Chipstead Sailing Club – Radio Sailing Mid-Week IOM Open Meeting
Wednesday 7th July

Twenty Five sailors arrived at the Chipstead Sailing Club lake to contest the annual mid week IOM Open Meeting. In total 16 visiting sailors made the journey to Chipstead demonstrating an appetite for competitive sailing. This included a significant turnout from Emsworth of 8 sailors.

The Class Captain welcoming all the sailors to the open meeting

The weather started off somewhat overcast with occasional light drizzle. Wind was from the south west and filled in to provide challenging Rig-1 conditions.

A 150 meter windward leeward course was laid whilst the sailors had a bit of practice.

The briefing was quick and concise allowing racing to commence at 10:00 hrs.

Seeding races were won by Martin Wilson from Emsworth and Robin Aldcroft from Chipstead.

Following a quick fleet board shuffle, sailing recommenced. Racing was competitive and tight with the first B fleet race won by Nigel Barrow from Frensham Ponds. With 4 boats promoted, the A fleet started. Once again the racing was close and it was Nigel who having learned from his previous race who prevailed to take the win.

Part of the Open fleet

This was how the morning progressed. There were different winners of every B fleet race and the same for the A fleet.

Lunch was taken at 12:45hrs. At this point the only 7 points covered the first 6 boats. Top spot was taken by David Cole from Hampton Court sailing his Kantun-2 . His is also a recent welcome addition to the quality of the Chipstead fleet.

Sailing restarted at 13:45hrs with a re-laid course taking into account of wind direction change. Wind strength was still towards the top end of rig-1 in the gusts

Peter Copsey from Emsworth sailing his Kantun-2 promptly won the opening B fleet race, stepped up to the A fleet and won that race too. To top it off, he took the next A fleet race win as well. This gave him the honour of being the only person to win two A fleet races.

Consistency was the main requirement of the day and several sailors were demonstrating this, but as the day progressed, it was David Cole who came out on top.

The Open Winner beating up to windward

Racing concluded at 15:30 hrs. The results were calculated whilst the sailors packed away and assembled outside the club house for prize giving.

Winner David Cole receiving his Prize

Overall a great days sailing was had by all the sailors.