Solution class during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

This year's weather was a stark contrast to last year at the Ovington Inland Championships. 5 Solutions arrived to compete at the same time as nearly all other Ovington produced boats types. We were greeted by a sunny morning with near perfect sailing conditions force 3-4. Martin launched and gradually everybody else that had arrived joined him. Sharing the course with Phantoms and Flying 15's, the pre starts were sometimes chaotic but every start ran well.

Race 1 - The first start saw Christian leading around the windward mark closely followed by Jack and Kathryn. Christian and Jack proceeded to pull away from the rest with Martin managing to catch and overtake Kathryn.

Race 2 - Sam arrived before the start of the second race to swell our numbers to 6. This time Kathryn and Jack made the most of a shift that favoured the port side of the course being first around the windward mark. Starting the second lap, the left side appeared to pay again with Jack staying out front as Kathryn graciously made sure nobody felt left out and unfortunately went from front to back. Christian had set his sights on gaining back to back victories and was on the charge. He left it late and on the last beat took the lead despite a last ditch dive to the line by Jack, Christian took his second win.

Race 3 - The third race saw Sam and Christian out the front battling for the win. They managed to keep their lead and fight all the way to the line, with Sam breaking Christian's winning streak and taking the victory. Just behind Jack managed to hold off Martin who was gaining rapidly.

Race 4 - With a few different methods on show to try keep warm whilst waiting for the other fleets to finish, Kathryn decided that the clubhouse was now the place to be. This race saw Christian lead from start to finish with Jack defending from Sam to stay in second place overnight.

Day 2

Race 5 - The dawn of a new day that was unfortunately true to forecast with less wind but on the up side and probably most importantly still dry. Sharing the start line with the Phantoms made the starts much more crowded. The first start of day 2 saw the first general recall as many of the Phantoms crowded the pin and were a long way over (I can't remember if a Solution was over or not). The recall created some confusion as some of the Phantoms were still coming back across the line as the second start went. This made the first beat very hard to see where everybody was but somehow all the Solutions arrived at the windward mark from different directions very close together. Sam, Christian and Martin managed to pull out away from Jack, Kathryn and Kevin. Martin dropped back slightly from the duelling duo up front. Sam managed to hold off Christian to take his second victory of the open meeting. Jack had managed to catch Martin and on the last leg pipped him on the line with Kathryn waiting for any mistake.

Race 6 - This time everybody was just about well-behaved and we got underway. Again Sam, Christian and Martin pulled out a slight lead from Jack and Kathryn. All three were having a great battle and with the wind relatively fickle and shifting about everyone had a chance of making gains if they picked the right way up the beats. Sam again took the win in front of Christian and Martin.

Race 7 - Another recall as the Phantoms got carried away as Christian tried to sail over the top to the pin and they all successfully pushed him over about 15 seconds early, then carried on themselves slightly defeating the object of fighting with a smaller boat I think. The second start was again extremely close but the race officer allowed it. The same trio of Christian, Martin and Sam pulled away and with several position changes as everyone tried to find the fastest route without just following but by now the wind seemed to be fluctuating so frequently that you could gain 2 places then a minute later have lost them again. Christian finished off the weekend taking the victory followed by Martin then Sam.

This meant that Christian retained the Ovington Inland Championship title for the fourth year running and with Sam beating Jack and Martin this means that Sam takes the Traveller series 2017.

Hopefully See You Next Year (that goes for everyone who reads this not just those that are mentioned in the write up).

Overall Results: