International Moth Grand Prix at Datchet Water Sailing Club

International Moth Grand Prix at Datchet Water © Phil Oligario

International Moth Grand Prix at Datchet Water © Phil Oligario

Day 1

The 24 strong fleet of moth pilots were greeted with a steady 12-15 knots and perfect sunshine for round 2 of the 2016 International Moth GP series.

The race officer decided to try and aim for 4 races per day so changes to the sailing instructions were in order.

Race 1 and the wind had eased and was patchy and gusty. Rob Greenhalgh took advantage of the huge left shift just before the start and led from start to finish with Chris Rashley in second. There was tight racing in the following pack where Mike Lennon, Jason Belben Ben Paton and Simon Hiscocks were changing places frequently. Simon Hiscocks played it right and gained the advantage in the final run to take 3rd place.

Race 2 saw a strong port end biased which meant the majority of the fleet opted for the port start from the pin end. Unfortunately this lead to the first and only incident of the event with Rob Greenhalgh tussling with Ben Paton to win the pin end but Ben held his lane which forced Greenhalgh to duck behind him which lead to a collision with Dan Ellis who had just had an extensive overhaul of his boat (which was ironically Rob's old Exocet). Ellis had to return to shore and was put out of race. Rob was very apologetic and waited to see that Dan was ok before continuing with the race.

Meanwhile, out front, Ben was sparring with Chris Rashley for the lead and in the end was able to make a good call on the final leg and take the win with Chris coming in second. Greenhalgh showed his blistering speed by working his way back through the fleet and finishing in 3rd.

Race 3: By now the wind was lighter and even more patchy. The front 5 (Rashley, Greenhalgh, Lennon, Belben, Hiscocks) were tightly packed and took turns leading the race. As we call it in moth racing, "Snakes and ladders" ensued. Eventually Ben who was not in the leading pack, took a left shift, came back through the fleet and took the race win. One sailor to note is UK moth pioneer Alex Adams who has returned to moth racing after a few years off where he was part of the Vestas Sail Rocket program. He is coming back to form and came in 4th in this race.

Race 4: The wind swung back to allow the fleet to start on starboard however, Rashley decided to start on port thinking pressure was better right side. This decision proved to be correct as Rashley sailed away from the fleet to eventually win by a whole run. The trailing pack consisted of Mike Lennon, Simon Hiscocks, Jim McMillan, Ben Paton and Rob Greenhalgh.

Saturday evening saw recently appointed social secretary James Sainsbury organising a trip to the local pub where Ben "The Bomb" Paton took on the locals playing pool. Ben set a new world record by downing a strawpedo in 3 seconds which unfortunately meant he was unable to dominate the pool table and in fact only managed to pot the black and no other balls thus throwing the match. The Datchet locals felt apologetic and took it upon themselves to take a number of sailors on to a less-than-reputable nearby venue to complete the night.

Day 2

There was no wind in the morning so racing was postponed. In the meantime a course laid in the event that the wind should decide to come in.

By the time the start time for race 1 came around, there was just enough wind to get foiling but it was a question of who could find the puffs. Greenhalgh took control and was able to sniff out any wind there was and took the race win. The fleet were scattered far and wide but again the top names were present with Mike Lennon picking up 2nd, Hiscocks in 3rd, Jason Belben 4th, Jim McMillan 5th and Rashley in 6th.

Unfortunately for Ben Paton, strawpedoes got the better of him and he took the option to retire and head in. It was very much a marginal race with many foiling only for brief periods.

In race 2 Rashley and Hiscocks started well and pulled out good lead by top mark. Hiscocks managed to get away in a gust and pulled out nearly a lap lead on the rest, including Rashley.

Jim McMillan narrowly avoided getting lapped by Hiscocks by picking up a gust and pulling away downwind fully up on the foils. Hiscocks by contrast was now in a hole and low riding what was to be the whole last lap.

Jim was somehow able to keep his boat up on the foils to miraculously finish 2 boat lengths behind Hiscocks after nearly being a lap down. Definitely one to watch in the light airs.

There was a big scrap for 3/4/5 and 6th place with all of the boats finishing within five seconds of each other.

Rob Greenhalgh did enough with 3rd place to secure the event and add yet another GP win to his growing tally.

All of the sailors had a great time and James Sainsbury's debut as Social secretary was very well received. The fleet would like to thank Datchet Sailing Club and their Race Officer for their handling of extremely tricky conditions.

We would also like to thank Noble Marine for their continued support of the class.

Next stop for the Moth circus is Parkstone Yacht Club on the 23-24th April. So we look forward to seeing you all there.

Overall Results: