Osprey Open at Mumbles Yacht Club

Mumbles Osprey Open © Annick Wilks

As the National Championship at Mount's Bay fast approaches, seven teams gathered at Mumbles for some last-minute racing ahead of what promises to be a big four days in Cornwall next week, with significantly more wind than we had in Swansea Bay this weekend.

Saturday had the most promising forecast, which was better than expected, resulting in four great races in 8-10 knots. Sunday looked like it was going to be better for waterskiing or eFoiling. For those who don't know about this sport, don't be fooled by the name - it isn't a Yorkshire version of fencing! (See appendix below for more on what I think about alternative water sports to sailing.)

Turning to my preferred topic, the people, this weekend was no different to any other in terms of amusing behaviour or activities away from the water. I will come back to the on-the-water stuff later.

Some of you may know that Oscar and Lisa Chess have spent the last year or so remodelling their home of 30 years, which looks over the Bristol Channel towards Ilfracombe in North Devon.

It is the most fantastic spot, and the house looks like something from the pages of a "Homes by the Sea" supplement of Country Life. There are no pictures of the house publicly available for this article, so you will have to wait until the house, and gardens are open to the public to see it for yourself.

That said, I wanted to point out some of the more interesting and surprising features that stood out for me on my first visit this weekend.

Before even entering the house, one is taken aback by the sheer size of Oscar's door knob - I have never seen one so large, and to turn it you need to use both hands. The jury is out on whether it will survive the test of time - my guess is it will need replacing because Lisa has taken to going through the back door due to the size of this new door furniture. Roz Downs said she found it equally difficult to use, so it isn't just Lisa who has an issue with its size. I'm sure this will be picked up on the snagging list!

Another standout feature is the wonderful full-height sliding doors, which run the full width of the extension to maximise the view across to Devon. Those who were lucky enough to get the call-up for a nightcap avec Oscar and Lisa on Saturday night witnessed Dave Griffiths demonstrate how effective the doors were at keeping people out.

As the sun set and the air cooled, we all came back into the house. A couple of minutes later, reminiscent of Mr Bean or Peter Sellers, there was a loud thud as Dave attempted to enter the house through the unopened side of the doors, which he had failed to spot was closed - no damage was done other than a bruised nose and a temporary ban from Beaufort Avenue for Dave until he has done some more basic training on entering a house through an open door. With hindsight, he would have been better off trying the unfeasibly large knob at the front!

Other excitements this weekend included the arrival of Mr Priddle's new VW camper van, which he was allowed to park on Oscar and Lisa's drive, all newly and immaculately finished with resin-bonded aggregate. The rules for parking here were very strict: no oil leaks, no hard-lock turning of the wheels, no shoes and definitely no emptying the potty down the drain!

Now for some sailing!

The race officer put on four excellent races on Saturday afternoon, with two laps per race so we could get them all in. All four races were extremely close across all seven boats entered. The wind was swinging about like mad, so picking the right side of the beat was critical.

Dave Griffiths & Maurice Clarke showed us the way with two 1sts and two 2nds, demonstrating good boat speed off the line and an ability to pick the shifts well. Alex & Nick Willis were also going well, taking race 2 and a couple of 2nds in races 1 and 4.

Mumbles Osprey Open - photo © Annick Wilks

Mike Priddle and I managed to sneak to the front in race 3 once we'd worked out it was better not to sail all the way to the port lay line from the start - once going 100 yards past it! More training needed!

Sunday was a write-off, sadly, due to lack of wind, which allowed us all plenty of time to poke around the boat park to find out the latest set-up tips from the front of the fleet.

Surprisingly, we discovered that Dave Griffiths chose not to attach his strut to the mast, preferring just to have it resting against it without a pin involved. When asked about this, Maurice pointed the finger at Dave, which I believed, given that if he can't be trusted to walk through an open door, he is even less likely to rig the boat properly - more boat rigging training for Dave!

Mumbles Osprey Open - photo © Annick Wilks

Oscar also had time to clean up 1348, which is white, ahead of the Nationals, knowing the previous owner, Mr Pickering, was coming to inspect his old boat. Mr Pickering and Mike Priddle achieved their best Nationals result of 3rd overall at Parkstone back when God was a boy in 1348 so it holds some happy memories.

Oscar showed us why he was such a brilliant chemistry teacher and always kept his pupils engaged and interested. He had mixed up a special potion available only to ex-chemists and encouraged everyone to gather round and watch carefully.

The boat had developed a rather nasty sallow yellow tinge. "Watch carefully" was the instruction, and he used a floor mop to apply the potion. "Nothing happening, Mr Chess", was the cry from the audience. "Just wait", said Mr Chess - lo and behold, the boat turned back to its original bright white before our eyes - amazing chemistry in action! I will leave you all to guess what the potion was, or you could ask Mr Chess at the next chemistry lesson!

Mumbles Osprey Open - photo © Annick Wilks

Thank you to all at Mumbles Sailing Club for a wonderful weekend - it's the most fantastic spot and only the second time I've sailed at Mumbles, and I love it. I hope we are back with you next year for another open meeting on the Welsh Riviera!

Postscript

I forgot to mention above something that probably needs an entire article devoted to it: the state of Oscar's garage! Lisa is banned from entering; in fact, you can't enter - it is crammed with model planes, model yachts, model tanks (we had a demo), and a myriad of other sailing and surfing related kit. This is the domain of someone who has taken his retirement very seriously and is having the best time doing what he loves. I applaud you for this Oscar but...!

Appendix

eFoiling has a healthy following in Mumbles, which is great to see. It also has a slight sailing angle to it when the wind blows and out come the wings! Adapting sailing clubs so they move with the times is what will keep clubs going, with new members joining up to do their version of water sports. It may be different to sailing Ospreys or other classes but having new people in clubs seeing what else is happening will at least keep the more traditional sailing visible to a potential new audience. Diversification is key to survival - that said, we don't love jet skis - far too noisy!

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