Solution Open at Oxford Sailing Club

A mix of regular and new faces arrived at Oxford SC early on Saturday morning to be met by a warm and largely sunny day, with a westerly Force 4.

There were 7 visiting Solutions, although unfortunately local sailor Alun Griffiths had unavoidable family commitments, and we were joined by 6 Lightnings, for an all single-handed open meeting.

The race officer set a simple trapezoid course using most of the lake and being faster the Solutions were the first fleet to start from just in front of the clubhouse. This gave the spectators the opportunity to watch and critique the action.

There was a port end bias to the start line and both Jack Turnbull and Martin Tubb were a little too eager, and with just a little encouragement from Kathryn Clark, both were over the line at the start of race 1. This left Kevin Clark with the opportunity to build an unassailable lead up the first beat. Jack and Martin both ducked back, and Jack was able to pull back through the fleet to take second place. Rounding the pin, Martin went right up the beat, but there was more pressure on the left and despite a good battle he was only able to pull through into 4th. Lesley Jeanes sailed a great race at her first Solution open to take 3rd place ahead of Kathryn.

Peter Weatherhead and Graeme Kerr, both new to the Solution, completed the fleet and picked up some good tips over the day.

Whilst the rest of the fleet went ashore after race 1 for a hearty lunch and to top up on sun cream, Kevin stayed afloat to provide demo sails to those interested in the Solution.

Race 2 was similar to race 1, but with a return to the Solution norm of a civilised clean start. Although Kevin won, he was pushed hard, especially by Jack. Martin took third, and Lesley just pipped Kathryn to 4th by half a boat length on the final reach into the finish line.

Race 3 was back to back and this time Jack finally found a way past Kevin to take the bullet. Kathryn also found her form to take 3rd place, ahead of Martin, who just hung on to beat Lesley who ended the day as leading lady.

At the post race analysis over tea and cake, everyone agreed that it had been a great day's sailing. Having missed much of his lunch, Kevin found a home for several left over slices of cake!

Thanks goes to the Race Officer and Oxford Sailing Club for putting on a well-run event, as always.

The next Solution open meeting is the Ovington 40th Birthday celebration at Derwent over the bank holiday weekend in 2 weeks' time.

Overall Results: