Saturday 23rd saw the first Sprint 15 Open Meeting held by NSSC, with 18 competitors including 13 visitors. Racing was held over a rectangular course in the bay, with four races back to back. The first race got away cleanly in a nice force 3, with a couple of port tack flyers taking full advantage of the bias in the line. The leaders soon settled into their eventual positions with 1st going to Liam Thom, 2nd Chris Tillyer and 3rd Jenny Ball. After these three very close racing was had in a bunch, so close that 4th place was tied and another three places finishing within a few seconds. Race two still had a good wind, albeit with some sizeable shifts, and the same three leaders as race one shared the spoils, with Liam 1st, Jenny 2nd and Chris 3rd. With the wind dropping and a tricky bank of shingle on the beach, the decision was made to run all four races back to back. The lighter winds seemed to favour different helms, with Chris Tillyer in 1st, Jenny in 2nd and Jon Pearse up into 3rd place by the finish after 3 laps. Best local in this race went to Jamie Lynch in 6th. The final race saw the wind dying considerably, making it tricky for some but with big gains to be made with good use of the tide. After a bit of a crisis when the finish mark detached itself from the anchor chain, the winner of race 4 was Ed Tuite Dalton, with Chris 2nd and Jenny 3rd. Best local this time was Chas Humphries – 4th on the water and 5th after handicap. Overall results gave Chris Tillyer 1st, Liam Thom 2nd and Jenny Ball 3rd, with first NSSC boat Jamie Lynch. First in the Sport rig was Chas Humphries, followed by Howard, Mike and Terry – all from NSSC. Special mention must go to Simon Rous, who was competing in his first open and filled that final spot that we’ve all been in at some time. Mention also needs to be made of two intrepid (crazy?) helms from Shanklin who sailed all the way from the Isle of Wight on the Friday to join us. I must say thank you to the team on and off the water for making the event run so smoothly, and also mention the work put in by Mike Godwin in arranging the event with the class association. We secured this event initially from Mike attending some Open Meetings and putting us on the map with the Sprint class.
   Results:Full Series Results available here
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