The Open was held over a very blustery weekend and was attended by 9 visitors from as far afield as Lyme Regis (Peter Thomas) as well as 7 home bala boats. On Saturday the wind was an intimidating F5 NW coming straight off the surrounding hills producing massive wind shifts and ferocious gusts. Tactical sailing was hardly possible as sailors were fully occupied trying to anticipate and cope with the gusts and shifts. Race Officer Peter Thompson did an excellent job setting some testing courses under the difficult conditions and only race 2 suffered from the shifting wind.

Racing on Day 1 was dominated by Dan Partington and Ralph Jones, the two local Bala sailors showing their experience at handling the worst Bala conditions. Amazingly Andy Elliot sailing the Blaze for the first time achieved three straight fourths.Entertainment on the Saturday night included barbeque and bar followed by a few quizes with prizes.

On Day 2 the wind was still NW but had eased to F4. The fourth race saw Dan Partington take an early big lead until he unluckily found a rare hole and had to watch Jones and Elliot plane across to join him for a close battle to the finish which, after a lot of place changes, eventually saw Elliot win closely followed by Jones then Partington. Elliot maintained his form to take the fifth and final race being chased hard at the finish by a rapidly improving Ian Foxwell.

Results
1st Ralph Jones, 667, Bala (6pts)
2nd Dan Partington, 668, Bala (8pts)
3rd Andy Elliot, 715, Rotherham (10pts)
4th Ken Hull 685, Bala, (18pts)
5th Ian Foxwell, 702, Wilsonians (18pts)