17 Ospreys flew into Castle Cove Sailing Club for the annual Yacht clubs of Weymouth Dinghy Regatta over the weekend of the 7th & 8th July providing the largest of the dedicated classes in attendance and a good opportunity for all to practice in the same waters as for this year's National Championships in August.

A good mix of Mk 3, Mk 4 & Mk 5 Ospreys competed and once again the results show that no matter what type you have or how old it might be, it can still be competitive. New recruits to Castle Cove Sailing Club this year, Ben and Simon Hawkes were likely to be the team to beat having been in excellent form winning several events on the bounce using Exe Sails, and so it proved with the utopia of good height and speed coupled with excellent starting in general.

They were however, kept honest by the exploits of the rapidly improving duo from Carsington Alastair Raynard and Rob Burdekin who remained down in the south after the Poole Open to get in some local practice and to develop a well bronzed tan. Sailing a Mk 5 with more string than your average chandler the use of a windward sheeting traveller system proved quite a weapon for pointing in the conditions and helped ensure that the event winner would be decided on the last race of the weekend.

Regulars and multi-National champions Martin Cooney and Peter Frith borrowed a boat for the weekend from current National Champion Terry Curtis himself missing due to some small OK event in Europe. This team still managed a respectable overall result that included a race win, but will be keen to slip on the old slippers that come in the form of their regular mount Swiftwun for the big one.

Another team that have transformed performance with the new Mk 5 are Roger and Jamie Blake who again consistently popped up at the front end and stayed there. Eyes will be on them for a good performance at the National Championships given this year's results.

Most of the rest of the fleet had good, indifferent and occasionally bad results and a great deal depended on the direction off the start and first beat, the ability to find the shift, extra knot of wind and hopefully a lift as well to make big gains through the fleet. The weather played its part with enough to race properly and wall to wall sunshine making it pleasant but quite fatiguing at the same time. All racing took place within the harbour and a sensible postponement was placed on the Sunday morning to allow the wind to develop which it did on cue.

Most encouraging to the class were the new faces particularly Neil and Ryan Chaplain again sailing a shiny new Mk 5 and already mixing it with the regular fleet, surely the best way to improve rapidly, and Mike Stace and Deanna Morton who have made the most of the events that the class has supported. Also worthy of note was the fact that there were five family teams competing, great stuff.

Local boats came out in force to support the event with much experimenting with settings to find the magic spot by all.

Many thanks to the organisers for another well run event that included a Hog Roast on the Saturday night. Next stop for the Ospreys will be Shoreham at the end of July hopefully for some big wind and wave sailing.

Overall

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