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SOLO OPEN - MAY 7TH 2006

The weather forecasters didn’t know what it was going to do this weekend; depending on which website you were to look at the wind strength varied from 1mph to 20mph and the direction from North to North-East As it turned out the winds were generally light and from ENE. Considering the lack of a reliable forecast there was a reasonable turnout of 18 boats from 9 clubs.

Race 1 saw two boats, Martin Couch from North Staffs and Tony Wright from Delph judged to be OCS which dealt an early blow to their chances. Oliver Dumbleton from Nantwich, John Gledhill from West Riding and Howard Frear from Sheffield Vikings soon showed that they were the in form men that were able to master the light and shifty winds. Dumbleton led at the end of lap1 from Gledhill with Tony Sampson from Budworth in 3rd who was overhauled by Frear before the end of the race as Gledhill took the win from Dumbleton.
Race 2 saw an early collision between Gledhill and Tony Hanan from Colemere, both were able to continue but Hanan withdrew from the event at the end of the race with damage to his boat. Wright made a clean start this time and made the most of it as he was in 2nd place behind Dumbleton at the end of lap 1, but Gledhill and Frear drew him in and overtook him before the end of the race leaving Wright to finish 4th with Couch one place behind him.
Race 3 started in the best wind of the day but rain moved in to kill the wind and as the shower left only a few zephyrs remained on the water. In very difficult conditions the fleet became stretched out with over 20 minutes separating first from last. Dumbleton secured the race and the event from Frear in 2nd with M Burke having his best finish of the day in 3rd.

Overall, Dumbleton won on 2 points from Gledhill on 3 points and Frear on 5 points. The competition for first Rudyard boat was particularly keen with 2 points separating the first three boats but Mark Sherwen who borrowed a boat to make a guest appearance after leaving the fleet at the end of last season secured the position from Fred Whittaker, who had an excellent 5th in the last race, and Dave Ernest. The first three boats were from three different builders, had three different masts and three different makes of sail, a real testament to the strength in depth that the Solo has in its 50th year