OK Open at South Staffordshire Sailing Club

by Ed Bradburn 19 Oct 17:34 BST 13 October 2024

South Staffs welcomed 13 boats to their annual open meeting on Sunday the 13th October. With a polar opposite forecast to the youths the day before, with wind in the morning rapidly dying to nothing in the afternoon.

We were fortunate to have Samuel Bailey as PRO who was taking a day off OK sailing so that his tired little arms could recover from his previous days antics. Given the forecast the decision was taken to run 2 races back to back in the morning in the dying wind.

Race 1 got under way cleanly with Andy Davis and Ed Bradburn leading the way closely followed by local legend Neil Goodhead. Just after the start and in very atypical fashion for South Staffs there was a small shift. The race team wasted no time in reacting to that shift and moved the marks accordingly. There wasn't much else to report in terms of place changes at the front of this race however on lap 2 there was a small shift and the race team wasted no time in reacting and moved the marks accordingly. Andy retained the lead from Ed for the whole race and Neil had a lovely yacht around in 3rd to finish in that order. That was also the end of the wind for the day and with it came a small shift meaning the race team had to return all of the marks they had previously moved to their original spots and set another course.

Having reset the course race two went straight into sequence and with it an individual recall for Andy and Ed allowing Neil to sail away into the lead with Will Croxford and Jonny Woodward close behind.

Halfway up the first beat there was a small shift and the race team wasted no time in reacting and moved the marks accordingly. With Neil sailing into the distance this left Ed and Taxi trying to catch up with the lead pack. Halfway through Ed and Taxi caught up with Will and Jonny down what started as a run. Will, however, found a private gust and sailed away chasing Neil. Jonny had found some speed in his borrowed boat so far this race and had been slowly learning about a boat without full battens and with not a jot of red on it. He was heard proudly explaining after the first race that the boom elastic was too loose so he had tightened it. Well during the 2nd race he learnt he had tightened it too much, so much so that the boom elastic pulled his main out causing it to back wind resulting in Jonny reversing back up the course past Ed and Taxi and into 5th.

The final beat caused a split in the fleet with Ed going right, Will going middle and Taxi going left. To start with Ed looked to have sailed into 2nd, then Will took this back, then Ed looked like he was back in front. At the finish however it was Neil Goodhead finding his old form in his favourite conditions with the win with Will holding onto 2nd. Behind those two and with a final throw of the dice Taxi came in from the left taking 2nd from Ed claiming he had spotted that "gust"!

After all of that excitement the fleet returned to shore for lunch in what was now 0 kts gusting 1kt. The thought at lunch was that we had had the best of the day and it looked like a two race series which would have given the win to Neil. However, following a short fleet discussion it was decided we couldn't just let Neil win and needed to make him work for it. Hence, we drifted to the start for the 3rd course of the day as there had been a small shift at lunchtime.

The start line was an exciting one with everyone holding position for 5 minutes before and after the start. When we finally got to the first mark it was Taxi, Ed and another local legend Keith Macauley leading the way. These 3 managed to sail away with a few place changes between them. On the 2nd lap there was a small shift and the race team wasted no time in reacting and moved the marks accordingly. Back in the pack a number of the fleet decided they'd had too much excitement for one day and retired to discuss the consistent shift patterns and trends they had noticed throughout the day.

On the final lap and after a small windshift the Island became the deciding feature of the race with Taxi and Ed going to the right and Keith going to the left. At the finish Taxi pipped it from Keith. Behind another decision had been made regarding the island as Bill Bradburn found some speed having recently upgraded his wooden mast to follow Keith to the left of the island causing slight panic in Ed's boat on the right. Unfortunately for Bill and despite the cheering from fellow competitors Ed held onto 3rd.

As a result of this overall Taxi took the win from Neil with Ed in 3rd and with it report writing duties again.

All in all another consistent champagne day at South Staffs. Huge thanks must go to the race team for getting 3 races in in incredibly challenging conditions and reacting to the odd small shift.

Next up on the UK calendar is the End of Season Championships in Northampton over the weekend of the 16th and 17th November.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	11	Andy Davis	South Staffs SC	1	1	1	2
2	55	Neil Goodhead	South Staffs SC	3	1	RTD	4
3	2260	Ed Bradburn	South Staffs SC	2	4	3	5
4	2126	Keith Macaulay	South Staffs SC	8	7	2	9
5	2217	Will Croxford	South Staffs SC	7	2	RTD	9
6	47	Bernard Clark	Overy Staithe SC	4	6	6	10
7	2128	Jonny Woodward	South Staffs SC	5	5	RTD	10
8	11B	Bill Bradburn	South Staffs SC	9	8	4	12
9	2239	Rupert Smith	Newhaven & Seaford SC	11	9	5	14
10	2122	M Temple	South Staffs SC	10	11	7	17
11	91	Ian Hopwood	Bassenthwaite SC	6	RTD	RTD	20
12	212	M Bates	South Staffs SC	12	10	RTD	22
13	2108	P Bottomley	South Staffs SC	13	RTD	DNC	27