Event: Itchenor Musto Skiff Open at Itchenor Sailing Club over 4/5 November 2023
Report by Sam Pascoe
Photos by Noah Fitzgerald
With day one cancelled and the light wind specialists of Sam Barker and Ben Schooling staying at home for day two. We knew we were in for a big day out. The 9 strong fleet left the calm of the club to round the Bosum corner to 15-25 knots and bright sunshine.
Race 1 started with Sam Pascoe port tacking the fleet and heading out the tide. Unfortunately, this was completely the wrong way to go and when they next crossed, Dan Vincent had a nice lead. Dan held this lead until the bottom of the first run when the hard charging, Peter Greenhalgh briefly passed him before windmill into windward at the leeward mark. Dan was then untroubled for the rest of the race with everyone else having a swim.
Race 2, and it was Andy Tarboton’s time for a port tack flier. Once again, it was the wrong way to go, and Sam won the left leading the rest of the race. Peter was chasing hard until a swim in the last run. This meant the top 4 were reversed from race 1.
So, going into the last race Sam, Andy, Dan, and Robert Richardson were on equal points and no discard. Roll on a final race show down.
Race 3 – Peter won the pin and led to the left. Sam and Dan tacked under Peter at the shore. Cue a reach off between Dan and Sam, which really finished off Sam’s arms, but he got Dan to tack off. Peter led at the windward mark and was passed by Sam at the leeward mark when he left the kite drop a little late. Positions stayed the same until the next run, when Sam rolled out the back setting up for the gybe. Thankfully, he let go of the tiller, but with a water ski behind the boat for what seemed like 100metres with the Mainsheet attached to his trapeze harness. This gave Peter the race win and the third different race winner of the day. Andy came passed Sam upturned boat next, gybing between his boat and floating sunglasses showing how it should be done. Coming second in this race gave Andy the event win, with Dan in second, and Sam in third – and the pleasure of writing this report.
The top 6 boats were all using the new mainsails and the other 3 were saving theirs for a lighter day. Over 100 new mainsails have now been sold.
Talk ashore turned to the Sail Juice series starting in two weeks’ time at Draycot. Sounds like the Musto Skiff fleet will be busy this winter at these events. Hopefully, we can replicate Andy consistently and stop our silly swimming lessons.
Overall Results
- Andy Tarboton
- Dan Vincent
- Sam Pascoe
- Robert Richardson
- Peter Greenhalgh
- Nathan Stanier
- Paul Molesworth
- Mark Cooper
- Andrew Gould
Feature image: Andy Tarboton – Itchenor Musto Skiff Open 2023 / © Noah Fitzgerald
