OK Inland Championship at Blithfield Sailing Club - Preview

After a break of seven weeks the OK Dinghy Grand Tour series recommences with the Inland Championship in Staffordshire over the weekend of 8th and 9th October. As we go to print entry numbers are good with nearly twenty helms indicating they will attend. Final numbers are expected to be much higher as some big names from the top of the fleet are missing from this list of early entries including current World Champion, Jim Hunt, and Worlds third place, Charlie Cumbley.

The event is expected to consist of six races sailed over two days with the competitors briefing at 11.00 and the first start planned for midday on the Saturday.

This will be the first chance the main fleet will have had to challenge current Grand Tour leader Richard 'Burt' Burton after his recent successes in becoming the Belgium 'National Champion' and his third place in the 'Battle of the Classes' at Southampton last weekend. Second place, Dave Bourne, will be keen to make inroads into the five point differential that separates them and will be cursing the fact that the minor tweaks he made while sailing Burt's boat in a recent event has made such a difference in speed.

The Grand Tour closes with the final event being held at Northampton SC over the first weekend of November where the annual prizes for both the Gold and Silver Fleets will be distributed.

Note: Competitors wishing to save some trailing time and planning to sail in either the OK Dinghy Youth and Junior Championships, the South Staffs open meeting or both over the weekend of 15th / 16th October will be able to drop boats off at South Staffs after the Blithfield meeting. More information on this event will be published next week.