|  Close
Musto Skiff Racing at Derwent Reservoir
Photos by Norman Tait
There was plenty of close racing throughout
the fleet in the Musto Skiff Open at Derwent over 13/14
May, and people travelled from far-a-field (Lymington
& Stone in the South & Largs & Dalgety Bay
in the North), despite the poor weather forecast.
In a light & shifty force 2 on Saturday,
local hero Ian Trotter (Derwent) made a slow start with
a 6th in the first race, and then bounced back to win
both the other races, whereas Richard Stenhouse (Rutland)
was more consistent with a first and two seconds. However,
these results were only achieved after close battles
with other sailors, most notably Stephen Lowe (South
Shields), who led for most of two races in the oldest
boat of the fleet (056), but faded towards the end -
mostly due to inexperienced boat-on-boat tactics as
the leaders closed-in. Ian Renilson (Dalgety Bay) also
featured, leading the first race for a while and contending
with the leaders in the others. Kit Stenhouse (Rutland)
also sailed well and was very consistent with 3 fourth
places.
 On
Sunday the forecast of lighter winds was completely
wrong, with a good force 3 blowing straight down the
lake, and this built a little during the day. Ian Trotter
looked to be in a strong position when he won the first
race of the day to make it 3 bullets in a row. But Richard
Stenhouse was second in the first race and fought back
to win the second race, which meant that the overall
result went down to the last race - in which Sten started
well and covered Trotter closely to win the race and
ensure overall Ovingtonsy by just one point. Others featuring
strongly on Sunday were: Kit Stenhouse (Rutland) who
seemed to improve all weekend in her brand-new boat
‘Iron Maiden’ - she led for much of the last race, but
wasn’t able to stop her other half from passing and
finished second; Ian Renilson - who had a good lead
in the first race, only to miss a gust downwind that
let the leaders through; and Andy Bunyan (Largs), who
also improved over the weekend and was contesting the
lead in the last two races. John Evans (Derwent) was
also going well in the stronger winds of Sunday.
The overall results were:
1 Richard Stenhouse Rutland 1 2 2 2 1 1 7
2 Ian Trotter Derwent 6 1 1 1 2 3 8
3 Ian Renilson Dalgety Bay 2 3 3 3 4 4 15
4 Kit Stenhouse Rutland 4 4 4 4 3 2 17
5 Andy Bunyan Largs 7 7 8 6 5 5 30
6 Stephen Lowe South Shields 3 6 7 8 7 8 31
7 John Evans Derwent 10 9 9 5 6 6 35
8 Ti m Chapman Rutland 8 8 5 7 8 7 35
9 Ross Hunter Derwent 9 12 6 10 9 10 44
10 Gareth Davies Stone 5 5 10 13 13 13 46
11 Paul Davies Derwent 11 10 11 9 10 9 49
12 Bill Smith Lymington 12 11 12 11 11 11 56
 The
racing was close and good natured - very tactical in
the shifty winds - and loads of fun. And there was a
fantastic band on Saturday night to celebrate Kevin
Anderson’s big birthday (surely you’ve not forgotten
Kev-like already - National Champion 2004).
Photos by Norman Tait are available on
the DRSC web site:
http://www.drsc.co.uk
Go to the ‘Photogallery’. If you find a photo you like
double-click the image to open a high-quality image.
The resolution is lower if you save the image directly
from the Photogallery.
Ian Renilson
GBR128
Dalgety Bay Sailing Club |
