British Moth Open at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club
by Andy Osman 19 Jul 2004 14:16 BST
10-11 July 2004
Action from the British Moth Open at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club © Karen Honour
Over the weekend of 10th/11th July seventeen British Moths made their first ever visit to West Oxfordshire SC to compete in a mini-nationals. The event being designed as a warm up prior to the main National Championships which are due to take place in August.
The event was well supported by the local moth sailors from nearby Medley SC, with others travelling a little further from Parkstone YC in Dorset, Chippenham SC in Wiltshire and several others.
Conditions were varied to say the least, however, OOD Tony Thresher managed to set some interesting courses using most if not all the fixed racing marks at one stage or another. In the first race things were tight at the front with Colin Hall, Tim Davison, Andy Osman and Anthony Osman all battling for the lead. At the finish Andy Osman managed to win followed by Davison, Hall, Osman Jnr and Tina Hardyment in close pursuit. Race two followed a similar pattern with the same names contesting the lead, however at the finish it was Davison, followed by Hall, Osman Snr, Hardyment and Osman Jnr. This made things very tight between the front-runners going into the third and final race of the day. Osman Snr managed to establish an early lead, which he managed to maintain until the finish followed by the ever consistent Davison and Styles. With this win Andy Osman managed to secure the overall victory with Tim Davison in second and a rather damp Colin Hall in third!
On the Sunday morning conditions were much the same as Saturday. In race one it was Davison who showed the way round with Hall and Osman pushing him all the way. Tim had obviously had a very good Saturday evening dancing the night away as he was further inspired to go on to win race two in convincing style with Osman Snr and Hall swapping finishing positions. Having won the day Tim could have sat out the last race but instead he came to the line in what was the best breeze of the day. At the first Mark it was Andy Osman who lead closely followed by the pack. He seemed to like these conditions and pulled out an impressive lead, which he held to the finish. Davison was second, followed by Hall and Hardyment.
The event proved to be an excellent warm up for next months Nationals and the Moth fleet would like to express their sincere thanks to the members of West Oxfordshire SC who made them all feel so welcome. Hopefully they will invite us back again next year and perhaps a few other moth sailors will be tempted to come and join in?