Clubs & Societies
Secretary’s Notes This 2015 AGM and Winter Lunch were held on Saturday 31 January with a record 55 members and friends in attendance. Simon Brown (69-76) was elected Hon Treasurer and John Jennings and Peter Leggett were elected onto the committee. The Admiral (the Master) presented a new trophy, The David Emms Plate, to the victorious Arrow Trophy team. The proposal for the Plate was made by the Admiral in recognition of the suggestion by David Emms that the Society might be formed. The Plate bears the inscription: This plate is presented annually to the Old Alleynian who is deemed to have contributed most successfully or selflessly to the promotion of sailing within the Dulwich College community
2014 Arrow Trophy Report
On the water it was a simple picture: three races, three Dulwich wins! Off the water proceedings were not quite so straightforward. The vagaries of Sailing Instructions, combined with the always unpredictable British weather, presented some new challenges to the organisers of the 2014 Arrow Trophy regatta. Regatta weekend dawned with a 08:00 briefing in Cowes Yacht Haven for the 25 skippers, along with a front blowing through from the northwest with rain and gusts of around 30 knots. Racing was postponed until 11:00 so the crew spent some useful time discussing and walking through spinnaker gybes. With some revamped crew positions and the addition of Richard Sainsbury (63-72) as tactician and Mark Richmond (95-00) as helmsman we felt that we might be in with a better shout of success this year. Sail combinations for the first two races were limited to no spinnakers as the wind exceeded the 20 knot limit. We had a clean start in race one and settled into some long upwind tacks heading west from Hillhead. I admit to some surprise that we arrived at the windward gate in first place but it became apparent that Mark and Richard’s combined talents had us playing the tides better than the rest of the fleet. Allied with smart crew work and some energetic hiking on the rail, it was an unbeatable combination. We won the race comfortably, the main excitement being the arrival of a support boat driven by Ollie Light’s father, Chris. We enjoyed another good start in race two and embarked on two laps of the same circuit as race one. We were again clear of the fleet by five or six lengths and were heading downwind when Conrad Manning (09-11) spotted that the umpire boat was flying a course shortened signal. As we were then only about 200 metres from the committee boat we achieved a notable second win without any of the other participants threatening our superior tactics and boat handling. As race three was the longest and final race of the curtailed programme, and we were already fleet leaders, our approach to the start was a little more conservative. We were slightly squeezed in the final seconds and crossed the start line in last place. Once clear of the two nearest boats we tacked straight on to port, away from everyone else, and headed off in clean air towards Hillhead and the upwind mark. Incredibly, we reached the mark in first place and a tidy first spinnaker hoist put us further ahead downwind. Completing two long upwind/downwind circuits and then heading up to Cowes to finish we worked hard to maintain our lead and again finished in another astonishing first place.
Members of the Arrow Trophy crew with The David Emms Plate
Dates for the Diary
Saturday 27 June Founder’s Day
Sunday 5 – Friday 10 July Boys’ Sail Training Week
Thursday 9 July (all members and non-members welcome) Island Sailing Club Dinner
Weekend sailing Various dates
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