Solo Nigel Pusinelli Trophy at the WPNSA

Solo Sea Championship for the Nigel Pusinelli Trophy © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

Solo Sea Championship for the Nigel Pusinelli Trophy © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

Solo Sea Championship Event

It is Saturday evening and I sit here in the sumptuous cafe in the grounds of Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy with a beer by my side and story to tell. This is a truly remarkable facility, the sausage rolls are Olympic standard, great fare for the heavy weight singlehander’s and Star crews alike. The race management is nothing like the old chaps at the local club, no air horns or bells here as sound signals, everything is world class, even the showers.

There seems to be no end to the skills of WPNSA, they also manipulate the weather, providing the 47 competitors with unbroken sunshine and 12 to 15 knots. We were sent out into the bay today to make best use of the southerly wind direction and pressure, an hour of dead running was a suitable warm up. The Olympians get towed out! The French Finn squad were out there and provided us with a good first beat strategy, go left and take advantage of the tide. Thanks guys, who said you can’t trust the French?

Matt Howard continued from where he left off at Felpham in 2010 and scored three bullets, he is not of this world. Jim Hunt kept him on his toes with 2 seconds and a third in the new Speed Solo. Chris Brown attained 2 thirds. Michael Simms scored consistently and included a second. That is the top four.

Tomorrow is another day with strong winds forecast so we are racing in the harbour, hopefully close to the American 470 Women.

Following Saturday’s three races the fleet de-camped to their various forms of accommodation, some to the local bed and breakfasts that litter the surrounding hamlet, other less fortunate to tents, campervans and in my case, a very cramped van.

The unremitting buffeting of the van during the night gave fair warning of what Sunday would hold, strong southerly winds up into the 30 knot range. The pallid appearance etched on the faces of some (me included) was not eased by the upbeat announcement over the tannoy that it was expected to drop to 27 sometime later. This is Weymouth, home of Olympians, if you’re here then you race. 26 hardy sailors made it to the line for race 4, waved off from the slipway by wives in scarf’s holding St Christopher’s and small groups of muttering sailors who hid in the shadows and hoped that the hand of God was about to strike, so justifying their reason not to launch (me included).

The few who returned told stories of going down the mine, to us they were heroes just for going out. What does that make the guys who raced? Gods I guess. Emerging from the spray, Matt Howard, last on the water, his time training Olympians at this venue meant he knew it would only take 7 minutes to reach the start area 1.5 miles downwind, for mortals it would take 10. He added two more bullets to his score, only being denied a clean sweep by another legend, Jim Hunt. Jim had a third in race 4 and after giving Howard a spanking in race 5 decided to call it a day.

Michael Simms, having avoided a protest decision on Saturday showed some supreme fitness in the penal conditions to record a 2, 3, 2 to secure third overall ahead of Dave Mitchell, Chris Goldhawk and Roger Tushingham.

I should name them all as to race in that 'breeze' was a Herculean achievement, a steady 28 knots with very regular 32 knot 'gusts'.

Special thanks to the team at WPNSA and to Fotoboat for catching the action.

Overall Results: