Fireflys during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Fireflys during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water © Paul Sanwell / OPP

With the 505 still in the container coming home from Australia, I needed a boat to sail for the Ovington Inlands. Jono Pank very kindly offered the new Ovington class demo Firefly. I have to admit it is not my normal style / speed of boat. That said though I jumped at the chance and dived head-first in.

We had done some work with Jono's boat late last year so I knew half of what I needed to change on the brand new class boat. I had sorted a few of them before the first sail in Portland harbour. We were dog slow and low upwind in 20 knots, downwind we bore away onto a run for the first time and wobbled all over the place. I am used to boats that plane and get more stable. A Firefly is definitely not one of them. It got stuck in the trough of the waves and was very wobbly. Benjamin, my 8 year old son and crew, was not impressed. Thankfully I told him we were sailing inland for the next three times.

Fireflys during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

On day 2 at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club I had sorted a few more jobs on the boat. We had three great races against Jono and another Firefly. We were slowly getting closer to Jono as the day went on. It was a handicap event and it took quite some getting used to being the slowest boat off the start line. Benjamin and I really enjoyed sailing the Firefly around a small, shifty lake. Easy to tack and gybe on shifts, plus pointing high upwind and running straight down the runs made it perfect.

Now onto the Ovington Inlands. I had finished the job list on the boat which included shaping the leading and trailing edge of the centreboard and moving it to the front of the case. Plus adding jib ratchets which also changed the sheeting angle. These changes, and a few others, transformed the boat. I have fed these changes to the Ovington factory and hopefully they will come as standard soon on a race Firefly. It will be great for the class if you buy a new boat and it be on the pace out of the box.

Race one started and I was happy with a sixth place at the top mark. I had a new experience on the top reach when we surfed off someone's stern wake and shot through to leeward of them. I have never managed this with a spinnaker boat. Admittedly we only weigh 110kg, so were quick all weekend off the wind. By the end of the race a few people had spun out down the run and we were up to 4th.

Fireflys during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

As the day went on we got properly to grips with the boat and race course and scored a 2,1,2. As you can imagine Benjamin was very excited to have won a race. The racing was very tight and any wrong shift upwind got heavily punished. Downwind was a great game of let the kicker off as much as possible and put the centreboard in the box. As you can imagine this was very fast until the mast hits the water as a few of our competitors found. The entertaining part of this was getting Benjamin not to react to the first little wobble as the next one would be twice as big.

Sam and Benjamin Pascoe win in the Fireflys during the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

Sunday of the Ovington Inlands was the same cold direction with a little less wind. During race 5 we had a great battle with Jono until we both let Nigel Wakefield through. It's always fun when you cover second place and third sails round you both. We had an interesting run where Jono went one side, we went the other, and Nigel went down the middle - our side won more by luck than judgement. The windward mark was so close to the shore you had no idea what puffs and shifts were coming to your side of the run when you picked it.

In Race 6 Benjamin became a proper Firefly crew when he dropped the jib pole overboard during a gybe. Cue floods of tears from him. Thankfully we went back after the race and found the jib pole.

In Race 7 we were on a roll. We won the committee boat and laid the windward mark in one, for our third straight win of the day.

A big thanks to Jono Pank for all his help with working out how to make an Ovington Firefly into a rocket ship. I can thoroughly recommend borrowing the class boat for an event. The class is very friendly and welcoming. There was a complete mix of boats there this weekend. Ours and Jono's new Ovingtons, a few Rondars, some beautiful wooden boats and six boats from Cambridge Uni.

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