Musto Skiff Open at Parkstone Yacht Club

Sunshine and a light sea breeze greeted competitors, from Plymouth in the west, Chew Valley in the north and Wilsonian in the east, to Parkstone. Racing was held out in Poole bay with the wind shifting in strength and direction. Bruce Keen started where he left off at the nationals with a win from Dan Vincent and Brendan Jenner. Jenner went one better in race two as the wind had picked up, leading for a long time, and was only just pipped at the line by Keen with Vincent slipping into 3rd place.

Races three and four saw Vincent and Keen battling all the way to the finish, Keen took race three, with Vincent taking the bullet in race four. Jenner again slotted in to third place in both races after close racing with Nigel Walbank, Paul Clements and Mark Ponsford. The OOD did well keeping the Skiff regatta on schedule, slotting our starts in between the 29er fleet, who were having numerous general recalls.

The evening was spent on the club balcony discussing the closeness of the racing whilst enjoying spectacular views of the sunset over Poole harbour, the Purbeck hills and Corfe castle. Walbank also found the balcony very useful for rethreading his main halyard which broke during race four.

Sunday saw a slow sail out to the start in the gradient NW wind. At the end of the first lap, Vincent led from Walbank and Ponsford, the wind had faded to almost nothing, Keen drifted far out to the right hand corner to grab another win as the race was shortened. The sea breeze then filled in from the other side of the course for the start of race 6 and Vincent took the win from Keen and Ponsford.

Race 7 saw Keen over the line at the port end, after the first lap the fleet was altogether as Keen recovered, he was leading by the next windward mark but Walbank found the better waves on the run to lead at the finish from Keen and Vincent. Race eight was abandoned after a 45 degree shift and restarted with the wind in the west. Keen and Vincent were again out front, but Ponsford found the better wind to the north, to overtake both of them on the final run. Jenner was forced to retire after his securing pin came out of his rudder pin causing it to drop and then get bent beyond being able to fix it on the water.

Overall Keen took the meeting by 4 points from Vincent while Walbank grabbed 3rd place from Jenner on the tie break.

Overall Results: