THE Yacht Clubs of Weymouth Dinghy Regatta proved another huge hit, with 125 entries in total, hosted by Castle Cove Sailing club.

The race course was in Portland Harbour with classes of Osprey, Fireball, Phantom, OK, Scorpion, Laser, Fast Handicap (excluding Scorpions) and Slow Handicap (excluding Lasers).

Conditions had caused the event some issues in starting on both days but, as racing got underway, it provided good action and good courses, as set by race officer Bill Barker from Castle Cove committee vessel, Imogen.

The event provided some very competitive racing with many well-known helms among the fleets.

In the scorpions, with 13 entries, Steve Graham came out on top. The best local boat was John Mursell in fifth.

Winner of the fast handicap was Jon Turner in his Merlin rocket, a regular visitor to the event. The fleet included several cherubs, with regular visitors featuring who had attended all the way back back to the 60s.

With 11 boats in the Fireball fleet, it was a tussle between the Willcocks, who came out on top from Dave Hall and Derian Scott.

Luke Gower won the OK fleet as a clear winner in the 16-boat contest.

The Ospreys had 16 boats and the battle for top spot was won by the family pairing of Simon and Ben Hawkes, against local boat Phil Male and Kevin Francis.

In the Phantoms, local helm Nick Ormon won, including four firsts in his score in the fleet of 16.

The slow handicap was a real mix from Toppers, to radical single handers, to Enterprises. Sam Mettam and Darren Roach were the outright winners in their GP14, with six first places. Jon Emmett was the top local boat and first Laser.

A spokesperson for the regatta said: “Overall it was a great event managed by event chairman Richard Bowers and supported by an army of club members covering the various tasks. From the race team afloat to the results team, as well as the beach master and site stewards and the caterers in the galley and the bar.”