Illusion and 2.4m joint open meeting at Middle Nene Sailing Club

The first ever joint Open Meeting of the two national mini-keelboat classes Illusion and 2.4mR, originally planned for 9th November 2024, had to be postponed due to lack of wind. And with the winter pause at Middle Nene SC, the first opening in the 2025 calendar was Saturday, 5th April.

Not all contestants who were originally coming to last year's event could make the postponement date and so a slightly scaled-down fleet of seven Illusions and two 2.4mRs competed in a series of four races in gloriously sunny weather.

In a joint start the course set by Race Officer Mark Greer and his team took in the full size of the 150 acre lake with a strong north-easterly breeze delivering frequent gusts of up to 25mph. Even though the wave build-up at Middle Nene SC is not as high as it would be on the larger reservoirs, this was a good challenge for the small keelboats and their skippers, who made intensive use of their bilge pumps in the process.

Illusion and 2.4m joint open meeting at Middle Nene - start of race 2 - photo © David Livingstone

The faster handicap 2.4Rs (PY1244) invariably led the field versus the Illusions sailing under their provisional yardstick of 1363 (the Topper rating) and the visitors from Frensham Pond were subsequently the winners of the day. First home was Bruce Hill (9) and second Kate Headley (143). Among the Illusions the two lead boats 16 (Matt Yallop) and 82 (Tony Wright) battled it out over all four races with Matt eventually coming out tops, winning the glass Illusion Trophy of the Inland Champion for the 4th time in a row.

With deteriorating conditions, Hannah Livingstone (131) and Dave Jarvis (163) withdrew from the last race of the day, securing third and fourth place respectively, with Gary Livingstone (14), Wilf Kunze (108) and Jack Mead (4) taking places five to seven.

Illusion and 2.4m joint open meeting at Middle Nene - Hannah Livingstone sporting her new spinnaker - photo © David Livingstone

Following the prize-giving the traditional MNSC Fitting Out Dinner was served and the evening was rounded off with the odd drink in the club bar and later on MNSC's own campsite, where several competitors stayed overnight.

Considering the experimental nature of holding a joint meeting of the two national mini-keelboat classes, the event went very well indeed with no conflicts in the types of boat and very good sportsmanship throughout. For the official 2025 Open Meeting, to be held on 1st November, another joint event is planned, hopefully drawing in more of these exciting small yachts from other clubs nearby. Further details will be announced in the course of the year.

For any enquiries about the Open Meeting please contact and to find out more about MNSC, please visit www.middlenenesc.co.uk

Illusion and 2.4m joint open meeting at Middle Nene - photo © David Livingstone

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