Phantom class at the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Phantoms during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water © Paul Sanwell / OPP

Grafham Water hosted the Ovington Inlands event over the weekend of Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th March. The event was shared with the OKs, Fireflys, Flying Fifteens, 505s and Musto Skiffs on two separate courses, with the ten Phantoms that entered sharing the course nearest the clubhouse with 25 OKs and 12 Fireflys.

The format for the event was for four races back-to-back on Saturday with a further three, again back-to-back, on Sunday - with six races to count. The weather forecast was for 10-15 knots on Saturday, from a very chilly NE direction and slightly less on the Sunday. Wind chill was definitely there with actual temperatures probably being below zero - or at least it certainly felt like it!

Of those that had entered and actually turned up on the day, only one boat had been to the event at Ardleigh the previous weekend so the usual bookies snouts review at the Muzzle & Leash wasn't felt to be indicative of current form or worth a visit! So instead, the "low" odds were on those that had actually done some winter sailing (notably Adam Froggatt and Sam Coxon from Chase) and those that could never be discounted from getting their noses in front (Rob Cook from Northampton and "Magic" Mike Webster who now sails under the esteemed burgee of Castle Cove).

So into Race 1 and it was indeed Adam, Sam and Rob who quickly took to the front with Sam taking the bullet, Rob in second and Adam third. Behind them was a sizeable gap and after some place changes on the first downwind leg, Andy Smith settled into fourth but was eventually pipped on the final leg by Magic Mike.

Race 2 followed a very similar outcome and indeed set the established order for most of the weekend. This time Adam took the gun, with Sam 2nd and Rob 3rd - and Mike diddled Andy again on the final leg, largely thanks to us catching-up a gaggle of OK's at the final downwind gate prior to the finish.

Phantoms during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

After a general recall and then a lengthy wait for the OK fleet to clear the downwind gate, Race 3 saw a complete changing of the guard. Matt Reynolds from the home club in his elderly Vandercraft ship read the shifts well, finally found some downwind speed and took the win with Sam second and Adam third.

At this point I should point out that it really was properly cold and also quite windy, so there were a few absentees for Race 4 - Sam was protecting a recent injury, Jeremy Deacon had broken his kicker for the second time that day, Yossi had already suffered a broken mast in Race 2, Magic Mike realised that he actually had forgotten how to sail having not been in the boat since last May and Gareth Thomas later reported that a combination of his physical fitness and age made him realise that the boat is perhaps no longer for him!

So we had only five boats on the line - Rob did a complete horizon job, Adam finished second and Matt followed-up with a useful third.

So overnight Sam had a slender one-point lead from both Adam and Rob now that the discard had kicked in, so all to play for on Sunday. However, only seven boats made the race track as Magic Mike was self-declared as "a broken man" and decided to call it a day "until the weather gets a bit warmer".

Phantoms during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

Race 5, slightly less breeze than Saturday and probably 1-2 degrees less cold, Rob continued where he left off and did another horizon job. Jeremy and Matt were both upfront to begin with but Matt fell away quite early and Adam finally caught Jeremy on the final leg to get second with Jeremy third.

Race 6 was a repeat of Race 2 with Adam taking the win, Sam second and Rob third. Jeremy followed up with a useful 4th, mainly thanks to Mike's suggestion at breakfast that he needed more rake - two pins down on the shrouds evidently did the trick...

The only real points of interest in Race 7 was that we had to wait for the OKs to have two general recalls, it was still close between Adam, Rob and Sam for the overall podium positions and those of us in the middle order didn't really have enough fingers and toes to accurately work out who might end up fifth overall and the coveted privilege of writing this report... except that I had an inkling it might be me, given that I'd already posted 5,5,6,5,6,7 across the previous races and most of my nearby competitors had suffered worse results and/or retirements... and so it proved!

I really must learn to either sail better (or worse) as I also had to do three reports last year too!

Anyway, onto the race itself and Adam got his nose in front after the second windward leg and never looked back to win the final race by a comfortable distance and the event. Sam got yet another second but it wasn't quite enough to beat Rob overall, who finished with yet another third.

All in all it was an excellent weekend's racing and a really good event - just a shame that we didn't have more boats there.

There's now a short break in our calendar until the first weekend in April when it's the one-day Welsh Champs at Llandegfedd on Saturday 5th April, the first event of the SW Regional Circuit and also a two-day event at Stone on Sat 5th/Sun 6th April, the first of the nationwide Super Series events and also the first of the Eastern Regional Circuit. We look forward to seeing more boats at these events.

Overall Results: