Whilst the stormy forecast may have kept some away those that did turn up were treated to some interesting wind patterns and good close racing plus the usual Flash hospitability.

Race 1 saw Paul Lennie and Pam Gott (Winsford Flash) 7909 first to the windward mark closely followed closely by son and father team Mathew and Paul Metcalfe-Smith (Ogston SC) 8158 just ahead of Phil Smith and Fiona Nidre (Winsford Flash) 8152. Phil managed to work his way through the fleet to take the gun ahead of Mathew.

After a hearty lunch the squall at the start of race 2 was put to good use by Mike Banner and Pippa Mitchell (Winsford Flash) 8133 who shot off the line leaving mayhem behind them. They extended their lead throughout the race to finish comfortably ahead of both Phil and Paul.

That meant it was all down to the last race, which started in the steadiest wind conditions. Mike, sailing again with his former crew Pippa, tacked onto a shift just after the start to take an early lead only for Phil to slowly claw back resulting in a tense covering duel to the finish with Mike managing to hold on and win the race and the event overall. At the prize giving Ian McLean and Jack Davey (Dee SC) 6833 picked up a bottle of wine each to celebrate their first Albacore Open whilst Mike thanked the club for a well organised event and dedicated his first open win to the late Mary Ayrton, a former Winsford Albacore stalwart and wife of Ken Aytron.

Overall Results:

Sign up to the Speed Sunday Offers Newsletter, The Newsletter is a weekly event with all the Offers being Online Exclusives only and most running for a Week Only.  Featured in the Newsletter will be primarily Offers we have on certain lines, New Products coming into stock, Offers on Sails, Covers, Class Spares etc..

We've been busy lately adding Milanes Foils to our website for many classes.  So if your looking for a new Rudder, Centreboard for your Boat, Milanes foils are the way to go!.  Heres a bit about Milanes

Milanes Foils have been manufacturing centreboards and rudders since 1975, helping dinghy sailors achieve top results in Olympic and National classes. Our foils have, for example, won Olympic silver (Finn and FD) and Gold (Finn) as well as World Championships in 420, 505, Contender, OK, Enterprise, Cadet, to name but a few, classes. We have also achieved National Championship wins in over 20 other well known Dinghy and keelboat Classes. We also manufacture and supply rudderstocks in various materials, including wood, foam, glass, and carbon.We have templates for most of the National and International classes and within specific rule limitations we endeavour to produce the most efficient shaped foils taking into account minimum drag and maximum lift characteristics.

View our Range of Milanes foils

We have been doing a spot of development with our Albacore sails, John Gimson who is Iain Percy's training partner in the Star and has also been apart of the team GB team for some time now approached Speed Sails as he fancied doing some Albacore sailing. We saw this as a great opportunity to finely tune and take a closer look at our sails.

We have put some hard hours into it and John sailing with his farther Paul came out on top at the Hamble open. John & Paul are sailing at the nationals held by Llandudno SC, watch this space to see how they get on. Good luck chaps!

Our quick release buckle takes the hassle out of packing up your boat - simply push the specially moulded connector fittings together to ‘click’ home. Easy!

Now for sale in 20mm or 25mm via our website www.speedsails.co.uk

A light northerly shifting breeze made for tough sailing for handicap racing sponsored by Speed Sails, 2 races were sailed with the fleet split into Fast and Slow fleet starts.

In the first race the 3 Merlin Rockets and the Phantom of Mike Tustin romped ahead leaving the Slow Fleet trailing far behind as the breeze died. Matt Biggs crewed by Ben Hollis in his Merlin established a 3 minute lead over Andy and Richie Adams whilst Richard Dee and Chris duelled with Mike Tustin in his Phantom. The Albacore of Neville Herbert finished 4th on handicap.

The slow fleet had a closer tussle between the Bartley Streaker of Debbie Degge leading the Solo’s of Brian Stammers and Graham Robinson over the line.

The second race started in a reasonable breeze and Matt Biggs tussled with Andy enjoyed another Merlin benefit with a very close finish and Richard Dee followed in 3rd place. The Albacore again came through on handicap in 4th place.

The slow fleet slide further back as the wind faded after Fast Fleet leaders finished their race. This led to more mixed results in the fleet with Solo’s leading the way on handicap with Dave Brand winning race 2 from Trevor Thomas but Debbie Degge scraped in to win overall from Brian Stammers and Graham Robinson.

Mike Biggs won overall with 2 first places after a very good display of light weather sailing.

The Junior Fleet was led home by Crispin Beaumont and Nick Wilson sailing a Feva whose race included 2 Feva’s starting on an advantageous port tack on a busy start line in the first race and nearly succeeding in clearing the fleet in a slower boat. Crispin and Nick finished a creditable 8th overall.

Overall Results:

Slow Fleet

Fast Fleet

Speed Sails have put together this tuning guide to help you set your boat up close to its ideal settings. These settings should be regarded as a starting point for fine tuning as individual boats and crews may need to alter them slightly for best performance. When you have your boat set up, remember to mark everything so that the settings can be reproduced quickly.

SpeedSails Albacore Tuning Guide

Speed Sails have been closely involved with the Albacore class for the last decade producing National Championship winning sails. In 2007 developments in sail shape have led to increased performance across the conditions and saw victory in the European Championships.

SAILS:

Mainsail: - The Speed Albacore mainsail is a proven championship winner taking both the National title and inaugural European title in recent years. Development in 2007 has led to a more efficient sail shape providing both excellent drive and controllability. The sail is manufactured from 4.46oz Ripstop Polykote and comes complete with battens, window, numbers, cunningham block and sail bags.

Jib: - The Speed Albacore jib is a proven championship winner taking both the National title and inaugural European title in recent years. The jib is specially designed to provide the optimum balance between pointing and power. The sail is manufactured from 4.46oz Ripstop Polykote and comes complete with window, tell tales and sail bag.

Albacore tuning guide

SPARS: 

We carry a large stock of Superspar and Proctor masts & booms in our rigging workshop ready to despatch either fully rigged or as bare sections. We also offer a complete rigging service to cater for everything from replacement shrouds and halyards to cascade kickers.

Click here for your FREE SPEED CATALOGUE 

Alternatively visit us online at www.speedsails.co.uk