Osprey Class Final Fling at Rutland Sailing Club

Tricked, not treated at the Rutland Final Fling

The swans looked graceful, the trees a blaze of autumn colour, the backdrop to the lake stunning as was the reflection on the water because yet again Wind Guru's spooky prediction was to haunt us with a lack of the blowy stuff to keep us amused. At times with the fog on the lake it was hard to tell witchcraft was witch...

17 Osprey's made the customary end of season jaunt to Rutland no doubt enjoying the new UK sport of traffic jamming if travelling on the Friday night. Meeting up with our fiendish colleagues in the Contender fleet, anticipation was high that at least the Saturday would produce a cauldron of action and enough puff to blow the cobwebs off and make it all fangtastic; alas the man upstairs decided otherwise leading to the chance to truly take in the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this place as the fleet ghosted along with crew firmly committed to perfecting the apple bobbing position, 2 races were managed with a triangle, sausage being the order of the day. Pumpkin carving did not attract extra points which I think was a shame, and nor did fancy dress although Phil Male was quite taken by a scream mask in a local shop, something that could have only enhanced his charm.

Terry Curtis & Pete Greig continued on their now familiar voyage like men possessed at the front of the fleet with the Hartley's and Cooney and Frith for company, for some there was no logic to the day with wind appearing and disappearing within minutes, the middle of the course proving to be a graveyard to many teams. With Curtis and Greig having already won the Wilkinson Sword they now had solid silver protection on demand should the Contender fleet get a taste for Osprey later on.

Special mentions for this event go to Russ Wheeler with new Osprey man Boris putting a spell on the opposition to conjure up a 2nd place in race 1, and also to Phil Meakins and Chris Dodd who handed out the medicine to finish a solid 5th.

One final mention must go to Willy Crichton who managed to bag the best named crew for the event with Jon Batt... genius, doing the knitting at the front and not managing any kind of flap in the process.

To sum up the ghoulish condition's it is fair to say that most crews experienced something unearthly during the day as the wind chose it's next victim without impunity, race 3 was abandoned at the windward mark and the race back to catch the rugby final began.

Sunday unfolded as expected with several hangovers and stories of things that go bump in the night or was that just Terry dropping his trophy haul from this year... no racing was possible and so as the sun came up the teams vaporised for another year back to their lairs to await the new moon of the Mk 5 Osprey...

Overall Results: