Musto Performance Skiff Open at Stone Sailing Club
by Paul Manning & Serega Samus 12 May 2015 12:31 BST
9-10 May 2015
Musto Skiffs at Stone © Oliver Southgate / OJSPhotography
Arriving bright and breezy at Stone Sailing Club, we were welcomed by the ever present Neil Fulcher and his excellent team but unfortunately the breezy bit was too breezy, often over 30 knots, so the fleet set to a bit of bimbling and socialising with newbie to the class Jack Grogan in his new boat, being the centre of attention and getting a free helping hand to set his boat up. After a long postponement the wind still wasn't dropping that much, so Neil made the wise decision to cancel racing for the day and go for 5 shorter races in what looked like a great Sunday forecast.
After a quality rest on Saturday, Sunday was going to be intense. The race officer was determined to hold 5 races, and he did as promised. The first race started in a gentle 8-10 knots breeze. Having taken a great start, Ben Schooling stamped his authority by pulling away from the fleet early and taking a bullet. Paul Molesworth came second showing his great form and Andrew Whittle took third.
The wind gradually started to freshen and allowed Dave Poston to show his great upwind speed in race 2. Ben finished second followed by Serega (some people call him Sergei).
With wind increasing to 16 knots, Dave was becoming too fast for everyone and pulled away again in the race 3. However he caught the upwind mark anchor line with his daggerboard and capsized giving a chance to Serega to enjoy top spot for a while. Eventually David pulled back to first again with Serega closely following and Ben and Paul chasing at quite a distance. Then, before the last downwind leg, Serega got into the same anchor line trap tripping over it and letting Ben and Paul through.
There is no time or place boundaries for bad luck. Right before the next race a horrible sound of a cracking Musto shattered the starting area. Those were Jon Simpson's and Ben's boats. They were entangled with their racks in a deadly fight to the bone like two raging deer wounding each other badly.
Feeling responsible for the bad behaviour of his boat and being a true gentleman, Jon decided to abandon races and gave Benjo his Musto that sustained much smaller damage - Ben's rack had just become curved in Stone (pun intended). The anchor line incident must have made Serega very angry and he took a bullet in the race 4, taking advantage of Dave's unexpected swim and Ben's misjudgement of the downwind layline.
Paul, feeling a benefit of J70 training and showing great consistency, took 2nd and David Annan was 3rd. At this moment it was not clear whether we were having a fifth race. That gave Paul a short-lived thrill - he was winning the event without the discard! However the race officer was determined and the race 5 was imminent.
Dave rocketed to the first again charging like a train. Serega took second and Ben - third.
Finally Benjo took the first position overall with the first four Datchet boats (Dave, Serega and Paul) separated by only 4 points.
Jack Grogan having scored fifth in his first ever Musto event has completely redefined a newbie term for a Musto sailor.
Huge thanks to the Stone Sailing Club members for their hospitality and to the racing team and Neil Fulcher for their excellent race management.
Full Results here and more images here.