Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report round 6 at the 2017 Weymouth Dinghy Regatta By Mike Tustin 

Sixteen Phantom sailors made the effort to travel down to Dorset to sample Olympic sailing waters for the two day Weymouth Dinghy regatta which started on Saturday 8 July.  With mainstream weather forecasters and windguru predicting very light winds all were pleasantly surprised with the gentle breeze along with the presence of the big yellow ball nice and high in the sky.  Almost perfect sailing conditions.  With 120 other dinghies in attendance and using a common start/finish line we were all very pleased to find that we were sharing a start line with a good group of Oks for the first race at 1.00pm.
 
With a very busy line and missing James Dawson who eventually turned up late for the second race we set off.  Very quickly and with very long legs in what turned out to be a windward leeward course Nick Orman and John Wayling sailed ahead to a slightly unexpected (in my boat anyway) finish at the committee boat after only 2 and ½ legs.
 
With the wind dropping slowly race two started in a very similar manner with Nick almost doing a horizon job on the rest of the fleet.  As per the last race we all approached the finish line to find that this time we were sailing onto the windward mark once again.  This did cause a little confusion in a few boats and several places were exchanged at this point and on the final approach to the windward mark.
 
The last race of the afternoon in even less but still a respectable breeze found Nick Orman heading right in towards Castle cove.  Others found this to be hard race as loose floating weed seemed to have become quite  a factor in this part of the harbour.  However Nick Orman once again won the day followed by Will Gulliver and John Wayling.

Read more: Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report round 6 at the 2017 Weymouth Dinghy...

Royal Windermere Yacht Club, Phantom open Meeting

9 phantoms attended the RWYC open, 7 travelling and 2 home boats made up the fleet. The forecast was decent and although a bit cloudy, a nice south westerly was blowing. The decision was made to sail in the south basin, meaning a 20 minute sail to the start line. The RO set a long beat, and the start line was nice and square resulting in a nice clean getaway. Although everyone picked different routes up the long beat at the windward mark at least 5 or 6 phantoms were very close, it was nip and tuck from there on with some swapping of places on the downwind legs. Phil Worth had a great second beat and pulled into a small lead, being closely followed by Adam Perry and Martin Knott. Phil held on for the win , with Martin pipping Adam on the line. Not far behind was Matt Nield and Richard Sims. A great race with some close racing throughout, and by Windermere’s standards a nice steady wind.  The fleet sailed back in for lunch. After lunch the phantoms were joined by club boats of flying fifteens and dinghies for back to back races , unfortunately before the start Joe Bibby realised there was a large crack in his cst mast, so that was the end of his day, fortunately he has another mast, so shouldn't be off the water for too long.

Read more: Royal Windermere Yacht Club, Phantom open Meeting

Royal Windermere Yacht Club Open Sunday 9th July

Royal Windermere yacht club welcomes phantom sailors from near or far to a 1 day open meeting on Sunday 9th of July. 3 races, first race at 11am and 2 back to back in the afternoon. For anyone wishing to make a weekend of it, boats can be dropped off either on the Friday or the Saturday. 

Come and sail on Englands largest pond, details can be found at www.royal-windermere.co.uk

Thanks Matt 1309

Phantom Nationals - ENTRY NOW OPEN

http://www.phantomclass.org.uk/events/phantom-nationals-2017-highcliffe-sailing-club

Phantom Open at Stone Sailing Club - Report

A combined Open meeting for the Phantom and Snipe classes was held at Stone Sailing Club over the weekend of 17th 18th June.

In complete contrast to the previous weekends event at Creeksea on the River Crouch, the River Blackwater appeared devoid of wind when the fleet arrived for an 11am briefing on Saturday morning.

The Maldon Barge race was in progress with barges and various smacks drifting out on the tide making a fine picture on a glassy sea.  All very picturesque but it was no surprise to hear the two hour postponement of the planned 12:30 start time.

This delay allowed the fleet to indulge in several of their favourite pastimes, with small groups of sailors clustered around new boats generally fiddling with string and offering helpful tuning suggestions.  In all such situations it is not unusual for control line splicing sessions to develop and this activity spread around the fleet.  It was fortunate that a "mystery sailor" from Northampton was there to lend advice and assistance with knowledge gleaned from his past incarnation as a Marlow ropes representative.  In fact the need to undertake similar works on the sadly neglected borrowed boat that he was proposing to sail soon became apparent and time flew by in a flurry of dyneema.  Relieved by occasional tea and Haribo sweets, the fleet soon finished the macrame lessons and resumed the banter and tales of glories past.

After two hours it seemed certain that the land breeze/sea breeze battle was a dead heat - and heat was the word - as the temperature continue to rise and red faced sailors retreated to the club house.  A further two hour delay was therefore no surprise.

Read more: Phantom Open at Stone Sailing Club - Report

Creeksea SC Phantom Open meeting 10th/11th June.

Thirteen boats contested the third event in the Phantom Class Eastern Series at Creeksea Sailing Club near Burnham on Crouch over the weekend of 10th and 11th June.  

The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies but the wind was a steady 20 knots with larger gusts of up to 30 knots at times.  Blowing from a broadly Southerly direction this meant that the conditions were even more like those being witnessed in Bermuda with a close fetch to a windward mark followed by a very fast up river reach to the famous “Cliff / Canewdon” stretch of river which swings to the south giving a hard beat in wind over tide conditions.

Read more: Creeksea SC Phantom Open meeting 10th/11th June

Optimum Time Watches Southern Phantom Series Round 6 at Downs Sailing Club

Membership Renewals and Measurement Certificates

Firstly - Why have you left it so long when it was due in January??

Secondly - as you may be aware the membership sec Matt is currently jilling around Scotland. All membership confirmations should be forwarded to me, but it appears there may have been a backlog. I'm going to go through the PayPal account and check everyone who has paid in the last 4 weeks hasn't slipped through.

If you have recently paid and not received anything, please bear with us and anything outstanding should be posted by the end of the week.

Unfortunately we will not be able to issue any replacement boat measurement certificates until later in the year (Septemberish), If anyone has a new boat we can still measure and issue a new certificate etc.

If you have any specific problems then shout

Thanks 

Phil Longley

Class Chairman

Optimum Time Watches Southern Series Phantom Open Meeting Round 5 to be held at Shoreham SC on the 28th and 29th of May

The club will be running Phantom class racing alongside club racing with a separate start for Phantoms.
Scheduled for Sunday are 3 races back to back with an 11.00 am start and 2 races on Monday.
Our race officer is ex national champion Tyler Harmsworth so a perfect Phantom course is assured.

Tyler will also with Lisa be running the bar after racing so no protests please !!
There will be an evening meal on Sunday night and the galley open Sunday / Monday for refreshments.
Bring your partners and dancing shoes and get down to some Soul Ska Rhythm & Blues from DJ Phantom Spinner on the decks Sunday evening. Plenty of free camping and room for motor homes...

The Phantom class is looking very healthy with open meeting numbers up and record numbers of new boats being ordered. Close tactical racing and a friendly welcome can be expected at all Phantom opens !!

See you all at Shoreham
Ivan 1300