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Regatta Report 2019

The weather gods were smiling kindly on Costa del Kirby this weekend! The 4th-7th July saw the annual West Kirby SC and Dee SC open regatta take place on both the Dee estuary and West Kirby marine lake.

The extended weekend kicked off with the Illusion regatta on Thursday morning. The unique one design class took to the marine lake and 5 back to back races saw Richard Cornah take home the trophy with a convincing tally of four wins.

Friday saw an early start for those walking out to the tidal boats. Copious amounts of coffee and doughnuts at the briefing got even the slowest starters ready for the Round the Island Race. The course consisted of a windward leeward, up and down the Dee estuary, forcing the all-important decision of when to cross the tide channel to reach the North Westerly outer buoy. Although not technically circumnavigated by all (you’d be brave with the draft of a Limbo 6.6), the site of 55 boats in the vicinity of Hilbre Island with spinnakers hoisted in a gentle force 3 was glorious to behold! Breeze picked up for the end of the race and with outhaul & uphaul tightened the first boats crossed the finish line, after approximately 1.5hrs, prompting the unofficial race to the bar. Brimstage Brewery beers were distributed to all of the class victors and with a bit of dutch courage on board a motley crew assembled to take on the local RNLI in a tug of war. A close fought competition but the RNLI crew proved their strength and took home the chalice! The evening concluded with a spectacular sunset BBQ on the terrace and DJ Giardelli gracing the decks.

Saturday morning was a little overcast allowing one or two heavy headed sailors time to recover. Dee SC hosted the racing and a flock of catamarans emerged to escort the tidal classes around the estuary. As the afternoon progressed the clouds cleared in time to bathe the Dee SC lawns in sunshine for an evening acoustic session of après sail. The paella and hog roast went down so well that some of the ‘fashionably late’ stragglers were delighted to be left with only pints and pork scratchings for supper!

Sunday was another factor 50 kind of day. Racing started on the marine lake with lots of juniors taking to the water alongside all the usual dinghy suspects, the odd World Champion, and a gathering of fireflies! Racing was hotly contested but Chris Kameen, team racing and firefly guru, took the win in both races. Several energetic dinghies then hotfooted it across the slip just in time for the afternoon tidal races! A particularly cosy Falcon start gave our committee boat a challenge when 2 of the 16 strong fleet were cuddled over the line by their compatriots. Our ace in-house results team then efficiently crunched the numbers to deliver a 10-class divided results table. See the full results of the regatta posted on the WKSC and Dee SC websites. An informal jacket over shorts prize-giving followed by a delicious sailing supper wrapped up the weekend and drew to a close the best 96hrs of sun sea and sailing this year has afforded us so far… Maybe the best is yet to come!

An enormous thank you to all of the competitors and especially those of you who visited the club from afar- we look forward to welcoming you back in the future! Last but not least due credit must go to the army of volunteers who made the weekend possible and our incredible event director Catherine Hartley. 

Until next year!

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