Osprey Open at Hayling Island Sailing Club

Hayling Island Osprey Open © Ollie Blake

Hayling Island Osprey Open © Ollie Blake

A small but very competitive fleet of Ospreys battled through various roadworks and closures across the south of the country to compete at Hayling Island over the weekend of May 11th-12th.

The sunshine turned up but the wind never really settled, delivering 6 races in a shifting 5-10 knots of breeze throughout the weekend.

The first race got away cleanly with Ben McGrane and James Ross winning the pin and heading left towards the shore with Terry Curtis and Peter Greig, Matt Burge and Vyv Townend all swapping the lead up the first beat, with McGrane coming out on top at the windward mark with Burge and Townend in close pursuit.

McGrane / Ross maintained their lead until the final close reach at the bottom of the Trapezoid course where they opted not to fly their kite. Burge / Townend rounded with their spinnaker flying and started to reel in McGrane / Ross who lost a lot of height hoisting their own spinnaker and left a window which Burge didn't hesitate to jump through and take the gun from McGrane with Alex and Nick Willis having overhauled Curtis and Grieg to take 3rd.

Race 2 was started in slacker tide but some significant shifts and holes across the course with Burge and Townend leading from Richard Marshall and Jonathon Osgood who were showing great speed on the left side of the beat, rounding with a comfortable lead over the Willis's in 3rd. Burge / Townend extended to take a good win from Marshall / Osgood and the Willis's 3rd.

Hayling Island Osprey Open - photo © Ollie Blake

The final race of the day was a two way battle between McGrane / Ross and Burge / Townend for line honours, with Curtis / Greig and the Willis's for 3rd place. Whilst the two battles were closely fought the positions remained unchanged to the finish.

Sunday morning dawned with the fleet refuelled after a Hayling Island club curry and an appropriate quantity of ale.

The first start was a heavily port biased affair with most of the fleet tussling down by the pin. In the final seconds some space opened up and Curtis / Greig broke through and crossed the fleet on port. Glory was short lived courtesy of a left shift and 2 dozen Fireballs descending on their leeward mark. Burge / Townend took the lead from an improving Roger and Jamie Blake in second and once again the Willis's an ultra consistent 3rd, the remainder of the race with a one sided beat offered few passing places and the race ended in those positions.

Burge / Townend took control of the event taking the lead in the 5th race and winning fairly comfortably from Curtis / Greig with Marshall / Osgood 3rd and the Willis's having a nightmare at the back of the fleet.

With the event won Burge / Townend headed home, but second place was now very much up for grabs. The breeze freshened a little for the final race with Curtis / Greig leading from start to finish. Marshall / Osgood rounded second with the Willis's down in 5th and they remained in that position for 2 laps until the final windward mark where in a strong ebbing tide Marshall cut the lay line too fine falling short of the mark. Both the Blake's and the Willis's joined in the chaos, with much discussion and several penalty turns, finally the Willis's were the first boat to head down the reach closely pursued by the rest of the fleet. Fortunately for them it was just enough to secure a well deserved second overall.

Overall Results: