After last weekend’s successful training at Draycote Water, five Moths braved the varied forecast for the Draycote Dash. During the morning before racing started the wind looked very light with sub foiling conditions. Having raised enough enthusiasm to rig up and get changed it was nice to see the wind slowly filling in.

After a postponement halfway through the first sequence and then a general recall, Richard Westbury and Thomas Lambert got off to a good start having sussed out the three minute sequence, leaving Gareth Davies playing catchup and the newer members of the moth fleet just
pleased they had survived the short start line. Richard lead for the rest of the race with Tom in second and Gareth giving it his best, but not managing to catch them by the finish.

By the second race the wind was slowly building, and after a good start by all the Moths, Richard rounded the first mark in the lead, with Gareth a close second and Tom close behind him. After the first lap Richard managed to pull out a small lead with Tom and Gareth exchanging places for second and third for the next two laps until Gareth finally pulled ahead on the final lap and took second, leaving Tom in third.

By the start of the third race the wind had built to around 10-15 knots and four of the Moths got off to a good start just leaving Jamie Pearson stalled on the line causing havoc for the fleet trying to rack up behind. Unfortunately Richard capsized approaching the first mark and then got caught up in the conventional boats, this left it open for Gareth to take the win, Tom following in second and Richard trying everything he could but not being able to catch them and coming in third. Having got off to a bad start, Jamie had gone all out to catch Andrew Blee, but Andrew managed to clench fourth leaving Jamie with two fourths and a fifth. This meant it was starting to get very competitive at the back of the fleet.

At the start of the fourth race the wind was a steady 15 knots. Gareth and Richard headed off on starboard and Tom chose to start on port. This lead to an interesting first beat with Tom approaching the mark first on starboard, but then capsizing whilst double tacking to make it around the mark. This left Gareth to round first and Richard second, and Tom, having recovered quickly, in a close third. The order remained the same for the rest of the race but with Gareth pulling a huge lead over the fleet.

The Sunday racing consisted of a round the cans pursuit race and with the wind blowing 25+ knots while everyone was rigging, Jamie and Andrew decided not to risk it. Whilst rigging Tom realised that he had lost the bush from his rudder gantry overnight, which counted him for the Sunday race. This just left Richard and Gareth. Unfortunately Richard had got confused about the start time and missed the start by 15 minutes, which just left Gareth to race around on his own and finish.

This turned out to be a fantastic event on a good bit of water and it will be nice to see some more Moth events at Draycote in the future.

More Class Results:

1st Gareth Davies
2nd Richard Westbury
3rd Tom Lambert
4th Jamie Pearson
5th Andrew Blee