Osprey Open at Mount's Bay Sailing Club
by Kevin Francis 11 May 2015 13:17 BST
2-3 May 2015
Ospreys at Mount's Bay © Nick Meddlicott
The May bank holiday weekend was firmly pencilled into the diary as Mount's Bay always offers something different with this year being no exception. With a forecast of wellies and storm sails the numbers were expected to be lower than usual however on arrival we were met by 10 other crews and weather that was better than forecast.
Social over, boats rigged and giant pasties consumed it was down to business with the race boat and rescue crews eagerly awaiting the fleets launch. The sea state was fairly large and unsettled which suits a big sea boat like the Osprey. The wind was erratic in both strength and direction leading to a never ending display of rope pulling in the vain hope of generating some extra drive to power over the waves.
Terry Curtis, fresh out of the OK and Pete Grieg showed well early on with excellent boat speed and pointing to record the first of what was to be a perfect score card, Martin Cooney and Pete Frith also settled into their familiar position at the top end of the fleet with the local favourites Steve George and new crew snapping at the leaders heals. The day was relentless and the rare sight of some 2 sail reaches was typical of the unpredictable wind direction.
The real fun and games came at the end of the day when returning to a very high tide combined with a lee shore and breaking waves, none of the crews were prepared for the battering that ensued once boats were vacated and for the struggle to survive the boat recovery unscathed, something that not all boats managed. Great team effort though.
The clubhouse social was as welcoming as ever with the lovely ladies of the club providing much needed hot food and the bar being the hub for stories from the day.
Sunday was similar in terms of weather and the fleet took to the water again, some in a slightly patched up guise this time around. Curtis and Grieg continued their dominance with Cooney and Frith having something of an off day having gambled with not competing in the last race the day previous, and paying the price. Ospreys 1207 and 1085 were never out of the game and look good for this season with Nick and Alex Willis showing that consistency pays off big time with a well earned 3rd place overall, special mention to the crews of 1310 and 854 who were taking part in their first opens, welcome to the class guys.
For the rest of the fleet it was a weekend of trial and error but every crew would have learnt something new from Cornwall.
Next stop is TATA Steel for something a little different at another Osprey stronghold.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 1281 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 1280 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| 3 | 1291 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 14 |
| 4 | 1296 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 19 |
| 5 | 1085 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| 6 | 1207 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 21 |
| 7 | 1290 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 24 |
| 8 | 1338 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 25 |
| 9 | 1292 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 30 |
| 10 | 1310 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 40 |
| 11 | 854 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 44 |