Osprey Open at Coniston Sailing Club
by Alec Mamwell 29 May 2013 06:29 BST
25-27 May 2013
Ospreys at Coniston © Rob Swyer
Despite a rather disappointing turnout, the Ospreys that attended this year's Open Meeting at Coniston enjoyed 3 days of excellent racing enhanced by wall to wall sunshine on the first 2 days and a cracking breeze on the Monday.
David Springett and Paul Berry proved to be the masters of a fickle and interesting westerly on the Saturday posting 2 convincing wins. However Viola and Mike Scott who had been unable to attend on the previous day arrived in outstanding form and won all three races on the Sunday in a steady southerly. Behind her the rest of the fleet enjoyed some very close racing with most teams recording at least one decent result.
In complete contrast to the previous two days, Monday dawned grey with heavy rain but little sign of the forecast stronger winds. Fortunately this kicked in shortly after the start and greatly assisted the fleet in its 4 mile beat to the first mark. If the uphill grind had been hard work the ride back down the lake was an exhilarating experience with the leading four boats in close contact and constantly changing places as first one and then the other caught a gust and surged ahead. Viola and Mike kept their cool and posted another win in a much tighter race than the previous day.
So with one race to go Viola and Mike only needed to finish to win, David and Paul had done enough on the first 2 days to be secure in second place but two teams, Ros and David Downs and John Shenton and Steve Offer were still in contention for third place. On another long course Ros and David stormed into an early lead and despite John and Steve reeling them in managed to hang on to a well deserved win. Viola and Mike relaxed a little bit too early and went for a swim before securing a fourth place and the meeting.
Coniston Sailing Club once again proved to be capable and welcoming hosts and the social side of the weekend was enjoyed by all. Special mention should be made of John Rayner and Les Green from Hornsea who despite over 140 years combined age in the boat and additional complications managed to join the fleet for several races - in the circumstances a splendid effort.