3rd Creeks Open at Wilsonian Sailing Club

The 3rd Creeks Open, hosted by Wilsonian Sailing Club on 11th August, attracted 31 entries, including six Wayfarers from Medway Y.C and two Bosuns from Royal Engineers Y.C. The race is sailed on the top of the tide and the force 2 – 3 southwesterly gave excellent sailing conditions for the challenging course through the Medway Creeks.

The Ospreys of John Shenton/Ricky Knight and Chris Ashby/Tim Kift, the RS 400’s of Mark/Paul Heather and John Parsons/Bryan Dunmall and Tony Hunt/Peter Wolstenholme (Fireball) contested the lead in the early stages. But by the final reach to the line Hunt/Wolstenholme had established a clear lead to finish three minutes ahead of Shenton/Knight for victory to lift the Philip Holmes Trophy. Meanwhile, Wayfarer ace Richard Stone with crew Suzanne Millar, was leading the other eight Wayfarers home by 10 minutes for runners-up spot on corrected time, pushing Shenton/Knight into third place. The battle between the RS 300’s of Chris Mason and Nick Lett was won by the former for fourth prize. A close contest developed between the Laser 2000’s of Roy Winnett/Andrew Smith and David Vettergreen/Stan Sprot on the concluding down wind leg but Winnett/Smith managed ease over the line by a two second margin for fifth and six prizes respectively.

Neil Lamprell (Phantom) had been in contention for honours but was forced to retire on the final leg when the clew fitting on his main sail came adrift.

Overall Results: