Osprey Southern Area Championships at Weymouth Sailing Club

Martin Cooney and Peter Frith win the Osprey Southern Area Championships 2014 © Mike Rice / www.fotoboat.com

Part of the highly successful Weymouth Dinghy Regatta on 12/13 July, the Osprey class provided 12 boats for its Southern Area Championship, sailing in the bay in glorious conditions on both days on trapezoidal courses.

With all forecasts predicting sun and wind in equal measure, the competitors were pleased as both arrived with slightly more breeze on the Sunday. With crews coming from Shoreham, Hayling Island, Isle of Sheppey and Aldenham as well as those local to the area, the competition was stiff with most crews having prior knowledge from the 2013 Nationals which were held from the same venue.

The racing on Saturday began as it finished from the recent Osprey event at Poole, with Richard Marshall and Peter Greig getting the first win in race 1 from the ever present Martin Cooney and Peter Frith. The course was proving tricky to negotiate with some big shifts and large holes especially in the middle of the track; combining with the pin end favoured by most, room at that end of the line was becoming scarce. Race 2 was won with ease by Cooney and Frith who were untroubled from the windward mark having dominated the pin. Terry Curtis and Nick Frampton were finding their form as well to finish 3rd.

The last race of day 1 again saw Cooney and Frith break clear, never to be caught but the real battle was going on behind with Marshall and Greig OCS, Kevin Francis and Phil Male, Paul Heather and Jonathan Osgood, Alex Willis and Nick Willis and Ken Brown and Chris Butters all fighting for 2nd place with Francis and Male doing just enough to hold on by a couple of boat lengths.

With a national seafood festival underway around the harbour there was plenty to do for the crews during the evening. For some a visit to Castle Cove SC gave a chance to sample the 'games' under the expert guidance of Tim Bowden, hereby known as the games maker. With no reported injuries this year's games look to have been a complete success with the plank walk among the favourites.

With an early start on the Sunday there were some sights for sore eyes, with at least one helmsman falling victim to the call from Weymouth's dark side the previous night and thus was barely functioning at tally on......said person shall remain nameless.....OK.

The breeze was up and so were various new sails including a nice new 3DL for Cooney and Frith, just in time for the Nationals next week.

The racing itself was fast and furious, with the new sails doing nothing to slow them down it was wrapped up early for the men from Poole, while locals Curtis and Frampton recording their best score with a 2nd. The pin end was again busy with a wind shift in the closing seconds of the start sequence leading to carnage as boats struggled to make the line. The Willis's and Francis and Male came out worst from this.

Marcus Scrace and John Pym took advantage to round the windward mark in 3rd with another local crew Emma Stevenson and Tim Bowden also finding good boat speed to record their best finish. Francis and Male slowly got back on terms with the leading pack to finish in 3rd.

The Willis's showed good boat speed downwind and were never out of the action. As with most of the crews the final results don't tell the whole story.

And so to the final race of the championships, Francis and Male chose the pin end and kept going into the lead. By the windward mark they had carved out a large advantage. Spinnaker was launched and then without warning the spinnaker halyard snapped leaving them literally dead in the water. At about the same time Curtis and Frampton had a gear failure of a different kind as the centreboard decided to shear off. In the panic that ensued some other crews has mistaken these events as a sign that the reach was too tight and had also dropped their kites enabling Francis and Male to continue on down the run under goose-winged jib.

By extraordinary luck they retained the lead until the final reach where the lack of spinnaker really hurt. But just in time a squall came through to knock the competition to leeward and allow Francis and Male a clear run in to the finish to record their first Osprey race win, and to take second overall behind Cooney and Frith.

As well as the established travellers it was good to see some new faces in the class with Tony Elgar and crew and Kay and Kevin Stibbs enjoying their first outings in the mighty Osprey, welcome to the class guys and dolls.

The fleet now move on to Porthpean for the National Championships on 19-22 July, and with many past and present legends among an excellent entry, it will be an event not to be missed.

Overall Results: