McKees take sailing trophy

FATHER and daughter team, Dave and Emily McKee, won the Devonshire Handicap Trophy at Dovestone Sailing Club.

The Trophy was donated to celebrate the opening of the club by the Duke of Devonshire when the reservoir was completed in 1967.

The race is competed for on a handicap basis, allowing all the different classes of boats at the club an equal chance of winning, and 17 took part this year.

With the hailstones beginning to fall as the final dinghies left the pontoon for the start, it didn’t augur well. But conditions brightened up for the two-hour race.

The variable wind speeds left little room for complacency and a capsize towards the end by Andy McKee and Tarren Jones in a Scorpion, eventually finishing second, allowed Dave and Emily McKee in a Flying Fifteen keelboat the chance to lift the major club trophy.

Former Commodores Graham Massey and Russ Clark finished third overall.

First slow handicap boat was helmed by Stephen Robinson in a single-handed Mini Sail which gave him a few nervous moments towards the north end of the pond as the wind picked up.