Event: Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club, 2023/24 Seldén SailJuice Winter Series, 18/19 November 2023 (non-circuit)
Report by Sam Barker
The Draycote Dash from a Musto Skiff’s point of view.
Day 1
First round for the 2023/24 Seldén SailJuice Winter Series kicked off at Draycote Water Sailing Club. We arrived to a less-than-forecast 8-10 knots blowing across Draycote, and with the rain disappearing for the rig up, the 80 odd boat fleet including 3 Musto Skiff’s driven by Sam Pascoe, Sam Barker (Team Ovington boats Portland), and Rob Richardson (Royal Windermere) headed out to do battle.
Race 1 started in a pleasant but shifty 10 knots. Barker came off strongest from the committee boat, but Richardson managed to sneak around the windward mark first. Barker managed to out hoist Richardson but capsized on the drop. This left Richardson to hold off Pascoe to take the win, with Barker coming in 3rd.
For race 2, Pascoe and Richardson were inseparable until Richardson had to double tack up to the windward mark leaving Pascoe with valuable breathing space to take the race win.
The wind had built to a gusty 15 knots for the start of Race 3 with all 3 Musto’s getting great starts and jumping clear of the fleet. After the first tack, all 3 Musto’s had to duck the charging RS800 and that lined us up for a great tuning run to the windward mark. Until the 800s reached over us. Pascoe got the jump by getting in front of the 800s and sailed off to take the race win. Barker capsized with the kite up. Again. But managed to do a lighting quick recovery thanks to his capsize practice to chase down Richardson to keep the pressure on. The race finished with Pascoe first, followed by Richardson, and then Barker.
By the time Race 4 got underway, the wind had crept up to over 20 knots with some big gusts, and even bigger holes! Pascoe decided to show his pace and won by a convincing margin leaving Richardson and Barker to have some great close racing in challenging conditions with the boys finishing in that order. This meant after 4 races, the skiff fleet had taken all 4 race wins on handicap!
Ashore, we did the only thing that seemed sensible and headed to the bar where we were greeted with hot soup and an open bar. This led to us talking about how on earth you get a Musto Skiff down a single sail reach and the answers varied somewhat! Some opted for sit on the rack with no kicker and Cunningham on, while others sent it on the wire, in the footloop, and hope for the best. Unanimously we agreed all methods worked but a longer mainsheet was number 1 on the list!
Day 2
The race committee had seen enough of the Musto Skiff’s taking race wins and obviously overheard the conversation about reaching. So, they set a 10-mark course with 2 100m runs and many, many reaches. Comment of the day went to Aaron Holman stating that if they didn’t win in the 470, he would quit sailing.
The Musto’s started in a thumping gust, which was only a sign of things to come. Pascoe got to the top mark first followed by Richardson who fell over trying to adjust his controls. Barker snuck past Richardson briefly until he had a lengthy swim. Pascoe was on a mission and with the previous evening’s chat about reaching fresh in his mind, put on a stunning display to jump clear of the other Musto’s. Meanwhile, Barker was doing his capsize practice on lap 1&2 letting Richardson get away. At the end of lap 2, the wind had built with gusts over 30 knots creating a minefield of capsized boats to navigate around. On laps 3&4 Richardson decided to have his own capsize practice to bring Barker back into the race, thus creating a less than needed reach-off on the last 2 reaches. Pascoe also proved he was human by doing his best submarine impression, which ended in a spectacular pitch pole.
The race came to an end with Pascoe finishing 4th and Richardson and Barker in the 20s. That result for Pascoe was enough for him to hold onto his overnight lead and win the Draycote Dash overall by 1 point. Richardson and Barker finished in 7th and 9th, respectively. The next event is the Datchet Flyer on the 9/10 December where Team Ovington Portland will hope to have similar fortunes and less reaching!
Overall Results
Overall Results: https://enter.sailracer.org/eventsites/content.asp?id=49477&eventid=225490
GPS Tracking: https://enter.sailracer.org/eventsites/live-screen-tracking-club.asp?eventid=225490&labels=S
2023/24 Seldén SailJuice Winter Series event website: https://enter.sailracer.org/eventsites/new.asp?eventid=225490
Feature image: © Tim Olin
