Event: Stokes Bay Open 2024, Stokes Bay Sailing Club, 20/21 April 2024
Report by Andy Tarboton
Stokes Bay Sailing Club greeted us with beautiful sunshine and breeze, albeit Baltic Northerly’s.
A near-record 38 boats took to the water, showing the enthusiasm of the fleet this season, which, combined with the RS700’s, felt like a small Nationals on the start line! The team at Stokes Bay ran a great weekend of sailing – well worth it for all.
Day 1 set the scene for the weekend with some whacky shifts catching most people out at some stage, but Sam Pascoe continued his run of consistency and climbed to the top of the table overnight, with some very close scores behind him fighting for the podium.
Day 2 was more of the same but windier, allowing ‘Mario Kart’ style racing with lots of bananas strewn around the track to catch people out. Pascoe, again, captain consistency, maintained composure to rise above the rest, scoring an incredible three bullets given the conditions to take the regatta with flying colours. Dan Henderson also nipped at Sam’s heels for the day, also showing great consistency, giving him 2nd place, with Andy Tarboton 3rd overall.
Alicia Biggs showed that she has been putting some training time in and was definitely more comfortable in the boat, sailing the Musto Skiff X. It was also good to see so many new faces in the fleet. This season will be epic!
Big thanks go out to the race team, who got in all six races in very challenging conditions across the weekend.
Full results: https://www.sailwave.com/results/SBSCskiffopen2024.htm
Event photos by Tim Olin: https://www.flickr.com/photos/141388522@N05/albums/72177720316349691/
Feature photo: © Tim Olin, 2024
