THE waters of Weymouth and Portland were filled with dinghies last weekend for the annual Weymouth dinghy regatta.

There was an excellent turn out and over 100 boats took to the water and were split into six fleets.

Two courses were set up with the Phantom, Slow and Fast Handicap fleets racing in Weymouth Bay on the first day and in Portland Harbour for the second.

The fleet was supervised by Castle Cove Sailing Club’s committee boat, Imogen.

Meanwhile the Asymmetric, Contender and Osprey fleets raced in the bay for both days with Weymouth Sailing Club’s boat the Viking.

Both days saw winds of more than 20 knots face the fleets and many boats retired early. Six races were held over the weekend.

In the Asymmetric fleet, it was a Cherub from Chew Valley Sailing Club sailed by Paul Croote and Ed Higham which took the overall win with CCSC member Laurence Milton sailing a Devoti D-One in second and Nick Griffin sailing an RS100 in third place.

The Contender fleet was one of the largest with 20 boats. Taking the top position was Gary Langdown from Highcliffe, Nick Noble from Portishead Yacht and Sailing Club finished second and Stuart Jones from Datchet Water was third.

Representing CCSC in the Contender was Nick Grace who placed eighth and Rob Smith who achieved 10th overall.

The Fast Handicap fleet had a wide range of boats. The topplaced boat was a Fireball from Thornbury Sailing Club sailed by Hannah Showell and Barry Smith. Second place went to CCSC’s very own Sam and Megan Pascoe, sailing a Merlin Rocket, while Keith McDonald and Andy Brittain also sailing a Fireball finished third.

There were a number of other notable performances in the Fast Handicap fleet which included Simon Holden and CCSC Cadet member Cara Jones who finished sixth in a Scorpion and CCSC members Alison Stephens and Chris Forrest also sailing a Scorpion who placed seventh.

Terry Curtis of WSC flew to success with his crew Peter Greig in the Osprey fleet and hopes to repeat this performance at the championships. In second was Chris Gould and Nick Broomhill from Blithfield Sailing Club and Kevin Francis and Phil Male from CCSC were third.

Tim Bowden from WSC finished firmly in fourth place, only two points behind the third place.

Mike Street from CCSC sailed with Nick Frampton from WSC to place eighth despite a number of incidents, one of which was losing their transom of the boat to another boat’s boom.

The Phantom fleet had a strong turn out. The winner was Mike Tustin from Bowmoor Sailing Club with John Wayling from Northampton Sailing Club in second.

Third place went to Olly Hopkins from Bowmoor Sailing Club.

In the Slow Handicap fleet, there were more than 20 boats registered to compete. Youngster and CCSC Cadet member Emma Bishop took the win for the second year in a row in her Laser 4.7, a great achievement.

Paul Young and Megan Ward from Midland Sailing Club finished second in an Enterprise and 15-year-old Alexandra Stevenson, from WSC, achieved third place in her Laser Radial.

The regatta was fantastically run by all the volunteers involved and would not have happened without their support in the roles of beach masters, safety boats and much more.