Osprey open meeting at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Winners Roger and Jamie Blake together with part of the fleet - Osprey open meeting at Hayling Island © Jayne Willis

Arriving at an Osprey open meeting is always an uplifting experience because of the greeting from fellow Osprey sailors - many have a tale to tell of something that happened the week or night before that was likely to impact their sailing performance.

This weekend was no different, and the prize for best pre-race excuse has to go to Mr Kenneth Brown, who limped up to me in the car park looking rather forlorn and when asked what the issue was, he replied, "Ska injury!"

Late on Friday night in the bar, a well known Ska track came on the jukebox. Kenny, after a reasonable amount of lubrication, decided this was the time to jump up and show the good folk of Hayling Island a bit of his old skanking - sadly, 15 seconds in, he pulled a hammy and had to be helped back to his chair. Kenny, "you've done too much, much too young", my friend. At your age, you need to do some pre-skanking stretching!

Needless to say, Basher never disappoints at an opening meeting with some sort of weird activity, comment or behaviour.

This weekend may well be one of his best. After sailing on Saturday, which I promise to come back to, we were all gathered in the bar in the normal way. Basher came rushing in to say he couldn't stay for a beer; he said he needed to get home because, at weekends over the last couple of months, he has been dressing up as a woman with full wig and makeup, and off he dashed!

Being a broad-minded bunch, no one really flinched and assumed this was just Basher's new thing - odd, but as we all know, every pot has its lid. Thankfully, Basher's perfect Osprey crew, Quinton Stewart, was able to lay our minds to rest and explained he was taking part in a local am dram pantomime, as the prettier ugly sister! There are photos available and yes, he looks quite extraordinary!

Now for some sailing...

Saturday looked light in the wind department, so the race officer sensibly postponed for an hour and kept us inside the harbour. Two races were sailed in what turned out to be a nice steady 8-10 knots. Roger and Jamie Blake took both races with a couple of great starts that took them out to the port lay line and into the windward mark clear ahead. Other than a bit of pressure from Nick and Alex Willis, going fast at their home club in race 1, and Basher and Quinton in race 2, they weren't troubled much by the rest of us.

On Sunday, after Jayne and Nick Willis very kindly gave us all breakfast at their house (Basher rocked up late, still with evidence of some foundation!), we headed out into the bay for two more races.

The club were also holding a Pennant weekend, so there were a couple of courses laid in the bay for club racing. The wind was coming off the land, so it was very shifty - getting the heading for the windward mark was critical.

In race 1, we headed up the first beat; Mike Atkinson tacked onto port and headed off on a tight reach, much to his crew, Gareth Humphrey's surprise. Gareth told him the mark was at 30 degrees from the line, but Mike was having none of it, saying, "No, that's not the windward mark; it's half a mile over this way. The rest of them have got it wrong and it's a fetch straight to the buoy." Oh boy!!! Their result in race 1 speaks for itself.

The rest of the fleet was fairly well spread out, with some close racing throughout. Mike Priddle and I just managed to keep our noses in front of Roger and Jamie, who were pushing hard down the reaches as the gusts came in from behind.

Race 2: the wind built to a steady 15-18 knots with some bigger gusts. Basher and Quinton got to the top mark first, closely followed by Kenny Brown and Chris Butler, as well as Anthony and Flora Reeves, sailing the class boat in their first Osprey open.

By the time they got to the gybe mark, a couple of others were biting at their heels. Basher then went for a swim, probably to wash the rest of his makeup off and Kenny and Chris decided to drop their kite before the gybe mark, which lost them some ground.

Once again, Roger and Jamie were on the charge, closely followed by Mike and I. We battled round three laps, with multiple lead changes, which made for exciting racing (stressful for me!). Happily, we just managed to finish ahead. We had been so focused on staying ahead of Roger and Jamie that we forgot to keep an eye on Simon Brewer and Alistair Ramsden, who were in a very close 3rd on the line and going really well in the extra breeze.

All in all, a fantastic weekend sailing at Hayling Island in amazing weather. Great to meet Anthony and Flora, who will be handing the class boat back this week after 3 months. Happily, they have loved the Osprey and are looking for a Mark IV to buy. Please get in touch if you have a boat for sale. They are also keen to come to Mounts Bay for the Nationals, if they have a boat by then. Maybe someone could lend them their boat if they have one spare.

See you at Mumbles on the 22nd/23rd August and, if not, at Mounts Bay for the Nationals on 3rd September. Stevie George will be there in the newly pimped Disco boat, so get your entries in. We are up to 43 boats - it would be great to get to 50+.

Overall Results: