Osprey Southern Area Championship & Panmorra Cup 2024 at Mount's Bay Sailing Club

Tony Oliver presenting helm Terry Curtis and crew Peter Greig with their silverware during the Osprey Panmorra Cup at Mount's Bay Sailing Club © Kevin Francis

The weekend of 4th and 5th May 2024 saw eleven Osprey stalwarts make the pilgrimage to Mount's Bay Sailing Club, the spiritual home of the class for the 2024 Southern Area Championship & Panmorra Cup.

Mount's Bay lived up to its reputation with glorious sunshine and fantastic sailing for both days. Having spent the last few weeks sailing in rain this author was pleased to see the sunshine for the first time this year.

The first race brought a 12 to 15 knot SSE breeze, which drummed up a very surfable swell, making the reaches a pleasant roller coaster ride. The locals had the advantage in the first race with Colin Stephens and Mike Grieg in Thomas Too, 1339 from Mount's Bay rolling most of the fleet out of the start line and getting to the windward mark first and holding off Terry Curtis and Peter Grieg sailing Plan B 1234 to take the first race.

The second race brought entertainment in the form of furthest travellers Ken Brown and Chris Butters from The Isle of Sheppey, who having arrived at Mount's Bay in plenty of time for the first race decided to make vital adjustments on the slipway with a hacksaw to their boat. Consequently, missing the first race. The hacksaw obviously had removed a substantial amount of weight from the boat, as they flew out of the start in the second race. There was some controversy over how they got such a good start, but no protests were brought. Ken and Chris consolidated their start and were third in the second race. At the front end, Terry and Peter showed some good downwind speed to take the victory from Colin and Mike.

This ended the first day with a tie at the front of the fleet and Alex and Nick Willis being in a solid third place sailing Waimanu 1291. Harry and George Odling sailing Infidel, 1085 were fourth.

The evening was spent on the club balcony, cool beer in hand taking in the amazing views of the mount.

Sunday morning brought splendid sunshine and a solid 15 to 18 knot SE breeze, with a much bigger swell than the previous day. The reaches were classic Mount's Bay surf rides with all but one of the reaches being kiteable.

The conditions favoured Peter and Terry who seemed to have the edge downwind, giving them two bullets over Colin and Mike. Further down the pecking order Mike Atkinson and Richard Bowers sailing 1298 Barking Mad found the second days conditions more favourable. They had struggled to find pace on the first day, but cruised round in third for both races on the second day. Unfortunately this robbed Alex and Nick from third place as they were not able to make the last race of the series.

With Peter and Terry taking the laurels a great weekend was enjoyed by everyone under the excellent management of the Mount's Bay Sailing Club, with a cream tea to help the celebrations.

A big thank you to Mount's Bay Sailing Club and all volunteers for a super weekend sailing.

Overall Results: