Keelboat sailors race for honours at Itchenor ... Solos aren't on own at Dell Quay

The Swallows kicked off with a couple of races. First blood went to Andy Fitzgerald, who with crew Robert Hayes, brought his considerable knowledge of Chichester Harbour to bear when he sailed Jon Perry’s Swift to first place ahead of Malcolm Green’s Archon.

The increased wind for race two brought to the fore Swallow titans Mike Wigmore helming Gwaihir and the Roomes, Harry and Prue in Skua. On day two Skua recorded an impressive win ahead of Gwaihir.

The Sunbeam class enjoyed two beats to Treloar buoy. Joe and Cathy Burnie in Fluery popped out ahead of the fleet at the windward mark. Sunbeam maestro Roger Wickens in Danny could not make inroads into Fluery’s lead until the final legs and was second.

Wednesday’s winds were too strong so racing was postponed until Thursday and Friday’s races were brought forward to the same day.

This meant the XOD fleet had a three-day series in one day.

For the Swallows, early pace was made by Andrew Reid steering Solitude but she had to give best to Osprey in the hands of Jeremy Sibthorp and the consistent Skua.

In the XOD fleet, Roger Yeoman in Xcitation proved a master in the conditions despite being chased all the way by Penny Fulford’s Madeleine.

The Sunbeams arrived for their single race of the day.

In the Swallow fleet Gwaihir prevailed ahead of Osprey and Skua in the race.

However, in the fiv-race series Skua took top honours, followed by Gwaihir and Osprey.

In the XODs the finishing order matched the first race as Xcitation and Madeleine did the best job of yachting slalom around the other fleets in the lower reaches of the Harbour. Damian Ash sailed Wenda into a second consecutive third place.

The Sunbeams had a similar course and Danny came out in the front followed by Fluery. Tim Hill’s Query showed for a while and finished fourth behind Peter Goddard and Sue Smith, who scored a well deserved third in Maisy.

The XODs, even after four hours of racing, set off for their third and final race and Roger Yeoman’s Xcitation had a minor altercation with a support boat at the start and found it difficult to recover. Madeleine took line honours and the series.

Dell Quay

Dell Quay Sailing Club continued their return to racing with races three and four of the Solo Late Trophy series. Six solos took part around a course set by race officer Mark Harper.

Light winds led to close, competitive racing with continual place changing.

In the first race Bill Dawber led from start to finish closely pursued by Roger Puttock. These two had a good lead on the following pack, with Dawber pushing Puttock into second place. Stephen Holcroft also sailed well to take third.

The second race saw Dawber take the lead, but after a course change by the race officer, Dawber rounded on Quay instead of going up to Hook. By the time Dawber realised his mistake the rest of the fleet had overtaken him, so he cut his losses and retire.

This left Puttock to win the second race with Holcroft taking second and Fred Hilgers securing third.

Mark Harper leads the series with Bill Dawber second and Roger Puttock third.