The Nigel Pusinelli Trophy at the WPNSA - Preview
by Will Loy 16 Jun 2016 08:04 BST
18-19 June 2016
Solo Nigel Pusinelli Trophy at the WPNSA © Will Loy
There only three days until the racing begins at WPNSA for the Nigel Pusinelli Trophy. There are currently 28 pre-entries.
Among those still to enter are Andy Davis (HD Sails), reigning inland and Nation's Cup Champion, Andy Tunnicliffe (Impact Marine), reigning Nigel Pusinelli Trophy Champion, and Pete Mitchell (North Sails) 2015 Winter champion and 2016 Southern Champion.
Among those pre entered is Mike Sims (P&B) who is firing on all cylinders following his 2nd at Medemblik, Dave Mitchell, who loves the big waters of Weymouth and Kev Gibb (Scotland) who can run hot in the majors. Andrew Wilde will hopefully back to full strength following illness at the Nation's Cup and Chris Brown, who seems to have another big event win in his sights will also be there. Nick Bonner is another who can feature prominently and is also not shy of the camera. Ian Hopwood will look to continue in the rich vein of form and has some race wins at the venue.
Salcombe have some good sailors and David Greening, Adrian Griffin and Graham Cranford Smith will no doubt uphold the Salcombe heritage. Guy Lonsdale is another with good form and it is good to see Cliff Crawshaw back in the Solo after a nasty incident at last years Nationals, North Berwick.
Mike Sims and Andy Tunnicliffe are past Champions at this event but who will win it this time!
This event was once known as the Pre-Champs and there is no doubt that getting into the groove of sea sailing will improve your result at the Nationals. The experience of sailing in waves is very satisfying when you get it right and you will gain handfuls downwind on the pond sailors.
If you watched any of the superb race videos of sail for gold last week you will know to head left if the wind is from the west, pick up the lift from the nearby land mass and round first....Unfortunately the forecast breeze is from the north!
Enter at www.wpnsa.org.uk/events/national-solo-class-association-nigel-pusinelli-trophy
The club have promised that entry will be open for a short time on Saturday morning for those lastminutedecisionmakers.com. The pre-entry enables the club to provide the correct number of rescue teams so please do enter early to assist them.
There is strength in depth throughout the fleet and I hope to catch the dinghy park gossip before the racing and the action on the water.
Windguru is predicting 16-17 degrees and a nice force 2-3 all weekend so if you want to be part of the action then get down to this awesome sailing mecca!