Wanderer open meeting at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club
by Dave Bardwell 13 Jun 2025 09:13 BST
10-11 May 2025
Nip and tuck on the start-line - Wanderer open meeting at West Oxfordshire SC © Stewart Eaton
Three visiting Wanderers and two from the home fleet took to the water as WOSC hosted their annual Joint Wayfarer and Wanderer Open Meeting.
Guy Lonsdale, the PRO for Saturday, had the unenviable job of holding a course together as a gentle North Easterly breeze an hour before veered by some 30 degrees for the first starting hooter.
As a welcome change from triangles and sausages with inflatable marks, the fleet were treated by the PRO to a double figure-of-eight course with two short beats, a medium length run with kite, and several reaches, one marginal for a spinnaker hoist.
Getting the shifts right on the beat, including whether to tack immediately on a header, or whether to sail on to stronger breeze, seemed to be more important than boat speed. In the first two races, Ian Simpson and Dave Bardwell kept clear air at the start and tacked off to port only when in the middle of the lake where the wind was consistently stronger.
Colin and Sally Gilbert were in hot pursuit in both cases, and managed to slip through in the second race on the final beat. Alex Nairac and Mike Lewington were starting to get into the groove, posting two third places.
Meanwhile, WOSC member Mike Bellew had invoked a cunning plan to ship aboard Cotswold SC ace helmswoman and crew Leonie Miliner, but whilst they held off Steve Nott and Colin Houseman in every race, they never quite laid a finger on the Nairac/Lewington partnership.
After fortifying themselves on the club's delicious chicken and chorizo stew, the fleet lined up for the third and final race on Saturday.
Again, Simpson and Bardwell got away cleanly, but were swiftly hauled back by first Nairac and Lewington, and then by the Gilberts. After a number of place changes between these first three boats, Simpson and Bardwell were forced to retire after a port and starboard infringement with the Gilberts at the second windward mark, leaving Nairac and Lewington clear to take the chequered flag.
This left the Gilberts as overnight leaders on five points and with one hand on the Inlands trophy, Nairac and Lewington nicely poised on seven points, and with Simpson and Bardwell lagging behind on nine points with a mountain to climb to retain the silverware. Bellew and Miliner were scrapping it out with Nott and Houseman on eleven and fourteen points respectively, for fourth place.
Both Wanderer and Wayfarer fleets returned to the fray on Sunday, after a hearty Fish and Chips supper on Saturday night at the clubhouse.
With Sunday dawning bright and sunny, with a gentle but shifty Easterly blowing, PRO John Paul Wiliams skilfully laid a fiendish round-the-cans course to trap the unwary.
For race 4, and after some overnight rig tuning to improve pointing upwind, Nott and Houseman were neck and neck with Simpson and Bardwell at the windward mark, only to round it the wrong way and thus take home the wooden spoon.
With the Gilberts chasing hard but eventually letting Nairac and Lewington through, they knew that only a first place in the fifth and final race would do.
However, with the Gilberts failing to cover on the start line for the last hooter, Simpson and Bardwell sneaked through to pull out a lead which was never challenged to the finish.
Both Wanderer and Wayfarer fleets expressed their thanks to the event organisers, Race Officers, safety boats and galley crews for yet another superb open meeting at such a friendly and hospitable club.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 1004 | Ian Simpson | Dave Bardwell | Tudor SC | 1 | 2 | (RTD) | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 1819 | Colin Gilbert | Sally Gilbert | Grafham SC | 2 | 1 | 2 | ‑3 | 2 | 7 |
| 3 | 1622 | Alex Nairac | Mike Lewington | WOSC | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | ‑4 | 9 |
| 4 | 676 | Mike Bellew | Leonie Miliner | WOSC | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | ‑5 | 15 |
| 5 | 1841 | Steve Nott | Colin Houseman | Grafham SC | 5 | 5 | 4 | ‑5 | 3 | 17 |