Challenger open meeting at Ogston Sailing Club

Challenger open meeting at Ogston © Marion Edwards

Usually the Challenger Open at Ogston SC is part of their general handicap event. However, this year the dates didn't work and Dave Driffill generously organised a special Challenger Open for us.

There were ten Challengers including seven visiting sailors, four of whom were kindly loaned Ogston Challengers. Caz Jerromes (4) was most insistent that the report include her thanks to Ogston SC for the loan of a boat because without it she would not have been able to come.

On Saturday the wind was an unhelpful north easterly meaning launch and recovery were on a lee shore but fortunately the winds were light, with a F2 possibly gusting F3 in the morning and a more consistent F3 in the afternoon. It was described by Caz and Chris Keats-Hannan (5), in unison, as "An extremely flukey wind and very frustrating".

Caz also said (with feeling) that "It was b***** hard work"!

As the fleet started launching for Race 1 Duncan Greenhalgh (280) discovered he couldn't hoist his sail. Having taken the mast down he discovered a loose rivet. It was nothing that couldn't be fixed (temporarily) with a hammer and a screwdriver but it meant that he was (very) late for the start.

The first lap was led by Graham Hall (270) but a combination of going the wrong way up the beat on lap 2 and finding some very unhelpful wind shifts on the final beat to the finish meant that he finished fourth. The race was won by Val Millward (312) (it's not surprising she said it was "wonderful") with Dave Driffill (275) in second and Bex Foulsham (3) sailing to a remarkable third place. Duncan managed to claw his way up to sixth. Caz was not happy to lose two places on the final beat.

The fleet returned to shore for an excellent lunch (excellent food is rather taken for granted at Ogston!).

In Race 2 Val reached the windward mark first and proceeded to head for the wrong mark. Duncan alerted her to her error.

The defining incident of Race 2 occurred at the second windward mark. Val, Graham and Duncan (or the "Terrible Trio") were approaching the mark on starboard in that order. Bex, rather unwisely, decided to approach on port, Val firmly shouted "starboard". Bex was unable to bear away as they would have hit Graham, so they rounded up, hit and proceeded to drag the mark.

The prime beneficiary of the manoeuvre was Graham as he would not have been able to round the mark in its original position but could in its new position! Duncan tried to think which rule Graham had broken but concluded that he hadn't so was unable to protest him! Graham managed to get past both Duncan and Val on the next beat and held the lead until the finish with Duncan taking second and Val third.

In race 3 Duncan executed a perfect port tack flier, crossing the whole fleet. David Chadwick (75), sailing in his first Challenger event, clearly recognised a good port tack flier when he saw one and described it as "Awesome". Unfortunately Duncan then proceeded to sail to the wrong mark! The Terrible Trio battled it out at the front with the lead changing on each lap.

Ultimately Graham came out on top with Val second. Val commented that the last race could have been anybody's but "if you didn't get it right you were stuffed"! In the silver fleet Stephen Thomas Bate (6) was very happy with his fifth place and so he should have been as ultimately this gave him the edge over Chris..

Duncan commented that the afternoon's saw excellent racing between the Terrible Trio. Dave Driffill couldn't quite capitalise on his Race 1 success and took two fourths behind them.

Cody Braithwaite (51) was also sailing in his first Challenger event and showed steady improvement throughout the day. He also provided much invaluable help launching and recovering the Challengers.

Dave had organised an evening meal at the club for those able to stay. No-one would go to their bed hungry.

Saturday night it began to rain (incessantly as Stephen said) disturbing those who were sleeping under canvas at the club.

Sunday morning was wet and windless. The race officer went out to have a look for wind and came back not having found any and a postponement was agreed - a number of sailors were desperate for the discard to kick in.

The race officer headed out again when the rain had eased and there were hints of a northerly breeze. Well, all the Challenger wind indicators were pointing that way and there were ripples on the water. He returned admitting defeat and racing was abandoned. The positions after racing on Saturday stood. Prize-giving took place immediately as everyone was in the clubhouse.

Graham and Val were only separated on countback with Graham scraping the event win. Dave took third by a single point from Duncan (who was no doubt ruing his errant mast rivet).

Stephen led the silver fleet by one point from Chris (who not surprisingly had very much wanted a fourth race) with Caz taking third.

Thank you to Ogston SC for hosting an excellent event and particularly to the race officer Phil Hind and assistant race officer Sarah Rumball, the safety crews and galley team. Thanks also to everyone who helped launch and recover the Challengers and to those who turned up on Sunday ready to launch them! Special thanks to Dave Driffill for organising the event.

Overall Results: