Wayfarer Craftinsure National Series Open at Datchet Water Sailing Club

Wayfarer Open at Datchet Water © DWSC

Wayfarer Open at Datchet Water © DWSC

Four visiting teams joined three home boats for the first event in the Craftinsure National Series of 2025 at Datchet Water. They enjoyed a weekend of sunny but challenging conditions with the predominantly Easterly breeze showing big variations in both direction and strength.

Some vicious squalls, some reaching 20 knots, and coming from unpredictable directions, caused plenty of alarms for the crews, with several in the fleet discovering that the warm air temperature contrasted with seriously wintry water temperatures.

The racing was very tight, with judgement of the next wind shift more important than upwind boat speed; most of the fleet had a race where they arrived at the first mark in either first or second place, having picked the right way to go.

Overall, only two points separated first from third, but coming out on top were John Clementson and Mel Titmus with three race wins. Their downwind speed usually allowed them to recover when they were caught by a bad shift, or to squeeze past a rival.

Second overall were Guy Marks and Sam Boniface who sailed to a commanding lead in the first race and also won the last having been first to the big shift on the second beat. A point behind were Andrew and Tom Wilson who manged to lose race four from a seemingly safe position as they watched their opposition reach into the final windward mark on a mega-left shift. They recovered to win race five, but this was their sole victory.

Scoring five fourth places, the prize for consistency goes to newcomers to the circuit, the father and son Will Wallis's. They were usually in contention at the first mark, but were a bit off the pace of the top three.

The key for the remaining placings was being able to finish races upright. Derek and Howard managed two swims on Saturday, and followed this with a gear issue that kept them ashore for Sunday's first two races. Conrad and Martin sailed cautiously, but were still beaten in a couple of races by the gusty conditions. Beating both these crews were the Townsend father/daughter team whose fifth race capsize ended with an inversion, and the centreboard dropping down into its casing.

Many thanks are due to Race Officer Mike Beckett and his assistants, for providing some great courses with minimal delays between races, and also to the safety boat teams who had a busy weekend watching over us.

Overall Results: