Paul Mannings's report from the Tiger Trophy 2008

18 Musto Skiffs enter the 2008 Tiger Trophy making us the biggest adult class

For those who did not come to the Tiger Trophy, I'm pretty sure it started off as the biggest Tiger to date.

Big respect for all those who sailed and it was good to see a couple of 700 sailors joining in with the class on the après sail front, as well as on the water.

Along with a couple of hundred spectators, Chris Henderson and I were greatly entertained. The biggest source of interest was watching a capsized RS300 drift past where we were standing with nobody in it...and an International Canoe which slowly sank 200m offshore. It was like watching Jaws, with the bloke trying to keep out of the water…

However, this was all overshadowed by Kit, who whilst racing, stopped and picked up a boatless sailing bobbing in the middle of the race course, put them back on their boat, and then carried on racing... Oh, did I mention that this part of the race course had 250 odd boats mostly only just in control blasting down a reach in 25knots of wind!

Needless to say it was bitterly cold and windy, so even more respect for those who did all the races.

Congratulations to Sten for his 3rd place overall out of some 250 entries...

Following last weekends event, I guess he is thinking someone up there has a thing going against him at the moment, but I'm pretty sure the rest of us are impressed.

I don’t know what I can recall of each individual race, but the fast handicap fleet of some 100 boats ranging from Foiling Moths to Fireballs seemed to be lead frequently by either eventual overall winner Graham Viles sailing his Foiling Moth (nice bloke and deserved winner), Sten, Andy Peake of Simon Hiscocks in his 49er. I’m pretty sure none of them can confidentially say they were in control, but they were clearly more in control than everyone else!

Meanwhile Chris and I had walked to near the dame from the club, about ½ mile, so we had to site down for a bit. After 1 hour of hiding behind a tree, we decided it was getting a bit chilly, so we went back to the club. Chris and I had a coffee and I had a particularly nice Danish pastry.

We then had to leave the club, and help pack boats up as they came ashore. By this point Kit didn’t seem to understand English and Andy Peake was muttering something about having to buy a pony for his better half!

The pursuit race on Sunday was similar conditions, and as ever drew a big crowd of spectators, as the course passes in front of the club on two legs. The wind had swung southerly, but not dropped or warmed up. It was now just really gusty! It was a bit like watching a film with the crowd shouting out with excitement as boats wiped out. It was great to watch :-)

Results >>>