Reports and News 2005

The Dave Ovington Memorial Trophy The final event of the Musto Skiff UK Travellers circuit was held at Grafham water over the 5th & 6th November, with Saturday's racing being held as part of the Dave Ovington Memorial Trophy. It was good to see a strong 20 boat turn out. Saturday's racing was held with mixed fleet of Musto Skiff's & B14's starting of the same start line. With a tight schedule of races to get through, all races were started under the black flag which caught out a few over eager competitors (Me). Racing was over a square course with shifty conditions which made for interesting and difficult reaches which saw many sailors swimming into windward. Race one was won by Ian Trotter with Richard Stenhouse 2nd, Graeme Oliver 3rd, & Martin Boatman 4th. In Race 2 Ian Trotter again mastered the conditions to lead Richard, & Graeme home with Ant Chapman taking 4th. With the breeze picking up a bit for last race 3 Sten stretched his legs and took the win from Oliver 2nd, Dave Poston 3rd, and Trotter 4th. The main event of the weekend was the Saturday night party Read the full report >>>

Dedicated Forum for Musto Skiff goes live. We now have a dedicated forum for you all to share your knowledge with others. Enjoy the forum >>> here is a guide to using forums if this is new to you

Raiders from South of the boarder take the title. MUSTO RYA Scotland Champion of Champions. Richard Stenhouse was the worthy Ovingtons of the MUSTO RYA Scotland Champion of Champions - this is the first time a visitor from South of the border has ever won this invitation-only event in it’s 25+ year history. Read more >>>

19 Skiffs at the Lake Zug (SUI) Open. 19 Musto Performance Skiff’s from Switzerland, Austria and Italy met over the weekend 15-16th October at Lake Zug south of Zurich. Skiffs had been practising on Friday in brilliant sunshine and a good breeze, but unfortunately the low cloud did not clear on Saturday, so racing was postponed until Sunday. Read more >>>

Musto Skiffs at the Holt Tide Ride. The 8th & 9th of October saw the biggest ever gathering of single handed skiffs as the Musto Skiffs joined forces with the RS700's to race of scratch in the Holt Tide Ride. The first thing to say is that the event ran perfectly and the integration between the fleets was great with sailors keen to learn about the others boats; and of course everyone was keen to see who would come out on top.
Read the full report >>>

Results of 2005 Sailor Survey
Thanks to all those who completed the survey, this will really help us to drive the class forward.With 145 people completing the survey it gives us a great view of what needs to happen next. Also it looks like quite a few of you will be buying new boats soon so we better step up the building with our partners More >>>

Open Dutch Skiff Trophy 2005 won by MPS sailor Harry Hensen. The first Open Dutch Skiff Trophy ever held is won by a Mustoskiff! Harry Hensen has sailed a near superior weekend with six out of ten races won. The weekend was open for all skiffs and can be considered as very successful. Skiffs from Holland, Belgium and Germany attended this weekend so it was an international event. Read more >>>

HISC MPS OPEN Racing on Saturday was blown off due to the gnarly waves out in the bay and a few strong squalls. The Skiffs had a practice sail in the harbour for the Holt Tide Ride next weekend. Richard Stenhouse managed to pitch pole upwind and end up standing knee deep in water. Luckily no damage but he now knows where the sand bar is, Looks like the Tide Ride will be good to watch. Read the full report >>>

Musto Skiff Scottish Travellers Trophy Series 2005
The first ever Musto Skiff Scottish Travellers Trophy series came to an end at Royal Tay Yacht Club, without the series leader Richard Stenhouse from Rutland. That left the way clear for second placed Ian Renilson from Dalgety Bay to win the event with a clean sweep of first places. That put Ian & Richard on equal points in the series, and with tie-breaks split by best discards it was Ian Renilson that came out ahead. Martin Goodlad from Peterhead finished third, and Kit Stenhouse from Rutland was 4th. Read more >>>

Inland Championships 2005 at Datchet Water Sailing Club
The Musto Skiffs sailed an outer loop trapezoid course on Saturday, shared with 29ers. The Race Officers plan was to try and get the line square and not worry about the rest of the marks which turned out to be a good call with the very low water level making the wind swirl around with 70º shifts, the wind was 8 knots enough to wire so the schedule was changed for 4 races on Saturday with the forecast of no wind on Sunday. Read the full report >>

The Musto Skiff will be on show at the Annapolis Boat show in the USA, from October 6th -10th The skiff will form part of the Fawcett’s Boat’s display stand just outside the show. For more information, please contact Ron Radko on ron_radko@comcast.net

Dave Ovington Memorial Trophy Entries are invited for the Dave Ovington Memorial Trophy which will take place on November 5th with the Ovington classes open meeting at Grafham Water SC. Entries are restricted so be quick to enter. Adam Ovington would like this to be a celebration of Dave’s life and the 49er class resident DJ Gareth Edwards is doing the sound and vision in the evening. It would be great if we could encourage as many people as possible to stay on in the evening and shake the place; I suspect they will need to order in extra TVR's Enter now >>>

MUSTO SKIFFS AT THORPE BAY. The Musto Skiff fleet descended on TBYC hoping for better weather than the recent events, they were not disappointed. With a building sea breeze of up to 18kts it was to provide some excellent racing. Race 1 started with Rick Perkins getting the best start and never being passed with Richard (Sten) Stenhouse and Graeme Oliver fighting between them for second place, Sten eventually taking it. Read the rest of the report >>>

UK Travellers Series. COngratulations to Richard Stenhouse who has won the travellers series. Other places are still up for grabs with two events to go. See your position >>>

Sunderland Open: 20 - 21st August 2005. A fleet of 12 boats arrived at Sunderland to sun sand and blue skies. But a 28 knot northerly and a big sea running. So racing had to be abandoned for the day allowing the usual suspects to get to the bar and over do it (nothing new there).
Sunday dawned sunny with light wind. read more >>>

Winners of the Hyde Sails put their winnings to good use. Class sail maker Hyde sponsored two raffles this year (one drawn at Denia and the other at Paignton) and the lucky winners are already putting their prizes to work.
Read more >>>

Dutch Language Site Now Live With interest growing in the Netherlands the Dutch Musto Skiff sailors have developed their own site targeted at the local Dutch sailors; and of course it's in Dutch. Visit the site >>>

A big thank you to our class sponsors.

The Musto Performance Skiff Class is lucky to be supported by a number of different companies. Over the last 4 weeks we have enjoyed our two biggest events of the year; the Gold Cup and the Europeans/UK Nationals. These events have been supported by the below companies and we'd just like to once again thank them for their contributions.

Europeans/UK Nationals - Paignton, UK
Sponsored by GreatKit.com/Gerber. The Musto Skiff fleet gathered at Paignton for the Europeans/UK Nationals. The event was preceded with a 2 day training camp. After a 10 race series over 4 days Ian Trotter prevailed over Richard Stenhouse by 4 points in what can only be described as an epic battle.
Read the full report >>>

44 Boats from 6 countries. In the last 4 weeks we have enjoyed our Gold Cup in Denia and the Europeans/UK Nationals in Paignton. The timing of these events meant that some people were not able to attend both. However, a review of the results sheets of both events shows that we had 44 boats attending these two events from 6 countries. Next year the event formats will be reviewed with a view to achieving a 50+ event.

Great Kit and Gerber step on board as title sponsor the European/ UK Nationals next week. The Musto Performance Skiff Class Association and Ovington Boats are delighted to announce that Great Kit and Gerber have stepped on board to be title sponsors for next weeks Europeans/UK Nationals to be held at Paignton Sailing Club. Paul Clarke the MPS class chairman said "The MPS is a leading edge class with a great class sponsor in Musto and to have companies such as Great Kit and Gerber take the title sponsorship for next weeks event is great news, thanks to all at Great Kit and Gerber" Read more >>>

Richard Stenhouse retains the Gold Cup in Denia Spain. In a very toughly contested series with competitors from 6 nations which saw 5 different race winners from the 7 races sailed, Richard snatched the title from overnight leader Ian Trotter in the final race sailed. Read the full report >>>

After Denia I quizzed Sten on a few topics - here are his words of wisdom ...

MUSTO SKIFFS AT THE BIRKETT A strong Northern contingent of skiff sailors attended the Lord Birkett Trophy at Ullswater Yacht Club on July 2 and 3. Entries for the event, sponsored by Boddingtons, broke the 200 barrier this year at 205 and included a wide range of boats from a Mirror to 49ers and cruisers. This classic race is a long distance handicap event in which all boats race the full length of Ullswater, round an island at the Southern end, and back on both days.
Perfect conditions prevailed over the two race days and provided some exhilarating sailing for the skiff sailors. Read the full report >>>

Musto Skiffs at Lee on the Solent Sailing Club. 2nd and 3rd July 2005. The Musto Skiff fleet suffered a North / South divide this weekend due to the LOSSC Open clashing with the famous Lord Birkett long-distance race at Ullswater; a Musto Skiff favourite. (Musto Skiffs took 2nd, 3rd and 4th I believe). The southern contingent assembled at LOSSC for some closely contested racing. Saturday brought a reasonable breeze accompanied by some very steep chop and plenty of Solent traffic to keep the fleet on it’s toes. Read the full report >>>

Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club on 11-12th June. The Musto Skiff Class Open at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club on 11-12th June had an entry of 16 boats. We were greeted with a full reservoir and bacon butties. At the briefing the race officer said if we had any questions we could apply in writing 7 days prior to racing. We were set for some good racing, he knew what he was doing. Read the full report >>>

Musto Skiff Scottish Championships. An excellent turnout of 15 boats and very close racing produced a worthy winner at the second ever Scottish Championships of the Musto Performance Skiff at East Lothian Yacht Club. Ian Trotter from Derwent won - for the second time - with a very consistent set of results - he was never out of the top 3, but he did not have it all his own way and only won one of the 6 races. The racing was very tight with 5 different people winning races - the only person to win two races was second placed Martin Boatman from Sunderland. Read the full report >>>

Ovington Boats buys Musto Skiff Business as Devoti Sailing UK Ltd. Closes. “The management team of Ovington Boats is 100% of the same team as Devoti Sailing UK Ltd; it’s the same people working on the Musto Performance Skiff project; but with more time and focus to further develop the class.” said Tim Tavinor MD of Ovington Boats and former MD of Devoti Sailing UK Ltd. Devoti Sailing are rationalising the regional offices and with a business focus on continental Europe Devoti Sailing chairman Luca Devoti has made a strategic decision to focus the companies resources where the majority customer base are located. This has lead to the decision to close the UK office in Burnham-on-Crouch from the 1st July 2005. The UK office have been responsible for the world wide development of the Musto Performance Skiff class to date and it made a lot of business sense for that to remain based in the UK as 50% of the sales to date have been to UK customers. To accommodate that the Devoti Sailing UK Ltd management team of Tim Tavinor, Paul Manning and Kay Tavinor have conducted a buy-out of the Musto Performance Skiff part of the Devoti Sailing UK Ltd. business and will be trading from today as Ovington Boats Ltd. Read the full release >>>

Whitstable YC Open - 21st & 22nd May. Ballistic is the only word that can be used to describe the sailing at Whitstable over the 21/22 March. With winds topping out at 28kts on the Saturday it was to make for a spectacular day’s racing. Read More >>>

Musto Skiff Training Weekend at Whitstable YC – May 14 – 15th. Despite the very poor forecast, 11 boats turned up for the Musto Skiff Training weekend at Whitstable Yacht Club. The event was run by Musto Skiff regulars Simon Reynolds, Graeme Oliver and Rick Perkins for the benefit of the new owners in the fleet. With so many new sailors trying their hand in this exciting class it is great that the sailors at the front of the fleet are always willing to help those new to the fleet get up to speed. Read more >>>

Training Camps to Precede Gold Cup and Europeans/UK Nationals Prior to both of this years major events a two day training camp will be run by professional coach Mark Rushall. Participation in this training if free of charge for members of the class association. Mark will run these training's with the full support of the top sailors in the class so why not attend the event early and get race ready with the support of a red hot coach and receive top tips from the front runners. See a report on last years training camp >>>

South Shields Sailing Club 7 & 8 May 2005 Sponsored by Trident UK - the Dinghy & Yacht Shop on the Web. Scottish Skiff Racing is pleased to welcome sponsorship from Trident UK at this their second ever Grand Prix event. The weekend promised to be a cracker - boats travelled from as far South as Whitstable and as far north as Aberdeen to give a good entry of 23 boats, including a strong fleet of 15 Musto Skiffs - the forecast was just about perfect - 15 to 18 knots of breeze with sunny intervals. And as we sailed out to the start it could not have looked better - the sun shone and it warmed up nicely. Then the wind died completely and left a real nasty chop. Read more >>>>

Northampton SC Open - April 31st - May 1st Bright sunshine and light winds greeted musto skiff sailors on the Saturday for the Northampton Skiff Open event. When the racing got underway, it soon became apparent that there would be big gains and losses to be had from the large wind shifts and gusts, and this became commonplace. Read the full report >>>

Europeans/UK Nationals The Notice of Race and Entry Form are now available. There is a late entry surcharge of £25 so get your entries in early to avoid paying extra - you have been warned. Looks like we should get a great turnout this year with the event being a combined Europeans/UK Nationals being held at a fantastic venue, Paignton Sailing Club. The social side should also be pretty interesting as we are sharing the water (and the bar) with the B14 fleet More information >>>

Paul Manning - a brief history of time ... For the Musto Performance Skiff class, Paul Manning is known to most, but for those who don’t know him, he’s the tall one you see rushing around helping people get their boats sorted at events! We asked him for a brief run down of his sailing and associated history. Read the full bio>>>

Ullswater Open - April 16th 2005
The Musto Skiff fleet met at Ullswater for a one-day open event on the 16th April with four back-to-back races. Race one started in light conditions. A windshift turned the beat into a fetch but Richard Stenhouse managed to position himself best for incoming puffs, rounding the windward mark first and holding onto the lead to the finish in front of Graeme Oliver and Ian Trotter third. Read the full reports >>>

Special Offers on Gerber & Casio Products
for MPS Owners from www.greatkit.com The MPS Class association is pleased to have created an association with Simon Crowther of www.greatkit.com to be able to offer members of the MPS class association special rates on great kit from Casio and Gerber; Check out the offers >>>

Musto Skiff - First Ever Scottish Traveller Trophy Event - Helensburgh. The first ever Scottish Traveller Trophy event for the Musto Skiff class was held as part of the Helensburgh Sailing Club Spring Regatta, and the 9 competitors from as far a field as Rutland and Aberdeen were greeted by stormy cold conditions. With winds of 20 to 25 knots the Saturday racing was held in the relative shelter of the Gareloch, just off the clubhouse - which made for some interesting spectating. The peak measured gust was 29 knots - and I remember it well! Read more >>>

Musto Skiff at Minorca Sailing Holidays
If you fancy trying a Musto Skiff in the sunshine then you could always
opt for a trip out to Minorca Sailing Holidays who will have a Musto Skiff on the beach this season. Visit their site >>>

Malaga and Palma Training - Spain
Spanish fleet has started a tour of trainings in the beginning of our season. Later on a series of races are scheduled, first one in April. MALAGA; Malaga in the south coast of Spain was the first destination. This venue has demonstrated to be a great place for us, not only for the good treatment we receive but also for the good weather. We had four great days, with enough wind to see boats going like you see in the photos. Read more >>>

Gold Cup Website Launched
http://webs.ono.com/mustoskiff

www.sailboats.co.uk
When the team at sailboats.co.uk were looking for a hot shot for the cover of the 2005 brochure there was really only one choice; Musto Skiff. To order your copy of the brochure just click here >>>>

The BBC are also using the MPS in photos
Click here to see>>>

Caption Competition
There was one Musto #1 shirt left over (White - sized XL) from the Dinghy Show which Devoti offered it as a prize in the caption competition. The winner is>>>

Musto Skiffs at Rutland - 19th & 20th March
13 Skiffs travelled to Rutland for the first open of the season - as the number suggests we got off to an unlucky start, with the racing being cancelled due to lack of wind on the Saturday! This was not as bad as it could have been as the Rugby was on providing some of us with an excuse for an all day bender…… Read more >>>

Win a brand new kite or mainsail, sponsored by Hyde sails.
Our class sail maker, Hyde Sails ,  had generously sponsored us again this year by donating a new Hyde branded mainsail and kite. Last year the main was won by Kev Anderson. These will be raffled at the below events at the end of the training sessions: Mainsail  - Gold Cup, Denia - Spain Kite - UK National Championship/Europeans, Paignton - UK Read the conditions >>>

Caption Competition
There was one Musto #1 shirt left over (White - sized XL) from the Dinghy Show which Devoti are offering as a prize in the caption competition. All you have to do is is come up with the best quote for the picture on the right (it has to be printable but there may be another prize for the best unprintable one ...) All entries must be in by 24th March by email. Enter a caption >>>

UK Dinghy Exhibition - 6-7th March 2005
Once again the Dinghy Show was a great opportunity for the Musto Skiff Class Association members who staffed the stand to spread the gospel according to the MPS. Thanks to all those who took the time to stop by our stand and give us the opportunity to tell you about a boat and sport that give us all so much pleasure. Read more >>>

New Dealers
With interest in the class growing overseas we have now got dealers/contact persons appointed in three new important regions; USA, Australia and New Zealand.

In the USA Ron Radko is the man; Ron was the first non-European (who didn't live in Europe) to compete in the Musto Skiff Gold Cup when he made the trip all the way from Seattle to Lake Garda last year, he has owned is MPS for some time but the prospect of building a fleet was something that he wanted to be part of. Contact Ron >>>

Interest is also strong "Down Under" and Jason Beebe has been appointed as the main man in Australia and New Zealand. Congratulations to Jason who together with crew Tim Berg finished 6th in the recent International 14 Worlds in Auckland. Contact Jason >>>

Other regions can be contacted here >>>

Musto Performance Skiff Features in the Telegraph
When the Daily Telegraph were looking to find some exciting sailing to preview the UK Dinghy Show there was only one class extreme sports journalist Gary King was going to contact - the Musto Skiff. Gary was not dissapointed which his choice of class or his luck with the weather. It was blowing dog's off chains when he got his test sail on a cold day at Rutland. Despite the 25Knot plus conditions Gary still manages a sail and a swim. Read the full article >>>

Musto Skiff at the Bern Boatshow
Swiss MPS dealer Duvoisin Nautique working together with the Swiss MPS sailors will be displaying the MPS at the Bern boatshow starting 12th Feb. We hope to see you there!!

Tiger Trophy 2005
The 2005 Tiger Trophy was unusual for one reason. Not because there were less entries, in fact the event continues to attract more and more sailors of a very high calibre. The reason was that it became the first light airs Tiger Trophy that most people could remember ! The racing was held under the same format of 3 handicap races on Saturday with one discard, followed by Sundays 2 hour pursuit race that had to be counted. Unfortunately, for a large number of the high performance fleet this race proved to be their Achilles heel. In the very light winds the slow handicap boat sailors prevailed, with a very well sailed GP14 taking line honours, followed by the eventual, and well deserved Tiger Trophy winning Merlin Rocket. Congratulations to them ! How did the skiffs fair ? Read the full report>>>

Joachim Harpprecht - the first honorary member of the class association
It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Joachim Harpprecht, the designer of the Musto Skiff, has been made the classes first honorary member. Without Joachim there would be no Musto Skiff, and we have him to thank for starting not only our class, but for the revolution in single handed sailing that the Musto Skiff started.

London Boat Show Pursuit Race - 16th Jan 2005
Brilliant sunshine met the competitors of this years Schroeder’s International Boat Show pursuit race held on Royal Ovingtonsia Dock. Sten represented the Musto Skiff Class Read the full report >>>

Steve Nicholson Trophy 2005 - Northampton SC - Girl(s) on Top!!
An excellent entry of 137 whose entry fees contribute to the National Asthma Campaign, turned up for the annual memorial trophy for local sailor Steve Nicholson. The Musto Skiff Class was well represented with Kit showing the boys how it's done.Read the full report >>>

German Language MPS site now up.
International interest in the MPS is growing all the time - there is already a Swiss and Spanish MPS site - now there is a German one up to support the development in Germany http://www.mustoskiff.de

London Boat Show Pursuit Race - 16th Jan 2005
Brilliant sunshine met the competitors of this years Schroeder’s International Boat Show pursuit race held on Royal Ovingtonsia Dock. Sten represented the Musto Skiff Class Read the full report >>>

Musto Performance Skiff at the Düsseldorf Boat show.

The MPS will be on the Musto and Harken Importer Peter Frisch’s stand at the Düsseldorf Boat show. The show starts on 15th January until 23rd January, opening hours 10.00 – 18.00 daily at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, Messeplatz, Düsseldorf, D-40474 Germany.

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. As usual they represented the class well. Read the full report>>>

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?

The Musto Performance Clothing 2004 Prize List

As you are all no doubt aware Musto Performance Clothing are our title sponsor and provide a great deal of support to the class - thanks Musto.

This year part of that support was to provide Musto vouchers for the top 4 places in key events across Europe. Now the final event has run its course the "money list" can be announced.

£90 Richard Stenhouse
£60 Kev Anderson
£30 Ian Trotter, Ian Turnbull, Roger Oswald
£20 Richard Smith, Dieter Brunner
£15 Martin Boatman
£10 Beat Blasi
£5 Simon Reynolds, Carl Silver, Gabriel Wicke, Frédéric Duvoisin

Please Contact Ovington Boats to claim your Musto Performance Clothing voucher (please note vouchers can only be used to purchase discount Musto products via Ovington Boats so it is a double win).

Simon Hiscocks diary from the Musto Skiff Gold Cup

Double Olympic 49er medallist Simon Hiscocks recently joint the Musto Skiff fleet to compete in the Gold Cup at Lake Garda as part of his post Olympic relaxation. During the event he maintained a diary of his experiences which were recently published in the UK sailing magazine Yachts and Yachting (the magazine also featured a "how to tack wire-to-wire article using a photo sequence of Sten). For those of you who missed the magazine here is the article, for those of you who did read it - here is the unedited version. Read the diary >>>

Results of 2004 Sailor Survey

Thanks to all those who completed the survey, this will really help us to drive the class forward and develop a racing and training programme for 2005 that will really hit the mark and maximise attendance. Also it looks like quite a few of you will be buying new boats soon so we better step up the building with our partners
More >>>.

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