Spring Musto Skiff activity in the South West.

March has seen a busy month of Musto Skiffing in the South West; a healthy turn out of boats have been in attendance at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Clubs’ Sunday Winter windward leeward series and a training day was held in conjunction with the RS800 fleet on Saturday 7th March run by skiff supremo Peter Barton ably assisted by Chew Valley legend and soon to be skiff sailor Ralph Singleton.

The training consisted of more starts than anyone could care to remember with a variety of line bias to keep us on our toes and practice pre start routines. Short courses were set to challenge boat handling and the video camera was in operation to capture our misdemeanours and for a good laugh in the bar afterwards over the debrief.

The following weekend 14th /15th March the Skiff fleet were invited to have their own start as a part of the traditional RS Spring open event and the very friendly RS700 fleet consisting of 8 boats kindly agreed to allow the 5 local and 1 visiting Skiff (in the guise of Nigel Walbank from Lymington – thanks Nigel) to join in on their start to make the racing more fun for all.

The results proved that the 700 and Musto’s seem to be identical in pace and justifies the joint local handicap that we advocate and enjoy in the SW and we hope this is the start of an annual joint event racing for the “King of the Lake” Crown.

Current South West MPS sailors include the following characters:

• Paul Clements; The smoking MPS salesman and kindest bloke you’ll ever meet – “You WILL have a go in my skiff?”
• Graham Cranford-Smith, The Silver fox, PC’s apprentice but recently spotted beating the teacher…
• Paul Whitesmith, committed wipe-out merchant, a black belt and owner of the coolest f*ck truck in Bris.
• Tom Halhead - dangerous when fit and not carrying a medieval looking knee brace on board. Also any RS boat legend – we’ll learn a lot from him.
• Paul Hilliar - powered by Malt loaf – ask him. Hasn’t trapezed before so a skiff was the obvious choice! Progress so far has been alarmingly quick and results in previous classes are a worry.
• Simon Bennett, managed to swap his disgusting yellow 600 for a skiff with a pink kite – what’s the matter with him? Dodgy ankle actually.
• Chris Goldhawk. A Solo sailor by winter as he can’t swim.
• Tom Offer – yours truly.

So who’s up for joining this merry band of reprobates? Interested parties should get in touch. The fleet is growing rapidly and there is rumour of a demo boat being available in the near future to quench the thirst of interested parties…

Tom@Offer-Recruitment.com Mob: 07776 172810

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