Musto Skiffs at the Itchenor Firecracker
by Dave Poston 10 Nov 05:57 UTC
8-9 November 2025
2025 Itchenor Firecracker © Paddy Smart
Eleven Mustos assembled for their now established end of season event at Itchenor. It's usually an event with Baltic weather where sailors have to thaw out around the fire in the cosy clubhouse, but this time the event started with sun, warmth - and no wind.
The fleet was starting to wonder if any sailing was going to happen that day when the predicted 8 knot westerly finally arrived. Let battle commence! And quite a battle it was.
The breeze was fairly steady but it was mostly the changing tide giving the tactical options. In Race 1 Andy "Turbo' Tarboten, Eddie Bridle and Tom Kyne managed to break away from the rest of the fleet with Eddie taking the win followed by Andy and Tom. The rest of the fleet was very tight with an exciting finish as most of the rest of the fleet converged right on the finish.
Race 2 was similarly tight, however with the tide turning the middle of the course was now paying. Turbo managing to pull ahead, with Brennan Robinson and Brian Greensmith following, but again there was very little to separate the rest of the fleet and an awful lot of place changing.
Time ran out for further racing so the fleet headed in. With nearly everyone staying at the club, and a relatively late start the next day, the fleet decamped to the club bar and the local pub. And unfortunately, caught up in the excitement of the event, a few un-named sailors forgot where the door was to the accomodation block, and despite standing only a few yards away, failed to locate it and spent the night in a car!
There was no waiting around on Sunday and a brisk 12-15 knots made for fast and fun racing. Usually when the breeze gets up the fleet separates more, but this didn't seem to be the case - it was still very tight racing with a lot of place changes.
In Race 3 Dave Poston went hard left and got a jump on the fleet to lead at the first mark but was overhauled by a flawless Tarboten, closely followed by Tom Scott and Dave Annan. In Race 4 Poston and Tarboten again tussled for the lead in the biggest breeze of the day, with Poston losing the place after hitting a mark.
The final race saw Turbo take the lead again, winning the race and the event overall. Eddie Bridle recovered his form to take second place in the race and second overall in the event.
Our thanks go to Itchenor SC for putting on a slick event. A great end to the season for the Mustos.
Overall Results:
1st, GBR 1, Andy Tarboten
2nd, GBR 637, Eddie Bridle
3rd, GBR 616, Dave Poston