Osprey Open and Panmorra Cup at Mount's Bay Sailing Club

Osprey Open at Mount's Bay © Mikey Grieg

It's always good to have a Plan B they say, and this proved to be the case when the slightly reduced fleet descended to Cornwall for the annual Open event. Parking up at the club looking across at the mount is always special, the weather also looked to be kind in comparison to the gales encountered at Hayling Island just a couple of weeks previously.

Some teams arrived on Friday afternoon with 1 boat making the club racing that evening to check all was well. The rest rolled in early Saturday morning to be greeted by wall to wall sunshine but little breeze. Lots of bimbling ensued before we were finally released from the dinghy compound around midday to make a leisurely trip out past the mount to the race area. On arrival the wind decided to stop playing for a while and took some time to decide on which direction and strength it would settle on, all the time teams were seeking out the best options with things finally working themselves out and marginal trapezing was permitted. Smiles all round at this point from the teams on the water that totalled 8 with 2 boats coming across from Penzance sailing club.

Osprey Open at Mount's Bay - photo © Mikey Grieg

Race 1 began with a false start as everyone seemed keen to get going, thereafter things worked better and only a glimpse of the black flag being rolled and unrolled on the race boat was enough of a threat to have the desired effect. As the wind continued to build all boats were able to produce maximum power and the windward mark was soon reached on mass. Osprey 1234 Plan B was round first and screamed away down the reach towards the mount pursued by 1291 Alex and Nick Willis having just arrived from Kielder Water so top prize for miles driven and clearly no sign of fatigue. The rest were close throughout with the course including only 1 lap of triangles and thereafter sausage courses this kept things tight for each race. The day progressed with the wind topping off at around 12 knots NE then starting to decay again for the last race leading to a tricky ending for that one with a slight swell left over.

It was good to see some youth in the fleet with Duncan Gregor helming for Mike Atkinson in 1298 and putting his experience to good use with some handy results on day 1. Also some strong local support with Mikey Greig, Doc Ellery and crew along with Colin & Jeremy Stephens out on the water in various boats and roles.

It was the legendary Osprey 1085 Infidel that inflicted the only defeat on Terry Curtis and Peter Greig over the weekend, no easy feat.

Saturday evening was mostly spent on the balcony in the sun eating and drinking and generally enjoying the scenery and the stories and the Mount's Bay hospitality, which did stretch on late into the night as clearly there had been a lot of dehydration during the day.

Sunday morning came around a little too quick for some but was shaping up nicely with a slight change in wind direction and a cleaner, fresher breeze more from the south. Two races were on the agenda and they started on time with most boats looking to lose a little power to negotiate the reasonable swell. Unfortunately we lost Mike Atkinson and Duncan Gregor early on with a broken main halyard and Mikey Grieg also had a damaged boat from the previous day however that didn't mean that you could relax. All remaining boats were tightly bunched with Plan B doing enough to get clear at the windward mark and sail away from the fleet. 1292 with Paul Heather and Jonathan Osgood had found the fast button and improved race on race, likewise Kevin Francis with new crew Simon Hawkes improved from day 1 due to lots of rehydration and sailed well to post 2 second places in tricky conditions again.

The wind again began to switch off at the end of race 2 so perfect timing to get home and relax before packing away. The smell of the BBQ from the club soon had most heading that way for more fantastic hospitality, and the formal prize-giving presented by Mikey thanked all of those that made it possible. On behalf of the class I would like to extend our thanks as well to Mount's Bay Sailing Club volunteers for catering so well for us and putting on some cracking racing. We look forward to next year in greater numbers.

Overall Results: