Osprey National Championship 2026 at Mount's Bay Sailing Club - Day 3
by Kevin Francis 5 Sep 21:36 PDT
3-7 September 2026
The day started at a leisurely pace with only a very slight hint of wind and a strong pull to the local coffee shop for most.
The sun was out as promised and soon the dinghy park represented a giant clothes line to capitalise on the chance to wear dry gear again. The inevitable postponement adding to the allotted drying time. As war stories were exchanged and boats bimbled to the maximum the wind slowly but surely clocked around to the South South East and settled down nicely to provide the fleet a solid but gentle day on the water.
An Osprey stalwart made a reappearance with Paul Heather stepping into 1341 to wiggle the stick on behalf of Willy Crichton who if you recall from my previous post had some issues with the motorhome brakes. It was great to see Paul back in an Osprey and clearly taking it very seriously including the skin protection which he appeared to have stolen from some poor unsuspecting cadet from the Topper fleet, very fetching.
With a triangle Sausage course set for the first race of the day the fleet once again were far too keen to get going and a general recall was called. At the second time of asking and much to the relief of the Contenders who were patiently waiting their turn everyone got away. As so often at the Nationals the fleet immediately split with the hot shots going hard left and the rest hard right. With both sides hitting the lay line it would be instantly apparent which side had paid and those that were arriving from Penzance on the right looked to have read it right with a long and distinguished queue forming to round the windward mark and some top teams somewhat caught out. The rest is somewhat vague as the scribe was a little further back but the results confirmed that the cream still rose to the top on that one.
Race 2 will live very long for star team 1291 Alex Willis and Nick Willis. Already on fire with a 3rd place finish in the first race they went two places better to lead the fleet on the sausage Triangle course and win the second race from current National Champions Matt Rainback and Phil Angrave. Nick was proud to inform the gathering in the bar afterwards that the last time he won a Nationals race was in 1996 some 30 years ago, and that daughter Alex was born just around 9 months later. So we look forward to a new Osprey crew member around about June next year (!) but couldn't find Jayne Willis for her thoughts on this.
Again your scribe was well away from the action up front but was in good company with lots of teams in unfamiliar placings however it was great to see the mid and back of the fleet doing well.
So what did we learn on the third day?
1338 was having such a good race today fresh back from the Turkish nose clinic that helm Kenny Brown saw lots of free air on the right at the leeward mark and rounded up with great enthusiasm only to find out a little too late that the rest of the fleet were finishing hence all the room in the world. We all agree that Kenny and crew Chris Butters would indeed have lead at the windward mark should they have carried on.
1353 helmed by Stuart Maunder and crewed by your scribe skilfully managed to reverse back out of the second start at the B for bang on purpose obviously so that we could witness the spectacle of over 40 Ospreys racing ahead of us. It was also noted that the sparkling Osprey 1301 used this moment to demonstrate the RYA Level 1 capsize drill to us and all aboard the committee boat, and we rated it a 7/10 for effort. Top work Tom Chadfield and Peter Slater.
Richard Marshall aka Basher to all that know him has taken advice from Paul Heather on appropriate skin care and now represents someone who appears to have eaten a smurf with all that blue zinc.
1345 helmed by Charlie Chandler and crewed by Olly Hopkins has spent more time on its side in the dinghy park than anyone else for reasons still to be made clear however likely to be an attempt to improve performance to escape the dreaded 13th place overall.
1348 driven by Oscar Chess and crewed by David Downs is rumoured to be using the famous Cornish performance enhancing gel with some amazing results including a 7th place finish in the champs.
Class Association boats work in promoting the class with 1329 helmed by Anthony Reeves and well crewed by Flora Reeves enjoying a Nationals in theur own boat after using the class boat, great to see you both and welcome to the family.
Lots still to fight for.
Results after Day 3: (top five)
1st Matt Rainback and Phil Angrave
2nd DJ Edwards and Mikey Greig
3rd Terry Curtis and Peter Greig
4th Ian Cadwallader and Alex Knight
5th Martin Cooney and Peter Frith
Our thanks to all our Sponsors for this event and support to the class throughout the year: Craftinsure, Hartley Boats, Robline, Seasure, Clamcleat, Allen and Fernhurst books.