Challenging Challenge Plate

The UK 18ft Skiff fleet saw the return of Andy Budgen at their first event of the season

The first round of the 2008 18ft Skiff UK circuit was sailed last weekend at Rutland Water. Competing for the Gul Challenge Plate was a slightly depleted but competitive fleet of six skiffs.

The shelter of the clubhouse lawns inspired most of the fleet to initially choose their number one rigs for the first day’s racing. However, the more observant crews noticed the speed of the windsurfers flying across the bottom of the reservoir by the wall, indicating that there was considerably more breeze in the race area than was apparent form the shore. This led to much agonising over rig choice with the majority of the fleet eventually electing to switch to number two rigs. Only Fat Face and Grapefruit Graphics elected to ‘go big’ – a brave decision for one of the lightest and one of the least experienced crews in the fleet.

The first race got underway in a breeze of 15 knots or so and gusting higher. All teams comfortably three wiring proving the small rig had been the right choice. The early race was a close fought battle between Peter Barton Simon Hamilton and David Steed on Investec Private Bank and James Mears, Stuart Mears and Andy Ramms on the superbly refurbished Pica, who looked very much on the pace with their new North 3DL square top rig. However, a mistake at the windward mark resulted in a very costly capsize for Pica, damaging their new main and putting them out of contention for the remainder of the day.

The second and third races were both won comfortably by Ian Turnbull, Paul Constable and Alec Mckinlay on the newly christened Ronstan UK. After a broken jib sheet had forced them back to shore for the first race the team put in a mistake free performance to claim two bullets despite a stiff challenge early in each race from Investec. The latter team however came ashore on top of the leaderboard with a consistent first and two seconds for the day.

Sunday dawned without a breath of wind. Sensibly the race officer called a short postponement to allow the breeze to full to its forecast eight to ten knots, which it duly did. Pica made up for the disaster of the previous day by taking the first race from the very consistent Investec, with Ronstan in third. Investec then went on to claim the final two races of the event and with that the Gul Challenge Plate. Pica were never far behind with two seconds. Andy Budgen marked a welcome return to 18ft skiff sailing with a third in race five on Project Racing and Ronstan rounded off the podium positions with a third in race six.

A consistent series counting nothing less than second place gave the Investec Private Bank with guest helm Peter Barton the Gul Challenge Plate. Ronstan UK took second overall and Pica third despite their misfortune on the Saturday.

Despite a low turnout the UK 18ft skiff fleet is looking in very good shape. All the top teams have now switched to the new flat top rigs favoured by their Australian counterparts and with the likes of Andy Budgen rejoining the fleet and rumours of other top helms acquiring boats in anticipation of next year’s JJ Giltinan Championships in France the season could be a very interesting one indeed.