Musto Skiff Open at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club

Dan Vincent wins the Eastbourne Sovereign SC Musto Skiff Open © Ben Daigneault

Going into the Musto Skiff Eastbourne Open, it looked like it was going to be a tense battle between Danny (dog) Vincent and Andrew Tarboton, with Ben Schooling and the dark horse Richard Pelley as strong contenders.

After a breezy F5 on the Saturday, Andrew and Dan were indeed lying level on just 5 points having shared the wins between them. Dan showed ballistic speed upwind, finishing 3rd in race one even after a capsize. He probably didn't need to resort to germ warfare, but by infecting Andrew Tarboton overnight with the plague (that he in turn had caught off Pelley), sadly Andy could not continue and had to retire ill on the Sunday. This led to an emphatic win by Dan Vincent with just 7 points overall.

Ben Schooling sailed a consistent series to finish 2nd with Andrew Gould 3rd. Richard Pelley had a disastrous regatta: "A waste of all that boat speed" as one competitor was heard to comment. After leading race 5 with just a short downwind leg to the finish, he lost count of the number of laps (though it has to be said, it was only 2 laps!) so sailed happily upwind until he realised his mistake, then turned round and capsized inches from the line. This let David Annan take the win, followed by Andrew Gould in 2nd.

Dan Vincent wins the Eastbourne Sovereign SC Musto Skiff Open - photo © Ben Daigneault

With the wind building to force 5 in rolling Eastbourne waves, there were a lot of capsizes throughout the fleet. In the final race, it was neck and neck on the final run between Josh Belben who was gaining on Paul Molesworth. Paul then hit a wave, buried the bow and pitch-poled leading to an elegant swan dive into the water. Despite this setback, Paul had just enough in the bag to squeeze 5th overall with Josh in 6th.

Thanks to the race officer Gary Smith and all the team at Eastbourne for putting on a memorable competition in fantastic conditions.

Overall Results: