MYC OSPREY OPEN - A view from our visitors

Published 01:00 on 29 Aug 2025

Margate 27th - 28th August - by Mark Mawhinney, Dave Caroll & Chris Hatcher

With a mix of exotica and vintage Ospreys, Margate YC hosted the midweek leg of the Osprey SE tour.

Wednesday - Margate Day one, 3 races. Might have been a bit windy but it made for some very special Osprey sailing. Apart from a few retirees after two races and a pasty, It became apparent that a heavy crew was the way to go. Despite an average start, 1383, Russ Wheeler and Mark Mawhinney showed blistering speed. Mark commented on the first race; "We battled our way to 2nd place, chasing 1116 into the final run.

Russ asks me why are they sailing straight to the finish from the windward mark? Not sure but that's not the course. We finish, and see 1116 turning around to complete the race having tried to skip the leeward mark. I remember what Steve kindly said to us at Burnham where we made a similar blunder... "Steve you won the race you sailed" Dave can be heard mumbling something I'd assume to be rude in reply.

With 2 seconds Steve Carroll - 1116 observed that "Smiles were abundant on everyone's faces as they arrived ashore albeit completely knackered." All except 1292 took a swim at some point during the day and Alex in the class boat was clearly suffering from the 1 to 1 on the mainsheet having capsized whilst leading the second race so a gybing strop fitted for the next day.

Great hospitality and cheap beer awaited some very tired sailors and the evening was won by the same top two as the days sailing, except for Russ who was clearly focused on writing his winning speech based on Thursdays forecast.

Thursday came and it ended as a tale of two halves. Russ and Mark wanted an 8 hour postponement but the rest of the fleet wanted an easy life. Racing was tight and very slow with bugger all wind. Alex and Nick showed epic pace to get them back in the mix with a first and 2 seconds. All in all a truly epic battle on both days with some fantastic conditions. Fantastic racing and most importantly some great hospitality and effort put in by team Margate. You are all amazing.

Last updated 12:25 on 23 September 2025