Frostbite Race 7/8

Published 12:16 on 2 Feb 2026

An early start to day 4 of Dell Quay Sailing Clubs Frostbite series greeted racers with a beautiful pink sunrise followed by sunshine and a very light and fickle Southerly breeze. In the first race the fleet needed to make the difficult tactical decision of whether to take the East or West bank to avoid the strong flood tide. In the event the RS400s of John Wilburn and Mark Harper closely followed by the 2000 of Bill Dawber and Jack De-La-Hunty took the Easterly shore to establish a big lead over the rest of the fleet on the other bank. A nail biting drift back down to Dell Quay left these three boats in the lead with Noel Wright in a Solo leading the chasing pack to a shortened course finish.

In the second race a slightly increased breeze around a shortened course allowed the fleet to complete two laps. Once again the RS400s led the fleet, but this time chased by Roger Puttock (Solo) and Will Parrot in his full rig Laser. Series leaders Dawber and De-La-Hunty found themselves completing penalty turns after a Port-Starboard incident with Puttock leaving them well down the pack. This leaves the series wide open with everything to play for in the final days racing on 21 February.

An extraordinary race for the Juniors in race 8 with the top 3 boats finishing within 11 seconds of each other with Oscar North and Louie Cornell crossing the line at exactly the same time to record a joint 2nd place each! Well done guys, tight racing indeed!!

As always a big shout out to the safety boat team, RO and of course the Galley staff for all their efforts on and off the water.

If you would like to find out more information about dinghy racing or cruising, rowing, paddle boarding or indeed anything water based at the club please visit www.dellquaysc.co.uk for more info or email info@dellquaysc.co.uk Youll be assured a very warm welcome!