Ospreys at the Roadford Rocket Pursuit race
by David Downs 1 Mar 2016 15:05 GMT
28 February 2016
Four Ospreys joined around 30 other boats for the Roadford Rocket pursuit race at Roadford Lake on Dartmoor on Sunday 28th February. Following on from the Starcross Steamer this was the second leg of the Exe Sails sponsored SW Challenge 2016. The white horses on the lake and the whistling of the bitterly cold North Easterly breeze indicated that this was going to be a somewhat different sail than the light winds of the Steamer.
The course was effectively a figure of eight using all the area of the lake with a few fiddly bits to make sure the competitors kept concentrating! There were some fairly awesome reaches.
All four Ospreys experienced some technical issues. Ros and David Downs' mainsail came down before the start as the outer cover of their main halyard shredded, leaving them with just enough time to re-hoist using just the dyneema core; Ben and Simon Hawkes had a brief dip at the windward mark while Paul Roberts and John Clark had a rather more significant capsize at one of the many gybe marks. Terry Curtis, and Peter Greig had to stop to put the rudder back on; we wonder who forgot to tie it on!
Despite these mishaps, however, the Ospreys figured strongly at the prize giving, Ros and David Downs in 10th overall won the First Lady helm prize, Ben and Simon in 5th were the first junior helm while Terry and Peter were second overall.
Only the Lasers and the RS Aeros got more boats on the water than the Ospreys and the results showed the versatility of the class with boats from over 40 years old to 1 year old, wood and FRP and with junior and lady helms.
Next highlight for the Osprey class will be the launch of the Mark 5 epoxy Osprey at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show this weekend. Come and see its sleek modern look, and also view one of our best older wooden examples.
Next event for Ospreys in this SW series is the Exmoor Beastie on the 20th March.