Musto Skiffs at the Holt Tide Ride

Ian Turnbull (1st) & Richard Stenhouse (2nd) at the Holt Tide Ride 2005 © Rick Perkins

The 8th & 9th of October saw the biggest ever gathering of single handed skiffs as the Musto Skiffs joined forces with the RS700's to race of scratch in the Holt Tide Ride. The first thing to say is that the event ran perfectly and the integration between the fleets was great with sailors keen to learn about the others boats; and of course everyone was keen to see who would come out on top.

The event format was as follows; Saturday the 17 MPS's and 35 700's were seeded into groups of 10 boats (3 MPS & 7 RS700 in each groups). These groups were then paired on a round robin basis to run 10 races of 20 boats giving everyone a chance to sail against each other.

The races were all to count on the first day and were started under black flag so the key was not to get too greedy at the start line. The course was tight with two down wind gates so acceleration, maneuverability and speed were the key ingredients for success.

The wind speed was about 15 knots and towards the end of the day there was quite some chop at the windward mark so there was no surprise to see plenty of swimming.

At the end of a frantic day the overall score board look like this:

With the result of the fleet races to be combined with the finals these results were sure to be important.

Sunday dawned with very little breeze and most were not looking forward to a day of rocking and pumping round the course (this was allowed for this event). Fortunately for all concerned the breeze filled in allowing some light but meaningful races.

The format for the day was to seed the whole fleet based on the Saturdays results into two groups; all the odd results into semi final A and the even into semi final B. The top 6 boats in each race would make it to the final.

Semi A started in little wind with most sailors just able to sit on the wing to coax the boats through the strong tide. Semi B started just 4 minutes behind and the front of the B fleet were soon tangled up with the back of the A fleet and a number of raft ups occurred as boats struggled to round the marks in the strong tide.

The results of the two semis were as below (I think):

The big shock was that Brian Greensmith (Musto Skiff) who was overnight 3rd did not make the cut for the final. Unlucky was Carl Silver who was just pipped into 7th in semi A.

Before the final took place the repocharge for the boats eliminated in the semis was held on the other course. This was won by Mark Adisson in a Musto Skiff with fellow Musto sailor Jamie Stevenson in 3rd.

The final was staged in about 8 knots of breeze for the 12 boats above; this was the first race in which the Musto Skiff had been the majority class taking 8 of the 12 final spots.

The tide was under the fleet at the start of the final and Ian Turnbull shot for the pin but was early and gybed round and sailed out right behind the fleet. Stenhouse won the left and lead the majority of the fleet over to the left of the beat.

Meanwhile Turnbull was making nice progress up the right with a couple of RS700's. A large permanent shift half way up the leg sealed the fate for the race with Turnbull going round first with Stenhouse last. With the course now a one way track there was little stenhouse could do as Turnbull sailed away for a comfortable win to take the event.

Overall Results:

All in all this was a great event sailed in 5 - 15 knots giving everyone a chance to find conditions to suit; Ian Turnbull sailed very well throughout the event and was a worth winner. Thanks to Tim Hancock and the team at HISC who made us most welcome and ran a fantastic event. We hope to be back next year.