Firefly Open at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club

Race 1 starts in the West Oxfordshire Firefly Open © Stewart Eaton

Drizzle and a fickle SSW breeze greated 13 Firefly teams including 4 visiting boats for the West Oxfordshire S.C. Firefly Open on Saturday 24th Oct.

The first race saw Alex Davey crewed by his son Thomas get the better of the fleet out of a heavily port bias start line. They rounded the first mark in the lead and continued to extend on the rest of the fleet to win the race by a country mile. Jamie McEwan crewed by his son Angus and Alec Powell crewed by his daughter Ana finished 2nd and 3rd respectively having both managed to pull away from the main body of the fleet. Last year's winner Alex Baxter with new crew Frankie Penton headed up the rest of the fleet in 4th.

The 2nd race brought more of the same with a demonstration from Alex Davey of how to master the tricky conditions once again sailing away from the fleet to win the race by some distance. Behaind their was close racing throughout the fleet with much place changing but eventually Jamie and Angus broke away to finish 2nd and Lucy Boreham and Rachel Crebbin getting to grips with the conditiond finishing 3rd.

This meant for the final race everything was still in the balance except for first place. Alex decided to hand over the helm to young Thomas for the last race as they had already rapted the series up. To secure 2nd place overall Jamie and Angus just needed to make sure Alec and Ana didn't win the last race. Initially this looked like it was going to be difficult with the whole fleet staying very close together for the first lap. Jamie managed to break clear into clear wind after this and sailed to commanding victory. Behind things where really hotting up in the battle for 3rd overall with 4 boats in contention and all looking good for the slot at various points in the race. On the penultimate lap it was a couple of old hands Tony Thresher crewed by Mike Radford who took control pulling clear to take 2nd in the race. Alex Baxter and Frankie slipped into 3rd up the last beat thus denying either Rachel/Lucy or Alec/Ana the chance of finishing 3rd in the series.

It is worth mentioning that out of the 26 sailors on the water 14 were under the age of 17 all gaining great experience from saling against and with some older sailors, two of whom would rather forget their age!!

Prizes were awarded to the top three overall and the top three boats sailed by U19s. The latter went to Alex/ Frankie, James Nicoll crewed by Joe Scarborough, and Sophie Kitching crewed by Catryn Collins. The overall winner Alex Davey thanked the OOD Laura Hutchins and her team and Helen Howe for organizing and providing an excellent value lunch and tea.

As the sailors left the Club it was noted that the wind had swung round to the NW and was blowing a steady force 3 straight down the lake and yes the rain had stopped! C'est la vie.

Overall Results: