By David MacFarlane
The 12 boat fleet enjoyed champagne sailing conditions at this year’s Bosham SC Open Meeting. The sun shone throughout, and the wind gods delivered a fabulous 10-12 knot breeze. The 10 home boats were joined by two visitors one of whom had travelled all the way from Avon SC.
The programme consisted of 4 races over the two days, with committee boat starts in the main part of Chichester Harbour. The courses took the fleet to all corners of this picturesque harbour. A unique feature of this event is the tradition of finishing the second race each day at Bosham Quay. This involves some interesting tactical choices particularly when the ebb tide sets in.
The racing this year was utterly dominated by the Bosham crew of Nigel and Isabelle Russell (DB614) who won all four races in a very convincing manner.
The Russells had blistering boat speed and terrific recovery powers. In race 3 when they were OCS at the start and gave the rest of the fleet a significant head start, they managed to work their way up through the fleet to win the race by a large margin!
The tussle for 2nd and 3rd overall between David & Fiona Macfarlane (DB597) and Tim & Gerry Wilcock (DB664) went down to the wire. At the penultimate turning mark in the final race, Tim & Gerry held a very slim lead both on points and on the water, however an unexpected sea breeze kicked in which brought David & Fiona back within a few boat lengths of the Wilcocks. David & Fiona cheated the worst of the ebb tide by sailing in shallow water down the Chidham shore and managed to overtake Tim & Gerry 100m from the finish to take 2nd overall on count back.
The Open meeting event is run in conjunction with Bosham’s 3 Day Masters event. The DB sailors along with all the other competitors enjoyed a magnificent tea after the racing each day, with supper and live music on the terrace as the sun set on Saturday evening.
Overall Results:
| Place | Sail No. | Boat | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Net Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 614 | Casspiain | Nigel Russell | Isabelle Russell | Bosham SC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 597 | Yellow Peril | David MacFarlane | Fiona Macfarlane /Nick Downey | Bosham SC | 6 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | 664 | TiGer | Timothy Wilcock | Gerry Wilcock/ Jane Weller | Bosham SC | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 4 | 618 | Vis Vitae | Richard Lewis | Laura Lewis | Bosham SC | 4 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 13 |
| 5 | 677 | Genevieve | Georgiina Bullingham | Simon Bullingham | Avon SC | 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 14 |
| 6 | 653 | Mojo | Alastair Seaton | Jacqui Seaton | Bosham SC | 13 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 17 |
| 7 | 620 | Teazer | Ian Wheeler | John Mckeand | Bosham SC | 5 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 17 |
| 8 | 615 | Blanche | John Fletcher | Ali Garrett/ Jane Weller | Bosham SC | 8 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 20 |
| 9 | 629 | Kerfuffle | Nick Crang | Julie Crang | RYA | 10 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 22 |
| 10 | 674 | Liquid Luck | Barry Colgate | Bruce Garrett | Bosham SC | 11 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 24 |
| 11 | 654 | Papa | Tom Prower | Jim Prower | Bosham SC | 7 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 27 |
| 12 | 624 | Clementine | Tim Reynolds | Robert Long | Bosham SC | 9 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 33 |
To see the article as published in YachtsandYachting please see here