Flying Fifteen Open, Silver and Classic Meeting at Grafham Water Sailing Club

The Flying Fifteen Classic and Silver Fleet prize at the Grafham Flying Fifteen Open was taken by Bryan Willis and John McPeake © Paul Sanwell / OPP

The classic Flying Fifteen K28 built in 1949 features a full set of original sails from Cranfield and Carter sailmakers at the Grafham Flying Fifteen Open © Paul Sanwell / OPP

A beautiful summer's day greeted the Flying Fifteen competitors for the Grafham Water SC Open meeting held on the 12/13th June. The meeting was open to all vintages of boat with competitors in the Classic, Silver and Open fleets.

The gleaming varnish of the classic fleet decks was admired by all. The star of the show was a classic Flying 15 dating back to 1949 sail number K28, sailed by Elliott Hall and Iain Brown from Burton SC.

The wind for Saturday varied from 5 to 12 knots throughout the day and the Principal Race Officer, Peter Saxton fired the warning signal for Race 1 bang on time.

A variety of courses were sailed with really close racing throughout the Open and Classic fleets with constant place changing gave the fleet plenty to think about.

In the Open fleet a theme began to emerge with Dave Philpott and Pippa Chapman from the home club taking line honours in Race 1 and 2.

This pattern was disrupted in Race 3 which was won by Simon Kneller and Ashley Painter, also from Grafham Water SC and then a really close contest in Race 4 saw Simon and Ashley taking the line closely followed by Dave and Pippa. This gave the overall result to Simon Kneller and Ashley Painter on countback by the slimmest of margins.

Simon Kneller and Ashley Painter won the Open Fleet during the Grafham Flying Fifteen Open - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

The Classic fleet also had some close action with the IRL boat of Bryan Willis and John McPeake of County Antrim YC taking the overall win from boat builders Brett and Ben Dingwall who deserve a special mention as they've worked on so many Flying Fifteens over the years. The Silver Fleet were also represented and their numbers will be boosted next year.

Due to the lack of wind forecast for the Sunday, the PRO ran 4 races on the Saturday and cancelled the sailing for Sunday.

The full spectrum of Flying 15s were in action this weekend from FF4082 delivered this year to K28 delivered in 1949, but still with the graceful lines that make the Flying Fifteen - the planing keel boat- such a pleasure to sail.

Malcolm Hall and Martin Nelson sailing the silver fleet Flying 15 GBR2864 said 'We really enjoyed sailing in the classic and silver fleet, it has a really 'good sportsperson' feel to it. We were pleased to score a third in the first two races and finished mid fleet overall. A nice result for a boat that has been in retirement for the last 5 years!'

Elliott Hall and Iain Brown raced the classic Flying Fifteen K28 during the Grafham Flying Fifteen Open - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

The fleet heads off to the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club later this month for the class National Championships- not to be missed.

More photographs of the event are available at www.grafham.org/photos

Grafham Water SC is hosting 14 open meetings this year for many different classes of boat. Memberships are still available for the 2021 season. For more information about the club please visit their website www.grafham.org or call the club on 01480 810478. Follow the club on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pg/grafhamwatersc

Overall Results: