I was told by Paul Manning that I might just be "yoof- ful" enough to understand the nickname for the boat used by younger sailors. Apparently if you hear the name "Musser" or "Mussie" that is a reference to the MPS. Perhaps we Essex boys should bling up the boats!

Subscription renewal time has rolled around again, details can be found later in the newsletter and we would encourage you to pay up sooner rather than later please. The fixture list for the new season looks excellent and I hope to see many of you travelling around the circuit during the year. An early opportunity to meet up with the class will be at Alexandra Palace for the sailboat exhibition in March, come and see us on the stand for a chat if you are there.

It has been great to see that the class has been well represented at events over the holidays, 5 MPS raced at Thorpe Bay on 27th December and 5 others also entered the Grafham Grand Prix on 2nd January, well done Bov for another 2nd place, perhaps next year.

The days are getting longer again and the warmer weather is on its way. All the best for the new season.

Paul Clarke GBR 176 - It's Not A Van!

Fixture List Finalised

The full 2005 MPS Fixture list has now been published on-line. The committee has worked hard to provide an attractive fixture list which this year attempts to provide fewer events which will provide bigger attendances.

The highlight of the year is of course the Gold Cup and if you click on the link on the fixture list you will see all the travel details. If you want to book a spot on one of the big trailers and fly down you'd better do it now.

The UK Nationals this year will also be the Europeans so we hope many of the overseas sailors will join the UK fleet to get yet another record attendance.

In the UK the travellers circuit is shown in red and the Scottish GP Circuit shown in blue.

Read the full fixture list >>>

UK Dinghy Exhibition

This year the UK Dinghy Exhibition takes place on March 5 & 6th; the Musto Skiff Stand will be there in full force so we hope to see you all at the show.

This marks the start of the UK season for those softies who don't sail their MPS's all year round. That includes me!!

If you book your tickets in advance you will save a few pounds. The RYA flyer is on the MPS website.

Read RYA flyer (600k file) >>

Grafham GP - 2 Jan 2005

Five Musto Skiffs made the journey to Grafham Water for the 2005 Grafham Grand Prix on a very cold and windy January day.

The first race saw Ian Turnbull hit the front in spectacular style to lead from start to finish with Kev Anderson hot on his heals. Unfortunately for Ian the race was shortened before Kev started his last lap. This meant that Ian did a lap more and a capsize meant that on average lap times he lost the race even though Kev followed him around the last lap and was never in front. Now how lucky is that !!!!!!! The big Jessy (a.k.a. Graeme Oliver) bailed out because of some left over flu, Tim Chapman managed a credible 13th and the new bloke on the block Will Crocker was 10th and showed some great potential.

The second race saw Kev dominate from start and almost to the finish but he managed to pull the head off his main sail 100m from the finish line and had to be towed in. (A trifle unlucky as he had survived a collision with a 49er coming down wind at 20 knots) This left it open for Bov but yet again he was piped at the post by a Dart 16. The Big Jessie had not gone out for the second race, Tim managed to finish in 7th place and Will retired due to the gale force wind and extreme cold.

Final positions were.

Bov- 2rd
Tim- 7th
Kev- 8th
Will- 13th

A fantastic sail was had by all but it was a bit cold, like ...

Kev Anderson. Musto 166 Trident

2004 Circuit Winner is presented with the MPS Half Model

Richard Stenhouse again walked off with the UK circuit in 2004 as was detailed by the money list in last month's issue.

The trophy for the UK circuit is a fine MPS half-model donated to the class by Musto Skiff main-man Paul Manning.

In a private ceremony Sten was awarded the trophy again by Kit. Well done Richard - can you do it again in 2005?

Please renew your Class Association Membership NOW!!!

The Musto Skiff Class Association membership renewals are now due. As you all no doubt know we have a great benefits package for our members and we hope all owners join ASAP.
Please don't leave it to the first open meeting to join as that creates a lot of administration "on the spot" so please do it sooner rather than later.

Join the class association NOW >>