Noble Marine UK Musto Skiff National Championship 2024 at Filey Sailing Club - Day 2
by Euan Hurter and Mike Matthews 17 Jun 08:33 NZST
14-16 June 2024
Day 2 of the 2024 Noble Marine UK Nationals started with light wind and not enough breeze to start at 12pm as planned. After a 2-hour postponement, the AP flag came down, and the fleet got ready to head out to the start line for race 3 of the championship.
Race 3 kicked off with an 8-10 knot sunny easterly that blows directly into the bay, generating some nice waves. No cliff action this time! With a square line, the fleet was well spread out, with the top boats quickly working out the tide action, favouring the left-hand side of the course.
Mike Matthews led into the top mark, but Sam Pascoe reeled him in and carried on to pull out a half leg lead on the fleet by the finish. The rest of the pack played snakes and ladders with tricky lanes to get right. Rob Richardson picked his lanes well to work his way to second, and Euan Hurter did a split gybe on the final run to claim a few places and steal third.
Just as the fleet got ready to start race 4, a thunderstorm began to pass through the bay along with some hail stones! The fleet was sent back to shore to wait out the storm. After a 2-hour wait and several cups of tea in the sailing club, the fleet headed back out to start the next race.
Race 4 started with some pin bias and no obvious favoured side. The fleet split, coming off the line with half heading left and half heading right. When they converged, it was clear the left had come out on top, and the fleet rounded, with the majority opting for a straight set. A few puffs came down, tempting some into an early gybe that ultimately turned out to be fool's gold. At the bottom was Robbie Richardson, followed closely by Sam Pascoe.
The second beat was where the tide started turning, and the right came into play. Robbie, Sam, and Eddie banged left and lost a hair to Sam Barker on the right. The second downwind had some big shifts; however, there weren't many changes in places, with the racing being a cagey affair.
On the third beat, the same trio banged left, with Barker heading right after being rolled out of the bottom mark. On the port lay line, Eddie had stepped 15 boat lengths too far and ran out the breeze, and at the top it turned out to be Sam Pascoe winning, followed close behind by Robbie and Sam Barker grinning like a Cheshire Cat after being rolled and taking two spots on the last leg.
After day 2, the leaderboard has changed, with Sam Pascoe now in 1st, Sam Barker now in 2nd, and Danny Boatman in 3rd.
A big shout-out goes to 14-year-old Thomas Whitehead from Filey Sailing Club. After Bill Maughan did a short onshore coaching session with Thomas and some other youth sailors, Thomas decided to join in with the fleet to sail some races in the Musto X mainsail, comfortably getting around the course and holding his own. Awesome effort!
Results can be found at www.sailwave.com/results/MustoSkiffnats2024.html