Woodspring MSC A Class PRACC 1 and 2 16th – 17th May 2026 – Report and Results
A dull overcast day welcomed seven skippers for the Saturday event, and a sunny dry day on Sunday had nine skippers.
The wind was good on both days, on the Saturday it was consistently a South Westerly, which is a good direction for the lake enabling us to set a course alongside the long edge of the lake near the road. It initially started light and gradually built up during the day.
On the Sunday it started South Westerly, but then shifted to Westerly which is across the lake, meaning either a very biased long windward leg, or a short balanced one. To address this the course was amended to include a dogleg on the windward leg to provide two short balanced windward beats. This worked well and provided something different to the normal up and down courses, and gave skippers opportunities to apply different strategies. At lunchtime the wind switched back and we reverted to the original course.
The relatively small size of the lake, and the speed of these boats meant that the races were fairly short, so despite numerous breaks and a relaxed atmosphere we rattled through the races at a fast rate, completing twenty-four races before the 4pm cut-off !
On the Sunday we decided to control the number of races, and thanks to the longer course with two beats, and an even more relaxed operation, seventeen races were completed. So, forty-one races in total !
The racing was usually very close, and it was starts and tacking strategy which normally won races. All the skippers, bar one, enjoyed race wins.
Up front it was Olly Murray consistently winning races, taking fourteen wins over the two days, and if not in front usually in second, and he won overall. He usually made good starts and used the strategy of coming in close to the edge of the lake before tacking away, and then repeating before approaching the mark. This usually worked much better than going out towards the island and coming in from the port side.
Bob Conner came second on both days, with excellent boat speed, and pointing slightly better than Olly’s boat. Third place on Saturday was taken by Richard Aucott, and on Sunday it was Phillip Wiles.
So, an enjoyable weekend, lots of racing in a decent breeze, just a shame that more A Class owners aren’t prepared to travel and enjoy sailing somewhere other than their home club.
Thanks to race team Alan Barnstable, Colin Newton, and Sue Conner.