Worlds Team training event being organised for the same weekend, long after the open was set. Nevertheless good competitive racing was seen both days, resulting in clear winners, James and Sarah Dallimore in 3069 Jiminy Cricket, an immaculate looking boat, though over 40 years old.
Saturday morning racing started in 20 knots of wind which didn?t drop below 15 all day, this resulted in many capsizes and hence over the three races there were 16 retirements and 9 did not starts. The Race Officer Paul Noonan set ‘triangle, sausage’ courses, giving good fast spinnaker reaches, which the Dallimores used to full advantage showing exceptional speed on these down wind legs to establish formidable leads, winning all 3 races sailed on day 1. Harry Harris and Jessica Quinlan were not featuring on the leader board by the evening, as a retirement left them needing the discard, but two 2nds had left them with everything to sail for the following day.
Sunday saw the wind ease down to about 15 knots still from the same direction, thus there were far fewer capsizes and retirements. The Dallimores opened the day’s account with an 8th and so the rest of the fleet could see the series was far from over. Harry Harris logged in his third 2nd, while Katherine Kimber and Stevie Green of Stone S.C. in 8845 Hot Rocks got a bullet to add to their 2nd and 6th leaving themselves in contention as well. Whether or not James Dallimore slipped to 8th in that race due to partying in the club house too late the night before, we shall never know, but it was business as usual in races 5 and 6 with two more clear wins, making James and Sarah the Open Meeting Champions, scoring the minimum possible points.
Overall Winners
James & Sarah Dallimore
Corinthian Otters
1st Otter (School Boy Trophy)
James & Sarah Dallimore
Corinthian Otters
1st Under 15 Helmed Boat
Katherine Kimber & Stevie Green
Stone SC
1st Under 14 Helmed Boat
Amy Seabright & Natalie Aldridge
Otters
Youngest Helmed Boat
William Kennedy & Theo Bull
Otters