Photo Dave Beer
A fantastic turnout of 10 boats represented Lyme Regis SC at the Sutton Bingham leg of the Banbury Chaser/Dorset Triangle on Sunday 9th March.
As usual, the event was sailed in tricky, shifty conditions, albeit this year the weather was warm and sunny. Three handicap races were expertly run by SBSC in a F2/3 easterly with 29 boats on the start line and multiple classes taking part. Lyme hot shot youth sailor Tom Rawlings sailed incredibly well to win the event and the U18 Junior Banbury Chaser Trophy scoring 1, 9 and 1 in the 3 races.
The Lyme team was well represented across the fleet, with Allan and Ian (Albacore), Stefan (ILCA 7), Ollie (ILCA 4), Mary and Simon (Albacore), Chris (OK Dinghy), James (Firefly), Graham and Will (Fireball), Sam and John (RS400), and Phil and Jake (Enterprise).
Lyme won the Banbury Chaser and were second in the Dorset Triangle behind Castle Cove, rounding off a fantastic day’s racing. Thanks to Sutton Bingham Sailing Club for hosting a great day on the water. A date for your diaries – the Castle Cove leg of the Dorset Triangle is scheduled for Sunday 15th June.
For those who don’t know the history:-
The ‘Banbury Chaser’ was first sailed between Sutton Bingham and Lyme Regis SC back in about 1984 as a result of a close friendship between Clive Banbury (who was a sailing legend at Lyme) and the Commodore of SBSC. The first of the 2 legs was held at Sutton Bingham in March with the return leg held at Lyme in September/October. An U18 Cup
was presented to the first U18 some years later and is now hotly contested twice every year along with the ‘Banbury Chaser Cup’ which is awarded to the winning Team.
Sailors from Castle Cove SC felt left out and wanted to join in the fun, so some years later the Dorset Triangle was devised as a 3 way team event with the Castle Cove leg shoehorned in between ie. June. I think that there was a ‘Triangular Trophy’ at some point but this seems to have disappeared.
