Osprey Welsh and Midland Championship at Tata Steel Sailing Club

The Welsh and Midland Championship for the Osprey Class was held over the weekend of 16/17 May at Tata Steel SC near Port Talbot.

On Saturday the North Westerly wind was significantly stronger than the force 3 to 4 that had been forecast and strangely was regularly shifting through around 20 to 30 degrees. Paul Bambridge the Race Officer set a trapezoidal course sailing the outer loop, which made best use of the lake and should have been easy enough for the competitors. However at one time or another many of us succeeded in getting lost on the way around!

In the first race Terry Curtis crewed by Alex Shaw from the home club and Kevin Francis and Philip Male made the early running but by sailing to the wrong windward mark on the loop they allowed Paul Heather/Jonathan Osgood into the lead. Terry and Alex made a great effort to get back through the fleet, but had to settle for third after a last lap battle with Ros and David Downs which saw the lead change 2 or 3 times.

The second race turned into something of a demolition derby as the wind strength dramatically increased. Terry and Alex capsized in a big gust on a reach and broke their boom, the running was taken up by Kevin and Phil until a broken jib halyard and thus a broken mast brought their weekend to a premature end. With Paul and Jonathan engaged in swimming practice it was left to the two Tata vintage boats to survive the last lap. Mike and Pam Murray found a favourable shift on the last beat to finish ahead of Ros and David. With a limited number of boats and crews in a fit state to sail the last race of the day it was wisely decided to cancel the race and sail three back to back on Sunday morning.

The Osprey fleet retired to the Murray's for an enjoyable evening of beer, food (including a Mike Murray apple crumble) and stories. Thus fortified, there was no further crumbling of the fleet's spars on the Sunday.

In a Force 2/3, the rearranged race 3 was won by Terry Curtis now crewed by another local Gareth Davies and using a spare boom, with Paul and Jonathan second. I can't tell much about the race as having tied the spinnaker sheets in a knot under the boat while dropping the kite and then sailing to the wrong windward mark (they didn't even look similar!) it was all happening a long way in front of us!

Races 4 and 5 were both close and were won by Terry/ Gareth with Paul/Jonathan second, while the battle between the Tata boats for third place was all very exciting.

Overall Terry Curtis with crews Alex Shaw and Gareth Davies were crowned as worthy Welsh and Midland Champions with Paul Heather and Jonathan Osgood second and Ros and David Downs third.

At this early stage, Terry Curtis is setting the pace in the Wilkinson Sword Osprey travellers circuit posting wins at Starcross, Mounts Bay and Tata. Can anyone else overcome this flying start and mount a challenge through the rest of the season?

Overall Results: