Thirteen-year-old Eden Gray secures Dymes Cup double, Cambio clinches victory

Thirteen-year-old skipper Eden Gray had a day to remember last Saturday when he was involved in two Dymes Cup races and was successful in both.

More than a dozen junior sailors in a variety of craft had a handicap start for the Dymes Cup race on Saturday morning.

Eden Gray sailing his Laser was declared the winner.

In the afternoon he was one of four Flying Fifteen skippers and with his father Ben as crew was again victorious when he put Flying Flounder over the finish line in first place to take yet another Dymes Cup trophy.

Winning a Dymes Cup at Princess Royal Sailing Club is every skipper’s dream, so young Eden will sleep well for a long time.

Flying Flounder was the limit boat that had a five-minute start and had established a handy lead for the others to chase down.

Aileen Lucas in Crazy was next away but experienced spinnaker problems just after the start and lost valuable time.

Wayne North began well with Frequent Flyer but dropped off the pace midway through the harbour course event in humid conditions and a steady southerly piping in around the 18-knot mark.

The scratch boat FForever Young skippered by Simon Lucas had the almighty task of catching the other three.

He sailed faultlessly to pass both Frequent Flyer and Crazy and was putting immense pressure on the youngster just in front.

The young skipper held his nerve and went on to put Flying Flounder into first place to win the race, the trophy and the fame.

FForever Young took second place in a fine effort and also recorded the fastest time, while Crazy was third and Frequent Flyer was fourth.

Only three division two yachts competed in their quest for a Dymes Cup, with Ian Johnston first away in Cambio.

He was given a five-minute lead over Stephen Lee in Flasheart and Chris Oldham in Joker.

Flasheart and Joker were having a ding-dong battle in their chase but eventually Flasheart pulled away.

Cambio continued on its merry way with Johnston’s crew comprising two experienced skippers, no doubt leading to some interesting conversations.

Flasheart slowly closed the gap but Cambio had done enough to take the race and the trophy in a great display.

Flasheart was second in its first race since losing its mast and fastest. Joker was third after a promising start.