Craftinsure Silver Tiller Merlin Rocket Open at the Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy

Podium in the Craftinsure Merlin Rocket Silver Tiller event at Plas Heli © Chris Martin

Another fantastic weekend sailing at the Plas Heli Welsh National Sailing Academy for the visiting Merlin Rockets who were making their third visit to the site in 12 months, for the Craftinsure Silver Tiller and HD Sails Midland Circuit 2018, with winds varying from light to champagne conditions. The racing was hard fought throughout the entire fleet.

Saturday dawned overcast with glimpses of sunshine. Three excellently run races were held with super quick turnarounds between the races being the order of the day. Matt Biggs and Beka Jones won the first two races whilst Simon and Ally Potts were second. Team Potts were absent from race three as Potts junior required mum’s attention giving Uncle DH a break from babysitting.

This race turned out to be quite bizarre having a 100-degree wind shift on the second beat, dumping all those on the left-hand side of the beat well and truly down the pan, whilst allowing two boats who had elected to go hard right on the course to fly their spinnakers for some considerable distance in to the windward mark. Race 3 was being led by Steve & Gill Leney all the way to finish, however, confusion on the finish resulted in Matt & Becca sneaking the win.

Plas Heli laid on a supper on Saturday night with the whole fleet eating together, the bar remained open late into the night.

Sunday produced a gloriously cloudless day (in Wales) and the fleet floundered out to the committee boat expecting to return to shore through lack of wind. However, after a suitable pause (it was Sunday morning after all), the wind filled in and it was champagne sailing conditions in glorious sunshine. This time Simon and Ally stamped their authority on the fleet with two comfortable wins. One or two teams were reminded of the need to practice their spinnaker drills as in the building wind and sea conditions kites were put to use as both sea anchors and fishing nets which did little for either crews speed!

Once again, we all had a great time.

A big thank you to all involved at the club in making this weekend so enjoyable. Thank you to our sponsors, Craftinsure, Magic Marine and HD Sails.

Overall Results: