Dye Leads The Way

The sixth race in the Wednesday evening Summer Series, on 30 July 2025, was won by Tim Dye in his RS Aero; whilst a light and variable wind direction, coupled with a strong ebb tide made for somewhat disappointing conditions.

John Tappenden lead the fleet from the start line in his RS Aero, with Ken Potts and Tim Dye, both in RS Aeros, windward of him; Dye having the slight advantage of blocking Potts’s wind.  Tappenden sailed slightly freer to the other two who were both sensing every slight twist in the westerly wind direction and pointing as high as they dare.  Brian Allen, also sailing an RS Aero, was just behind but sailing closer to the shore to try and benefit from the reduced strength of the adverse tide; the fleet beating down the coast to the Eastcliff buoy.  In the Solo fleet, Robert Gutteridge opened up an early lead on Paul Jackson, whilst Dave Ingle in his RS Aero was hot on the heels of Allen.  Potts put in a tack to escape Dye, but Dye followed so Potts tacked again; this time Dye stuck to his course and made Eastcliff with a noticeable lead.  The second leg was a run up the coast to the Preston Park buoy, Potts now second and Allen third.  With the tide under them, the competitors didn’t take long to make the mark and then it was a reach out to the Seaward buoy; at this point the wend dropped, falling briefly to as little as 3 mph, and the helms felt the full negative impact of the ebb tide. As they headed out to sea so Jackson closed the gap on Gutteridge and then overtook him.  Dye maintained his overall lead and once round the offshore mark he hardened up and kept going whilst Potts, still a reasonable distance behind, tacked and headed towards the shore, and after a while tacked again.  Tappenden, Allen and Ingle all tacked but headed much close to the shore to avail themselves of the slightly weaker tide whilst Dye put in a perfect tack out at sea to make the Lilley Farm buoy in one.  The wind appeared to have backed more south-westerly now as Dye broad reached to the Kingscliff buoy, preparing himself for the beat back to the line which he knew would be a bit of a slog.  As he rounded the Kingscliff, so up went the shorten course flag and all the competitors breathed a sigh of relief as the very light breeze became even more fickle.  But Dye had done enough to comfortably win the race, pleased to get ashore and enjoy a bacon bap and refreshing drink.

With the final race in the Summer Series next Wednesday, there is no clear overall winner at this point, so still all to play for on 6 August.

Results – Summer Series - 6:
1.    RS Aero – Tim Dye
2.    RS Aero – John Tappenden
3.    RS Aero – Ken Potts