Musto Skiffs in the 2022 Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club
by Dan Vincent 25 Mar 2022 12:20 GMT
19-20 March 2022
Dan Trotter in the Musto Skiffs during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham © Paul Sanwell / OPP
The quick summary of the Musto Skiff inlands is that Pete Greenhalgh won, based on a dominant display in the bright and very breezy conditions of Saturday (Easterly wind, 20-25 kts). This confident and rust-free performance gave him a comfortable buffer over the chasing pack that allowed him to take victory from a consistent Andy Tarboton despite a difficult Sunday in very shifty and variable lighter wind.
The detail is that this was a fantastic season-opening event for 27 sailors emerging from a stormy winter of boat-park hibernation and coming out blinking into the sunshine of a beautiful weekend in Cambridgeshire.
Key Highlights:
- Everyone swam at least once on Saturday (even Pete Greenhalgh, although he still managed to win all 4 races). I personally capsized in every race and was still in 5th place overnight!
- It was nice for the fleet to celebrate with Serega Samus @toofittobeold as he turned 60 at the event. This sextengarian is the only Musto Skiff sailor (or sailor of any class that I know of) who is capable of physical challenges, such as flying superman burpees, you can follow his exploits on YouTube. Anyway, he became an official 'Legend' on Saturday (Legend is the aptly named over-60 Musto Skiff age-category).
- Guy Rivington sailed a brilliant race on Sunday to score his maiden victory at an Open Meeting.
- It was a pleasure to sail on the same course as the 505 fleet who all showed a deep understanding of how difficult it is to steer and control a Musto Skiff downwind in 25 knot gusts, when you can't see anything in front of you (they gave us a pretty wide berth). Of note: the top four 505s all included a top current or former Musto sailor in the boat.
Thanks to Grafham Water Sailing Club and their race team who put on a great event, with a very quick turnaround of races. Inland sailing at its best.
The lucky few are now off to Palma for some warm weather training and the Princess Sofía Regatta. The rest of us will try and ignore the overwhelming FOMO as we train hard for the next domestic event, which is at Stokes Bay Open on 23/24 April.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 609 | Peter Greenhalgh | Warsash Sailing Club | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 | (BFD) | 17 |
| 2nd | 590 | Andy Tarboton | Henley Midmar Yacht Club | ‑7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 21 |
| 3rd | 622 | Dan Vincent | Stokes Bay/ RNSA | 4 | 5 | ‑12 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 32 |
| 4th | 624 | Eddie Bridle | Brightlingsea Sailing Club | 2 | 4 | 9 | 7 | (OCS) | 5 | 5 | 32 |
| 5th | 616 | Dave Poston | Medway Yacht Club | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 17 | ‑22 | 40 |
| 6th | 556 | Bill Maughan | Sunderland Yacht Club | 8 | ‑15 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 13 | 46 |
| 7th | 574 | Jason Rickards | CVLSC | 3 | 14 | 5 | 9 | ‑22 | 8 | 8 | 47 |
| 8th | 627 | Ben Schooling | Stokes Bay Sailing Club | 11 | 10 | 6 | (DNC) | 8 | 10 | 3 | 48 |
| 9th | 297 | George Cousins | Restronguet SC | 10 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 13 | ‑15 | 6 | 54 |
| 10th | 610 | Daniel Trotter | SYC | 19 | 6 | (RTD) | 3 | 7 | 7 | 16 | 58 |
| 11th | 629 | Brian Greensmith | Sunderland Yacht Club | 13 | ‑17 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 66 |
| 12th | 432 | Sam Barker | Castle Cove SC | (DNS) | 18 | 14 | DNC | 5 | 4 | 1 | 70 |
| 13th | 469 | Nathan Stanier | Stoke Bay sailing Club/ Seafarers sailin | 12 | ‑16 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 73 |
| 14th | 614 | Ben Clegg | Brightlingsea Sailing Club | 9 | 12 | 13 | (DNC) | OCS | 9 | 4 | 75 |
| 15th | 628 | Danny Boatman | Sunderland Yacht Club | 18 | 13 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 16 | ‑21 | 81 |
| 16th | 594 | Richard Smith | Medway Yacht Club | (DNF) | 22 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 7 | 82 |
| 17th | 582 | Paul Molesworth | Stokes Bay Sailing Club | 6 | 21 | (DNC) | DNC | 1 | 19 | 14 | 89 |
| 18th | 535 | David Annan | Grafham Water Sailing Club | 17 | 8 | 11 | (DNC) | 19 | 22 | 17 | 94 |
| 19th | 561 | Brennan Robinson | Grafham Water Sailing Club | 16 | 11 | 18 | 14 | 16 | 20 | (BFD) | 95 |
| 20th | 588 | Andrew Whittle | Brightlingsea Sailing Club | 14 | 9 | 10 | (DNC) | 23 | 21 | 19 | 96 |
| 21st | 216 | Guy Rivington | Stokes Bay Sailing Club | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 18 | 1 | 20 | 123 |
| 22nd | 90 | Jamie Freeman | Brightlingsea Sailing Club | 15 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 20 | 24 | 9 | 124 |
| 23rd | 547 | Serega Samus | Bewl Water | (DNS) | 20 | RTD | DNC | 15 | 23 | 18 | 132 |
| 24th | 300 | Mark Addison | Upper Thames Sailing Club | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 21 | 18 | 11 | 134 |
| 25th | 253 | Joseph trotter | Drsc | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 17 | DNC | DNC | 157 |
| 26th | 113 | Ian Stone | Maidenhead Sailing Club | (DNC) | 19 | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 159 |
| 27th | 376 | D Rickard | Gurnard SC | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 168 |