Musto Skiff Open Meeting at Stokes Bay Sailing Club

Musto Skiffs at Stokes Bay © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Musto Skiffs at Stokes Bay © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Musto Skiffs at Stokes Bay © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

With weather forecasts as random as Ronnie O'Sullivan's recent behaviour 24 optimistic Musto Skiff sailors convened at Stokes Bay Sailing Club for their open on 25–26 April.

The first race started in a light breeze from a Westerly direction with Mike Palfreman executing a timely port end flyer to cross the fleet and gain an early lead. Andy Rice led briefly at the windward mark before Palfreman regained the lead on the second beat and then pulled away to take a relatively comfortable win with Ben Schooling putting a cheeky move on Bruce Keen to sneak into second at the finish.

The second race was most notable for Richard Pelly's magnificent performance, perhaps most notably by his uncharacteristic excellent start. Once the difficult bit was out of the way he merrily sailed off with the bullet being chased (distantly) by fellow Stokes Bay members Keen and George Hand. With speculation rife from a hastily formed kangaroo court that Bruce's new boat might never win a race the wind swung to the South and increased. Naturally Keen was never headed and followed home by newcomer Dan Kilsby who in turn was closely pursued by Schooling.

Former fleet stalwart Dan Vincent returned for another superb quiz in the evening the highlight of which was the foiling round. Whilst nothing was constructed that would threaten the career of anyone at British Aerospace the fleet did learn that encasing team members in tin foil will, given time result in mild asphyxiation and over heating.

The locals awoke with some concern on Sunday as a quick glance out of the window showed that someone had popped out during the night and turned on the Datchet fan. This led to a shifty North Westerly ranging from about 5-12 knots. Ben Schooling promptly jumped to the front of the fleet expertly threading a path through a couple of cruisers who were blindly lurching around the Solent with the Stokes Bay trio of Pelley, Keen and Palfreman.

This clearly angered Keen who, used to getting things his own way promptly won the next race with George Hand taking a deserved 2nd place after winning the committee boat at the start...well done George! Matthew Holden took a measured third after successfully navigating through some finishing confusion at the leeward gate.

The evidently still riled Keen comfortably won the final race with Hand again just behind. Palfreman finished third after steadily climbing through the fleet after a poor start and an improving Jamie Hilton took fourth.

Huge thank you to the Race Officer Mike Rayden for getting the races off in a range of conditions, especially on the Sunday, all the volunteers from Stokes and Tim Olin for the photos which can be seen on his Flickr gallery. All of which combined for a cracking event!

Overall Results:

Musto Skiffs at Stokes Bay - photo © Tim Olin