British Moth open meeting at Desborough Sailing Club
by Elaine Laverty 24 Sep 15:51 UTC
20 September 2025
Saturday 20th September saw the British Moth fleet gather for their last open meeting of the season at Desborough Sailing Club on the Thames at Shepperton in what is an almost perfect location for these quirky boats.
Race 1 saw the fleet of five boats make a good start up the narrowing channel to the windward mark with home boats sailed by James Clancy and Richard Broughton making the most of local knowledge to get there in first and second place respectively but Elaine Laverty (Leamington Spa SC) showed good speed and soon passed Richard and was on James' tail for most of the race.
Gary Hogan (Emberton Park SC) made a slow start but improved during the race and Andrew Parsons (Medley SC) sailed well but dropped back in the later stages and retired once he had been lapped.
A lovely lunch was provided by the club, tactics were discussed & it was decided with a forecast of increasing wind & rain likely that there would be two slightly shorter back to back races after lunch.
Race 2 followed a very similar course to the first race with the same finishing order. Andrew again retired and decided not to sail the final race
Race 3 saw increasingly blustery conditions, Richard made an excellent start & led for most of the race and seemed to have an insurmountable lead until a rogue gust and a pleasure boat saw both him and James in irons allowing Gary and Elaine to pass! James quickly got going again to eventually take the win followed by Gary and Richard could only manage fourth place behind Elaine.
Overall results:
1st James Clancy
2nd Elaine Laverty
3rd Gary Hogan
4th Richard Broughton
5th Andrew Parsons
After the main prize-giving the results for the Somerville travellers series was announced with the winner being Gary Hogan.