23/06/2026
Offshore racing without forecasts or satellite navigation. Very brave yachties leaving the comfort at home. On this day 1962! F10 Dowsing race.
ON THIS DAY – 23 June 1962, A force 6 to 9 gale sprang up during the Dowsing Race at Bridlington.
The report from RNLI Bridlington Lifeboats :At eight o'clock on the morning of the 22nd, the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club's Outer Dowsing ocean race started with about sixteen yachts taking part. By three o'clock the next morning a strong north-west-by-westerly gale had sprung up and the sea became very choppy. The larger yachts were then nearing Bridlington, and from four o'clock onwards they began crossing the finishing line. By eight o'clock five yachts had still not finished, all of them of the smaller class, and after consulting the harbour master the honorary secretary decided to launch the lifeboat ‘Tillie Morrison, Sheffield II’. It was then 9.15 and the yachts still to finish were Naive, Salamander and Abigail. The lifeboat set a course southward to search for them, and the Abigail was seen by the harbour master well up the bay. Her main halyard had jammed, and the lifeboat escorted her safely in. After some minor repairs had been quickly effected the lifeboat left harbour once more. She met the coaster Adam's Beck, which had picked up the crew of four of the Naive close by the Humber lightvessel. She took them on board and landed them in the harbour. In the meantime, the coaster Dybergh had rescued the crew of the Salamander twelve miles off Flamborough Head and had landed them.
