RS Elite Crabbers Nip Open Winter Series at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Ossie Stewart and crew Ian Jubb first, Pete Copsey third in the RS Elite Crabbers Nip © Paul Fisk

Ossie Stewart and crew sailing RS Elite More T Vicar have won Hayling Island Sailing Club's Crabbers Nip Trophy for the second year running.

Ossie originally presented the trophy, which is named after his house and is awarded for Hayling Island's open winter series for RS Elites. More T Vicar's win ensures that the trophy will return home for another year.

Racing took place on Sundays in November and December 2019. Some races inevitably fell afoul of the unpredictable weather at the tail end of year, with one race cancelled due to insufficient wind and two races cancelled due to far too much wind. In the end a total of five races were sailed. Typically for the highly competitive RS Elite fleet the results were extremely close, after allowing for discards. Second place was taken by Tom Hewitson, making a return to the RS Elite fleet and sailing Shaken not Stirred as guest helm, and third by Pete Copsey and crew sailing The Doctor. Both of these boats finished with five points, compared to More T Vicar's four and Shaken not Stirred gained second place on countback.

The weather was a bit of a mixed bag for the days on which racing was possible. The first three races were held in fairly light conditions, with winds mainly from the west in the first race on November 3rd and north easterlies in the next two. The next race, scheduled for November 24th was cancelled due to lack of wind and the fleet reconvened on December 1st for a race held in a good breeze of up to 20 knots from the north east. The next two races were lost due to strong winds preventing the boats being launched an the final race was held in a brisk westerly wind with gusts of 20 knots or more.

Overall Results: