Report by Christian Hill

Craftinsure Vintage and Classic merlin open at Fishers Green Sailing Club -

As promised the sun shone and the wind blew.

 Eight home boats mostly functioning and three visitors with tall rigs arrived from their river clubs.

Up and down course was set by Dave Walford/ Roberto Mancini our RO's for the day, with a very shifty south westerly breeze gusting strong at times, kept everyone on there toes.

Three races and Three perfect starts, all clear! Unheard of at a merlin event, but the classic and vintage fleet are much better behaved than the modern lot.

Chris and Gabe Hill in 2997 cream cracker powered away in all three to gain the top spot. The fleet followed in hot pursuit, positions changing depending on where you were on the course.

Notable events

Richard Coulter and Louis in Passion 3314 lost his main halyard and was late to the first start, his boat (and himself) continued to deteriorate as the day went on with various blocks and pulleys pulling out.

Lord Blake (Blake Newman) sailing with his cousin Mike Atkinson commented that Mike 'bottled it' at the finishes in classic merlin Hot Goblin 3402, were mostly at the front of the fleet until the end of each race showing great pace. Until...He bottled it! (Blake’s words), even with that fierce criticism they managed a respectable 6th overall and 1st classic, Blake took the helm for the crews race and manged to steal defeat from the jaws of victory as he scooped just before the finish line,

Matteo Mancini and new crew (to the Merlin’s) Daisy Cox in Nick Yanna's boat Shogun 3055 show moment of brilliance and top boat speed, sailed the third race mostly in 3rd.a great effort considering the strong fleet.

Bad Dog 3232 (Harry Steward and Claudia Mancini) survived without the boat falling apart completing all races unlike the previous 2 vintage open meetings

1742 Father Jon Steward gybed himself out of the boat in the 2nd race, thanks  to his daughter Annabel Steward for pulling him back on board and still managed to grab 3rd spot.

Legends Pat and Jilly Blake joined us for the day with Tiercel 901.

Graham Webb teamed up with Ben Dowling also new to the Merlin’s in Pat Blake’s old boat Smartypants, just pipping Pat and Jilly overall.

Goff Clark and Oz Ahmet nailed the first beat of the 1st race only to struggle a little with boat speed, Goff suspects his spreaders needed tweaking.

Our visitors did really well, Rob Cage and Nicola Scaddan1692 finished 2nd, Tim and Ed Medcalf in 578 finished 4th overall, while testing out a new tall rig mainsail.

On to the most important race of the day the crew’s race.

Claudia won the crews race in Bad Dog with Harry crewing. Maybe she'll keep him in the front from now on. Daisy went on to achieve 2nd place in the crews race, helming a merlin for the first time.

BBQ and a few beers finished the day off with Lord Blake in charge of grilling everyone's BYO BBQ after a minor setback as the first batch of sausages went up in flames, but the rest was cooked to perfection.

A great day thanks to our great club-Commadore Kevin and Jane in the galley -Bill, Jess, John, Angie on rescue.

A day of champagne conditions matched by champagne sailing by all teams involved.

The next Craftinsure Vintage event is at Tamesis Sailing Club on the 21^st June combined with the Classic Series.