OK Open at Overy Staithe Sailing Club
by Jennie Clark 3 Jul 11:08 PDT
2-3 July 2022
Overy Staithe OK Open © Jennie Clark
Overy Staithe SC held their annual OK Open Meeting on 2 and 3 July 2022. Competitors were greeted with a good breeze for day one, and the day was not without its dramas.
The fleet watched OSSC member Bernard Clark launch his new boat - sporting personal sail number 47 and built by Alex Scoles (Idol Composites). Alex forgot to put the retaining screw in the centreboard in his boat so in putting it down it emerged from under the boat. OK Class Chair and OSSC member Rodney Tidd decided discretion was the better part of valour and sailed home after a pretty traumatic ride out to the start.
Richard Burton cobbled together a working kicking strap after it detached from the boom on the boat he'd borrowed from Will Turner. He arrived at the windward mark with a good lead, followed by Simon Cowood who managed to grind to a halt on a force 5 reach by hooking up the anchor line of the mark and promptly capsizing. Richard Burton look line honours in an ever decreasing fleet, followed home by OSSC's Dave Cooper. The sail back in from the sea saw some hair raising reaches through the creek, with Rich managing to capsize in sight of his trolley and skilfully sail the boat back in whilst still in the water!
With so many retirements the Race Committee decided to up anchor and get back into sheltered waters inside the harbour. Unfortunately a large concrete block on the seabed had other ideas as it had tangled with the Committee boat anchor. Eventually the team managed to raise anchor and block to the surface where after much struggling to avoid being poleaxed by the bowsprit the safety crew of Paul Goakes and Henry Smith managed to disengage the anchor.
Day 2 turned out to be much more to the liking of the OK sailors at Overy Staithe. Alex had his centreboard back in and out at sea there was a gentle 9 knots of westerly wind and brilliant sunshine, although a rather strong tide which made the beat rather longer than it looked. Alex Scoles dominated the racing with three first places to win overall, and Rodney Tidd sailed very well to record three seconds and second overall. First visitor was Richard Burton in third overall. Team OSSC are heading off to the OK Nationals at Herne Bay in two weeks time.