Sailing on springs

The OK Mason Cup took place over the weekend

Now in its 37th year, the Mason Cup for OK Dinghies was sailed at Overy Staithe Sailing Club overnight on the 16-17th June. As is traditional it was sailed on high spring tides, that in Norfolk occur in the evenings and mornings. Thus the first start at 7.00pm allowed for a leisurely Saturday.

Light winds dominated the harbour courses with the first race going to Pete Turner after extending his lead throughout to win by a considerable margin. Alex Scoles just held off Terry Curtis for second. The second race followed a similar pattern with Robert Deaves finding more pressure on the left of the first beat to round first and gradually extend to win from Curtis and Scoles.

After curry, beer and five hours sleep, the next start at 7.30am was set out to sea in slightly more wind and an incredibly strong tide. Jon Fish made the best of the first race by sailing furthest inshore and leading throughout. Most of the fleet had helped repair his boat overnight after he found one of the many groynes in the harbour and ripped his rudder fittings off in the first race on Saturday. Deaves pulled through Curtis and Turner into second place, but after initially heading for the wrong downwind mark, allowed Scoles, who had moved up four places on the last beat, to take second place.

With any of four boats capable of taking the Cup, the final tense race brought Turner to the front again after an excellent start. He led throughout with Deaves overhauling Fish on the second beat to take second and second overall. On equal points with Deaves, Turner won the cup for the first time.

Results:

Pete Turner
Robert Deaves
Alex Scoles
Terry Curtis
Jon Fish
Andy Turner
David Rollinson
Simon Shaw
Dave Cooper
Pete Follen

Next weekend the class meets up at Upper Thames Sailing Club for its 50th Anniversary celebrations with over 150 guests expected including many past National Champions and class officials.