Musto Skiffs report from the Ovington Inlands 2024 at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club © Paul Sanwell / OPP

The 2024 Ovington Inlands were held at Grafham Water where the sailors were greeted with sunshine but not a lot of wind. Thankfully, it filled in to a light but unstable 5-10 knots for the start of racing.

Race 1

Pascoe, true to form after a fantastic SailJuice Winter Series win, started strong and led from the start until the final run, where Ben Clegg and Sam Barker managed to sail past him, finishing in that order.

Race 2

Robbie Richardson and Ben Whaley hit the afterburners and disappeared off into the distance. This was until Pascoe flipped a coin and went to the opposite corner to sail around them both to take the win.

Race 3

Danny Boatman decided that the fastest way to start would be with the boat on its side with him swimming after it with 2-minutes to go. Mike Mathews led until he tied himself in knots at the leeward mark, with Pascoe inheriting the lead and Robbie chasing hard.

Barker was having the comeback of all comebacks after rounding the first windward deep in the pack and by the last run, was on Pascoe's transom to cross the line in 2nd.

Race 4

Ben Clegg led until he overstood the windward mark letting Pascoe through. The fast-charging Ben Whaley undid all his hard work with an untimely capsize just before the finish line.

Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

20 out of the 25 Musto Skiff fleet headed to the Wheatsheaf pub for a great dinner, beer, and most importantly, the rugby. Big thank you to Dave Annan for organising!

Day 2 met the fleet with drizzle and more shifty wind. We all met for breakfast at the club and whilst doing so, all entered for the Worlds in Weymouth this coming July.

Race 5

Eddie Bridle came out of the blocks the quickest to lead for 2 laps but let Robbie through on the last beat, and Pascoe through on the last run. Further back, a good tussle between Mike Mathews, Bill Maughan, Andy Tarboton, Fred Crudmore, Dan Vincent, Sam Barker, and Ben Whaley was ensuing.

Fast finishing Barker managed to sneak past the lot on the last run but all finished nose to tail, which goes to show how close the racing is right now!

Race 6

Robbie led from the start to 3/4 of the way down the last run but let Pascoe slip through for the win, and in doing so, won the Inland's with a race to spare. Not to be outdone, Andy Tarboton executed a perfect swan dive off the boat after crossing the finish line, which gave us all a good chuckle.

Race 7

Robbie led from Bill Maughan and Sam Pascoe at the first windward mark having gone up the left.
Robbie, Bill and the majority of the fleet gybe-set whereas Pascoe and Barker (who was late teens) straight set. These four rounded the leeward marks with Pascoe leading Barker to the right and Robbie leading Bill to the left. With the wind shifting right, the right paid and Pascoe led barker home to win the last race. Robbie nearly let Barker through into 2nd overall but just held on to finish 8th, which was enough to finish 2nd by 1 single point.

A couple of worthy mentions go to Chris Haslam for being the first person to use the new Musto X Mainsail in competition, finishing a respectable 21st, and to Alicia Biggs for her first event having stepped into the boat only a month ago! Good to see her improving throughout the weekend.

Thanks again to Grafham Water Sailing Club and to all their volunteers for making this yearly event run so smoothly.

Overall Results: