Ospreys at the Tenby Regatta
by David Downs 15 Jun 05:48 PDT
13-14 June 2026
Seven Ospreys attended the Open Meeting at Tenby over the weekend of 13th and 14th June as part of the Tenby Regatta. After weeks of cold and rain Pembrokeshire lived up to its reputation and it was a pleasant weekend of warm and sunny weather.
Three races around the cans were held on Saturday with the "Round Caldey Island" long distance race scheduled for Sunday.
The breeze on Saturday was North Westerly coming over the land, varying in strength and direction giving a combination of champagne sailing interspersed with bits of high frustration.
The first race was definitely at the frustrating end of the spectrum with several examples of great skill in picking out the shifts to gain places followed by great misfortune while sailing into a hole watching others overtake. Dave Griffiths and Maurice Clarke won the race to retain the magnificent Galleon trophy. Fortunately Mrs Griffiths will not have to find anything else to fill the gap on the mantelpiece.
The second race was largely champagne. Ted Lewis and Lucas Boissevain led around the first lap but had clearly forgotten about the tide after a lay off from sailing. Their attempt to lasso the leeward mark with a spinnaker sheet and cause mayhem behind would have been successful but the mark tipped over and released the sheet. Dan Jackson and Matt Goldwait were clearly enjoying the conditions, in fact so much that they didn't want it to stop and instead of crossing the finish line sailed on for an additional lap. Strangely they were awarded first place - perhaps there is a local variation in Rule 28!
Just as it looked like the breeze may have settled it reverted to frustrating again for the start of the third race although champagne conditions did return.
It was a very enjoyable day sailing especially the champagne bits and followed by a great Osprey curry evening, at which Kenny proved he can eat three nan bread and a curry, finished off the day very well.
Despite a promising breeze on Sunday morning for the Caldey Island race this died to nothing when the fleet was around 50m from the beach and the race was abandoned. Disappointing as this race can be an awesome sail in an Osprey, but the correct decision in the circumstances.
As usual the Osprey sailing was very close with the final results all hinging on the result of race 1 where three boats crossed the line within a second. After a recount Paddy Lewis and Mike Priddle were declared the winners half a point ahead of Dave Griffiths and Maurice Clark who were a further half point ahead of Oscar Chess and David Downs. Although not entirely Osprey weather the Ospreys did well in the General Handicap results with the first boat in fourth place.
Overall Results:
1st 1386 Paddy Lewis and Mike Priddle 6.5 pts
2nd 1365 Dave Griffiths and Maurice Clark 7 pts
3rd 1348 Oscar Chess and David Downs 7.5 pts
4th 1380 Dan Jackson and Matt Goldwait 9 pts
5th 1338 Kenny Brown and Chris Butters 16 pts
6th 1342 Ted Lewis and Lucas Boissevain 17 pts
7th 1330 John McKellar and Alastair Knibb 21 pts