British Moth Open at Maidenhead Sailing Club
by Jenni Heward-Craig 8 Jul 2015 12:08 BST
5 July 2015
A variety of conditions and the added hazard of other non-Open boats sailing on the lake made the recent Moth Open, held at Maidenhead Sailing Club on Sunday, July 5th, an interesting competition for the sailors. Competitors from around the country joined the three local Moth sailors in what became a tight contest of patience and light-wind sailing skills.
As part of the Travellers' series, the competitors have previously encountered different conditions, from water depth, to river tides, to rain and gusting winds. Summerleaze Lake, however, threw up all-seasons-in-one-day, with differing wind strengths and directions, lake depth shallow enough to make weed a hazard, and for the Open's first two races, water on which other, and often bigger, boats were competing in the club's monthly handicap challenge. Most of the sailors handled the conditions well, the single-handed dinghy coping with both the light to non-existent winds in the races held before lunch, and the fresh south-westerly which blew up for the third race.
Toby Cooper (887) held off Roger Witts (890) in the first race, but in the second the positions were reversed. Andy Matthews and Richard Keefe (884) tussled for the third placing, with Andy third in the first race, and Richard third in the second.
On equal points going into the last race, Toby’s second first place of the day gave him the Open title ahead of Roger, while Richard’s fifth place put him out of contention for third, which went to Andy. Ladies’ winner was Jenni Heward-Craig of Maidenhead, with her eleventh place overall.