Felpham Open - 14-15 April 2007

Sun, flat seas and sizzling temperatures were the conditions provided by the good folk from Felpham sailing club for the Musto Skiff open event held over the weekend of the 14/15 April. The wind however was not so willing to please. The light and fickle offshore gradient breeze was always going to struggle against the probability of a sea breeze kicking in as the temperatures increased during the day. Under these conditions the race team did a great job of providing six good races over the weekend.

The racing on Saturday saw a bit of everything. In the first race the gradient breeze was strong enough to allow the competitors to trapeze upwind. The second race saw the thermal breeze take over mid way through turning the fleet inside out, and the for the third race the thermal breeze was just holding the upper hand.

The difficult condition did not prevent the racing being dominated the usual suspects. Richard Stenhouse and Rick Perkins were the class of the field on Saturday. Stenhouse ended the day with a 2-1-2 to lead overnight. Perkins showed great form in the first race to recover from an indifferent start to take the win overhauling Stenhouse in the process. He ended the day in second place with a 1-2-7. Further down the fleet the scoring was a little less consistent, but never-the-less it was the more attractive half of the Stenhouse family, Kit, who was the best of the rest holding third place overnight.

The conditions were much the same on Sunday morning, except the offshore gradient breeze was even weaker and there was an interesting shore break (which according to Alex Koukourakis was caused by something!! thanks Alex) which would have made launching fun. A few palm trees and it could have been Hawaii.

After a couple of hour’s waiting ashore and with a fickle sea breeze starting to appear the fleet were reluctantly called out to join the poor, slowly frying race team. Great work by the Felpham SC beach team made launching through the surf a breeze. The fleet however was in truculent mood; it took a number of general recalls to get each of the three races away. It was either a very patient Race officer or he had left the black flag ashore.

Stenhouse (Richard) picked up where he left off the previous day scoring 1-5-1, enough to take the day and the overall win: good work from the “big” man in the light conditions.

Second on the day and taking third overall was newcomer to the fleet, Jenny Wales ( known as Jerry during the week) who followed up his/her first in the last race on Saturday with a 7-4-2 and perhaps should have done better in the last race having had a good lead round the first mark in the one lap race.

Perkins was having a more difficult day; he scored an uncharacteristic 15th in the first race but came back strongly with a win followed by a 6th place in the last. That was only good enough for 4th on the day, but he had done enough on Saturday to secure second overall.

Kit Stenhouse followed up her strong performance of the previous day with a consistent 6-7-4, 3rd on the day and fourth for the event.

Felpham sailing club did a great job hosting the event, particularly on the water by the race team, and by the beach team assisting launching and recovery, a big thanks from all the competitors.

There is currently a real surge in interest in the Musto skiff; over 40 boats have been sold since last October. A number of folk have crossed over from the RS 700 and the race within the race amongst the ex 700’s was emphatically won by Jerry Wales. The main reason for the increased interest is the class’s’ first official world championship being held on the fantastic Lake Garda in just two months time. The anticipation is already at fever pitch and building. If you have a Musto Skiff you will want to be there, if you haven’t beg or borrow one and if you can’t take the time off, quit!

GPS Replay from Race 1 >>> (Chaps - if you get your self a S10 from Paul @ VB we can overlay the tracks from other boats and see who gained where ...)

Full Results with race placings >>>

Short form results below