Osprey Inland Championship at Blithfield Sailing Club

 

Despite the wind predictions being light to nearly nothing, 15 teams rocked up at Blithfield for the final event of the season.

The highlight was the famous Blithfield Hog Roast on Saturday night with sunset, pudding and cheese, Gromit! It is safe to say, for the Osprey fleet, this (and the beer) is a reason on its own to come to the event without sailing! A huge thank you to the Commodore, Peter Slater and everyone who worked so hard to make us feel so welcome and feeding us so brilliantly - what a great team you are.

On the water it was great to see the newest wooden Osprey (1303) going fast, built during Covid lockdown by Ali Raynard. It isn't quite finished - still needs some varnish on top of the epoxy. Ali said he wanted to do it after the event, just in case Basher "bashed" him. I did notice Ali unwisely had a luffing battle with him, which was brave.

Sunday was flat calm, which was disappointing but alternative entertainment was found, which was the car park tour of the varying array of camper vans.

Great fun weekend all round - looking forward to seeing everyone next season and particularly at the Nationals at Mounts Bay from 3rd -6th September - get those boats on the water (Stevie George that means you!) and let's make it a big one!

Overall Results:

Pos Boat Sail No Helm Crew Club R1 R2 R3 Pts

1 Plan B 1234 Terry Curtis Peter Greig Castle Cove SC 1 1 2 4

2 Ghost Ship 1382 Roger Blake Jamie Blake Great Moor SC 6 2 3 11

3 Farfar 1386 Paddy Lewis Mike Priddle Datchet Water SC 2 3 7 12

4 Bird of Prey IV 1349 Robert Shaw Ian Little Kielder Water SC 3 9 4 16

5 Great White 1373 Richard Marshall Arthur Butler Poole YC 10 5 5 20

6 Light & Bitter 1292 Kevin Francis Johnathon Osgood Stewartby Water SC 13 8 1 22

7 Six Pack 1385 Thomas Lonsdale Dave Bourne West Oxford SC 4 10 10 24

8 Secret Diaries 1285 Ian McDonald Jon Gibbons Blithfield 5 11 8 24

9 1303 Rob Burdekin Ali Raynard Blithfield 9 6 9 24

10 Waimanu 1291 Theo Holmes Nick Willis HISC 12 7 6 25

11 1381 Richard Hartley Mark Hartley Blithfield 7 4 DNC [16] 27

12 Just Pogo 1114 Ros Downs David Downs Tata Steel SC 8 13 11 32

13 Trantrums and Tiaras Two 1333 Doug Rankin Paul Rankin Blithfield 11 14 12 37

14 Nameless 1345 Tom Chadfield Pete Slater Blithfield RET [16] 12 13 41

15 Ylost 1341 William Crighton John Batt Ribble CC 14 15 14 43