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Dragon Class Report July 2008 (Posted 11.08.08)
With two racing series already accounted for, we are now well into the season and what weather have we all had. I can scarcely remember a Saturday where we have not been donning oilskins, lifejackets and checking that our safety equipment is all at hand. However, despite the fresh to strong winds, we have also had some excellent sailing and indeed racing with plenty of windward leeward courses and exploring parts of the Medway not frequented by the racing classes, particularly Otterham and Yantlett channels. The sailing area here is huge and has much less current than in the main channel. It is also useable 3 hours either side of high water and this year’s tides have particularly favoured sailing here.

The sailing season started with an attempted warm up series the week before racing started properly but the weather was cold, wet and windy so despite many kind offers to run it, it was called off. The Proton Cup spring series was sailed in the usual brisk conditions and it was clear that Scimitar sailed by Julian and Clare Sowry and Philip Catmur were going to be the boat to beat. They won 3 out the 4 races with Esoteric taking one win and second place and Valkyrie 3rd.

The Dragon Flagon was also won convincingly by them but Valkyrie got two first places and one of these was achieved with the old BBC crew line up of Booth, Boyd an Clarabut. This was Philip Clarabut’s first race since their dragon was overwhelmed at Cannes last year in gale force winds and it showed that he had not lost his touch. Encouragingly, other winners have come through with a superb win by the Gadabout team. Geoff Prout and Alan Nicholas sailed a blindingly good race and were quite uncatchable in sometimes capricious conditions. Edwin Hannant in Gandalf has also been sailing well and has plenty of boat speed too. This combined with excellent local knowledge mean few mistakes are made and he has also had a win and a number of seconds. Richard Jones in Exult now has a regular crew with Bruce Boyd and it is clear that they are much more competitive with a fast boat.

The Medway regatta has recently been completed with two races on Friday and Saturday and one on Sunday. The course setting and standard of race officering was good and conditions on the first two days were the usual windy offering. Julian and Clare Sowry deservedly won with Gandalf second. The turnout for the regatta was poor and some class members regretted the lack of racing out in the Estuary. The format for the event will be changing for next year as Sail East will not be coming and perhaps the longer racing into the Thames can be re introduced.

Away from the Medway, Len Jones and the Coltarts braved Lowestoft at the East Coast Dragon Championships over the May Bank Holiday. The weather again was very poor with gales so no result was obtained although Len got 2 wins from the Saturday racing, the only day we were able to sail. I must say that the Medway compares very favourably with sailing on the North Sea over sandbanks in breaking seas; it was quite frightening at times but also exhilarating with some long very fast surfing.

Len and Simon Winn went to Plymouth for the South Coasts and Edinburgh Cup. Again, the weather was not kind but Len was second in the first event and fourth in the Edinburgh Cup against international competition. Well done. Simon also had some good results and it was clearly an enjoyable if wet couple of events.

Dragon Class Report April 2008 (Posted 6.05.08)
The Medway Dragon Fleet has had a quiet winter on the water but active socially. In January, we had our Annual General Meeting followed by a casual supper at the club with Stewart Coltart and Don McMillan being voted to continue as Captain and Vice-Captain for the coming year. On the 1st March, we had an excellent if long day visit to Ostend. We started at 0630 from the Medway Yacht Club but regrettably, operation stack on the M20, gales in the channel and careful customs and immigration officers at the Ferry terminal led to much of the day being spent in Dover. However, we finally arrived for a delicious lunch at the Royal North Sea Yacht Club and were given a very warm welcome by Patrick Delahaye and Karl Odent. This was followed by a shopping expedition into Ostend but alas, not enough time to visit the wine cellar owned by Karl’s fiancée in Niueport down the coast. Our thanks to our Belgian hosts for giving us such a good time.

The Annual Prize Giving Dinner  was held on the 15th March and had a further Belgian flavour with Eduard Wyllemann attending. We were also honoured to have two International Dragon Officials as our guests, namely the President Rob Campbell and Secretary David Dale. Entertainment came from the speeches (of course!) and the close harmony group from New College Oxford, the New Men who serenaded us to our first and second course and gave an excellent version of psalm “151” with words from the international rules of sailing. The season point’s series was won by Julian and Clare Sowry with Len Jones and Nick Jenkins second followed by Stewart and Catriona third.

Most of us have had a quiet winter not venturing our boats out of their winter storage but Len Jones took Rumours to Cascais in Portugal a few weeks ago and had a most successful trip winning two  Dragon Trophies including  the King Juan Carlos Trophy against international competition of high calibre. Many congratulations to him and his crew and his successes bring lustre and fame to the Medway Yacht Club too.

On a more serious note, dry sailing has been in operation for the last 3-4 years out of the Chatham Maritime Marina. Generally, this has been a success and last year, up to 7 boats were using the service. A weekly washing service has been operated by the club for about 8 Dragons and Lady Di remains available for those who wish to undertake their own scrubbing. Recently and at short notice, the Marina has indicated that the service they have given has been downgraded and would make the service much less attractive. It is clear that dry sailing Dragons is here to stay and without such a provision, there is a considerable danger that the class would not attract new members and indeed, some boat owners would take their boats to clubs where dry sailing is readily available. Inevitably, this would mean the loss of boats and a risk to the class remaining at the club in the long term. Claire and Julian Sowry have been in negotiation with the marina about the dry sailing package and my thanks to them for taking this on. However, in the long term, most of us feel that it would be best if dry sailing could be organised from the club itself. We have excellent facilities and space but finding the most satisfactory way of undertaking this is a challenge. As I write this, we are exploring using a dedicated launching trolley for each dry sailing dragon and with considerable help from the flag officers, Petticrows ( boat builder of the Dragon), Steve the club bosun and others, we aim to trial a specialised trolley in the next few weeks. Other ideas include using the Wise Hoist, Lady Di and the crane but all have their own drawbacks and time constraints which make them less attractive. Time will tell on the outcome but there is nothing like a crisis to sharpen the mind and reach a good conclusion.