Ospreys at the Pond October Regatta

The Welsh Ospreys gathered on a bright and occasionally breezy weekend to do battle at Tata Steel Sailing Club against a backdrop of the excitement of the Rugby World Cup quarter final matches.

The two Tenby boats, Jennifer and Back Again, were intent on giving the Tata fleet a good sorting out. Last year’s winners, Pam and Mike Murray, sailed the immaculate Supernova sporting a carbon rig. Some good finishes on Saturday were marred by over enthusiasm on one start leading to a DSQ. The class shared the start line with 6 state of the art lightweight International Canoe flying machines. They provided a novel method of judging the wind speed by their percentage attrition rate. Saturday was sailed in an IC force 0, Beaufort F2-3 with some big shifts and lulls to keep everybody on their toes. Early gains were made by Jaime and Tim when they headed towards the crematorium on the beat. Dan and Chris in Jennifer then battling with Oscar and Charlie in Jammy Dodger. The course set by RO John Rischmiller included a strategic sausage on each lap and with the other fleets starting first and on sausages at different times it was easy to get mixed up. Jennifer briefly succumbed to Sausage blindness but managed to pull back and win that race, leaving Jennifer and the Jammys tied overnight with one each.

Sunday morning gave every welsh rugby following sailor’s nerves a good workout with Wales’s excruciatingly close win over France. Andrew and Rebecca in Cariad y Mor didn’t match the standard of the rugby half time bacon butties and coffee breaks they had produced on the water. The wind had defied the forecast and picked up to a puffy IC force 66 (4 out of 6 ashore) Beaufort 4+. Jammy lived up to her name by choosing a crucial run side correctly and pulling out a big lead in race 3. On the fourth race Jennifer had the bit between her teeth and stormed away on a three-sail reach. However, sausage-gate had struck again and the majority of the Ospreys hardened up for the outer loop. Pink Panther sailed by Paul and Carwyn were having a particularly good day making gains.

A full turnout after lunch gave a great finale to the event. Although the wind had softened it was registering IC 100 (all the ICs gone). Some very close racing and huge gains and losses were possible by sailing into a hole. Sausages were again on the menu as Jennifer couldn’t figure out which windward mark to head to so added an extra one, twice! Despite this they roared through when the Dodger’s luck finally ran out, with the Panther leading the charge to get a well deserved race win.
Overall Jennifer often had the edge, but just like the French rugby team some moments of navigational madness gave the advantage away.