The Weymouth Open was hosted at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) over 13 – 14 May. The event weekend kicked off with organised training on the Friday, for what turned out to be a rather windy, but fun day coached by Adam Bowers.
Here is the summary report for the training day by Sam Pascoe, followed by the full event weekend report by Rob Richardson.
Friday - Training Day Summary Report
Report by Sam Pascoe
The ‘Noble Marine Weymouth Training Day’ was coached by Austin powers (Adam Bowers), who presented a simple, but effective way of putting across points, enhancing the fleets abilities and equipping them with the practical skills for the training day.
The training day was attended by 26 Musto Skiffs from as far as Aberdeen. The training included 13 starts, which lead into 4 small races.
Austin powers used a mixture of video and pictures from Tim Olin to show start line techniques, lay lines, and windward mark roundings to enhance everyone’s skill set.
A hugely successful practical exercise including along windward leeward foam up.
With the training day aligning with the WPNSA Skiff Open weekend, it enabled the attendees to apply the freshly acquired knowledge immediately.
Based on the positive feedback received, this sort of training will continue to be supported in the future as part of the Noble Marine Training & Coaching Se
Sat & Sun - Event Weekend Report
Report by Rob Richardson
After an amazing day of training on the Friday with 25 boats turning up, we were all feeling sharp and ready for racing on Saturday.
A total of 30 boats lined up on the start in a gentle 7 knots. The fleet headed towards the left side of the beat (except for Dan Vincent who forgot how to hold onto a mainsheet), and first round the top mark was Jon Gay who was motoring, followed by Sam Barker and Sam Pascoe. They all remained in that order until the finish.
Another Sam who was flying was Sam Whaley. Having sailed the Musto three times before the race, he showed amazing pace up the first beat. However, he had clearly been taking notes from Dan Vincent, as he then went and dropped the mainsheet at the top mark and went for swim!
Sadly, after the first race, the wind died and that was racing done for the day. The fleet then enjoyed an amazing curry at the club that evening, which ended with the formation of the Musto Skiff band! (Thanks, Robbie).
Sunday wasn’t looking hopeful from all the forecasts we had seen – and even less hopeful when we saw the thick fog hanging in Weymouth harbour. All fleets were held ashore until, eventually, some wind filled in and we sailed out into the fog not knowing where the committee boat was!
After a short postponement on the water, the breeze had settled at a good 6-12 knots, but visibility was still “challenging”. Nonetheless, the committee displayed a distance and heading for our top mark on the board and set the fleets off!!
Strategy was challenging with a lot of sailors just sailing for a period of time before tacking, hoping to find the top mark, but it was the ever fast Sam Pascoe who rounded first, followed by Rob Richardson and Jamie Hilton.
Rob managed to sneak past Pascoe up the second beat to take the win, with Barker in third.
The third and final race of the regatta was a similar story. Pascoe led with a big fight behind for the remaining podium spots. With the threat of writing the report top of mind, the two Sam’s and Rob tried their absolute hardest to not be third overall. However, Pascoe was too quick and won the final race, giving him the overall win. Rob was second in race three, followed by Barker. This meant the final podium places ended up as:
1. Sam Pascoe
2. Sam barker
3. Rob Richardson
Special mentions go to Rich Pelly for finishing 4th, along with Karsten Groth, who travelled from the Netherlands!
Weymouth Open results >>.
Feature photo by Euan Hurter.
