Mirror Southern Traveller Open
Maidenhead Sailing Club – 20th May 2006
Lovesey Brothers win the Day

The open meeting at Maidenhead Sailing Club looked set to offer some challenging conditions, with wind in excess of 20 knots being the forecast.  Consequently only 5 boats turned up for the race, but in the end the weather provided some great sailing, and some excitement too, but with the most consistent wind strength being in the morning race.

The event, based on three races with no discards, was won by the brothers Tom Lovesey and James Lovesey (70154) from Warsash and both members of the RYA Mirror Southern Zone Squad, but not without many battles throughout the day.

The First race was won by Simon Lovesey and Ed Nicholls in the new MCA single piece mast demo boat (70400), Simon from Warsash and Ed form Maidenhead, who dominated the race, crossed the line with a significant lead.  The real battle in this race was for second place, which was finally taken by Sam Nicholls and Chris Hudson (67961).

The second race saw Simon Lovesey retire with an ill crew, which let Kevin Hastings (39752) from Maidenhead seize first place, with the battle again being for second place, but this time being taken by Tom and James Lovesey.

By mid afternoon the wind strength started building up, but worse still in the form of strong gusts and big shifts, not steady strength.  As a result the third race proved to be the most exciting and also the most closely contested, with William Reid and Oliver Negus (70395) from Bosham/Royal Harwich pushing forwards to near the front of the fleet in the first lap only to be robbed, when a strong gust hit them hard, causing an eventful capsize next to Maidenhead lake’s north island and with their mast becoming trapped in the bed of the lake – subsequently they were forced to retire.

So the battle was on between the remainder of the fleet, as at this stage it was possible, with the right combination of results, for anyone to win the event. 

The battle for first place took place between Simon Lovesey and his  sons Tom and James, with Tom and James eventually taking first place, followed then by Kevin Hastings in 3rd place and then Sam Nicholls and Richard Hudson taking 4th, after a spectacular capsize just before the finish line when they too were taken out by a sudden gust.

So Tom and James went home with first prize, with Kevin Hastings in second place and Simon Lovesey and Ed Nicholls in third place.

  The winners Tom and James roll tack up to the finish line.

Report by:
Trevor Nicholls,
MSC Youth Development Officer

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