Results: Musto Skiff’s at Ovington Inlands – 15/16 Mar

The Ovington Inlands marked the start of the 2025 sailing calendar for the UK Musto Skiff circuit, with 13 boats brave enough to make the trip to Grafham Water Sailing Club for the mixed class event.

The event itself was well run, with the club doing a great job to look after everyone, both on and off the water. Once again, this event highlighted the reliance of the sport of sailing on volunteers, and even Chris Turner gave up his time to enable the regatta to be run smoothly.

Four races were held on Saturday, followed by beer, rugby and dinner at the club. We then had three races on the Sunday. Across the weekend, the conditions showed who was rusty and who had managed to stay sharp through the winter. The chilly breeze and gusty conditions definitely kept each of us on our toes while also proving that you can recover from a capsize/penalty/mishap at the start and still pull through to win the race.

Of note this weekend was Dylan Noble, who improved race-on-race and was showing serious pace, finishing 4th overall. Richard Smith was looking equally flash at the start of the season, only narrowly missing the top 5, which was closed out by our esteemed Chairman, Brennan Robinson. Euan Hurter put his ‘training is cheating’ theory to perfect use, and although he hasn’t so much as thought about his boat in 6 months, he smashed the weekend to win decisively. Dan the Man Vincent smoked home to second, leaving Andy Tarboton to close out the podium.

Looking at the sailing clubs on the results sheet is very promising, showing that the Musto sailors are willing to travel from all around the country to enjoy sailing with their mates. Let’s hope this is a sign of the intent for the season ahead, and our class will get strong support at each event!

A final shout out goes to Ovington Boats, who do a great job of supporting our class. Kicking off the season with an Ovington event is a nice cherry on top from them. 

We are all now looking forward to our next event at Stokes Bay. After a long journey back from our Worlds out in Australia earlier this year, a load of Musto’s will be making land in the UK just in time for that weekend, so it should be well attended, and it will definitely be good to get back in our own boats again!