Wealden Sailability

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The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service

Today was a quintessential British Summer’s day. Perfect weather for being near or on water. Either by the sea shore or by or in a lake (or even, as I found my granddaughter when I got home, in a paddling pool! Ed) But sailors are demanding folk and need wind as well as warmth and sunshine. The warmth grew gradually during the morning and by early afternoon the sun was fully on parade! Definately a day for high factor sunscreen. But little wind :(.

BY 1000 the team of volunteers had a sizeable fleet of dinghies in the water and sailors started to arrive soon after the Day Briefing by David Mckee the Session Manager. Alas the two Martin 16s which we had hoped to be ready for use were still in their final stages of testing after a major bit of maintenance. Nevertheless the lake gradually filled with sailors and the Race was able to start shortly after 1100. The course was up on the Board and each sailor was told the course (and every volunteer was told the course! Ed) which was: Start / Finish Line in the middle of the lake between Buoy B and a Distance Marker with a yellow flag; a beat up to the Windward Mark A, left to starboard; then a run downwind to Mark C left to starboard; followed by a Reach across the lake to Mark K, left to starboard, followed by a beat through the start/finish gate before starting a new lap beating to Mark A.

Here is a video of the Start of the race. Try and work out where you are in the video and then decide how well you sailed in comparison to your competitors.

Start of Race 5 of the Spring Series

After an momentary lead by Martin Norman (Liberty White Sail #23), Kim Sparkes in 303 Red Sail #10 grasped control sailing across the fleet on Starboard Tack and only the wind was going to beat her. The rest of the fleet followed in her wake with each contender closing the gap whenever the wind favoured them on the downwind leg from Mark A to Mark C and they were behind…..but they were never able to get ahead. The wind conditions were not easy. The strength varied from a tickle to 8 knots and Alex Ross – a new WS Volunteer (Your knowledge of sailing and racing will be a great addition to the WS Racing Team Alex. Ed) – who was in the Race Hut with Fleur Bryant and myself, said that there was a 90 degree wind shift during the second lap. That means there will be winners and losers. The winners are those whose Tack/Gybe or Reach can be made more direct to the next Mark IF the sailor notices what has happened and adjusts his/her sails accordingly to make the most of the new wind direction – whatever strength it is blowing.

Here are some more photos of the race – in chronological order so you can see the boats nearest to you…..

Three peas in a pod…
Good ;positioning for the Mark…
Head to head…
Difficult to shake off
Who will reach the mark first?
Inside boat wins…

We had 9 entrants and we had 9 finishers and we had 2 volunteers getting used to the dinghies (and enjoying themselves! Ed). The last boats’ positions were calculated from their time for just one completed Lap. The Race Result is known and the winner is shown below sailing to victory on her to complete her third lap.

The details below have been added to the Summary Scoresheet.

  1. Kim Sparkes 303S Sail #10
  2. Derek Preston Liberty #24
  3. Mark Cayzer and his crew James Thomas 303D #11
  4. Peter Wagner Liberty #25
  5. Geoff Taylor 303S #3
  6. Imogen Fletcher and her crew Peter Moore 303D #4
  7. Trevor Monk 303S #2
  8. Martin Norman Liberty #23
  9. Tom Phillips 303S #7

Well done to all these WS Racers and the volunteers who enable the Race to be run.

Everyone associated with Wealden Sailaibility has looked forward to this day for nearly eighteen months (Yes, really. Since October 31st 2019). Of course the first five months was the expected Winter break when the fleet, the pontoons and the foreshore is checked over carefully and repaired or upgraded as required. Then just as you and we were all getting ready for the 2020 Season, the first Lockdown was announced and every initiative and activity had to stop. Since then a huge amount of work has been done behind the scenes (or, since we are sailors, “Under the surface”? Ed) by the Trustees to work out how “WS could function in a socially distanced world?” Yesterday was the culmination of all their and the volunteers’ efforts to be ready to safely and legally welcome sailors back onto the water at Chipstead. Thank you – all of you!!

Since mid-March, everyone who has participated in WS Races has been contacted and told about the situation and the Trustees’ plans to start asap. Some of you Racers were keen as mustard to get out on the water, whilst others were more cautious. Eventually ten sailors were invited to attend the inaugural sailing session and race on 13th May. Due to late opportunities for medical attention and concern that it was still too cold, it was left to a stalwart eight and their families and carers to arrive at a drizzle swept Chipstead Lake by 10.30am. (Hooray and many thanks to you for coming to support the small group of volunteers who had been at the lake since 8.30am staring at a nearly flat calm lake wondering how many sailors would brave what was a rather uninviting scene . Ed)

An inviting scene?
Is this any better?

It was lovely to greet the sailors who had accepted an invitation to sail and for them to greet each other….

Hello…Dr Livingstone?
Hello…Yes….
And you are….?

After a brief chat amongst these sailors, they decided that they would like to get out on the water and race. So the volunteers rigged and launched the necessary boats and the sailors got into them….

303 and Liberty classes were used
The hoist was used…

The wind had been forecast to blowing from the East at a perfect (for first day back) 8 knots with gusts to 14 knots. The course had been set with that wind direction in mind allowing a beat from the Start Line (stretching out into the lake in front of the Race Hut) up to Mark D which had been dragged towards the southerly bank of the Donald King Reach. But In reality there was a gentle 4 knots blowing from the South East which resulted in nearly being able to reach to the first Mark on a single tack. As can be seen in this short video….

After rounding Mark D to port, the course took the fleet westward and downwind to round Mark C before heading for Mark B after which the fleet had to harden up their sails to reach across to Mark A and then tacking around to start sailing back to the Start/Finish Line. Or at least that was the theory when the Race started at 11.25am but by the time the racers had got round to Mark B they found that the wind had veered from the expected East to South East and then South! If the wind had been consistent, that would have meant the leg from Mark B to Mark A was a straightforward reach but instead it became a tricky beat. As you all know Chipstead’s wind is not consistent, so rounding Mark A was difficult and some sailors who got the approach right made good progress at the expense of others who rounded Mark B in front of them. (Welcome back to chaos Racers! Ed).

After lots of encouragement over the Tannoy from the Race Hut, the fleet was well bunched up on the Start line ready for the 3-2-1 Minute count down to the Start. The video shows the early leaders and Derek Preston (Liberty Sail #24) was able to stretch his lead down to Mark B but then he inexplicably sailed off course (Was he on a sight seeing tour of our beautiful waterfall? Ed) which enabled those following him to beat him around Mark A, not least the other Liberty helm Martin Norman (Liberty #25). And Martin led the Race across the Finish line for the first time and was followed by Derek who was chased hard all the way home by Kim Sparkes (303 #4).

Trevor Monk (303 #6), Mark Cayzer (303 #7) with his dad crewing, and Tom Phillips (303 #8), were all sailing well and battling the wind shifts as they ocurred. This meant that these three were swapping places throughut the race…..

But it was not until the leg from Mark D to Mark C on the second lap that Tom was able to overhaul Mark, having passed Trevor earlier.

Despite the drizzle and the lack of wind, all the Racers said that they had enjoyed their sail as had Rachel and Imogen who had opted for the luxury of a sail on The Pride of Peppenbury, WS’s beautiful Longboat, togther with Brigitte who had brought them and Tom to Chipstead.

The final Result after applying the PY handicapping for each class (303 Double handed; 303 Single handed; Liberty) was:

  1. Martin Norman Liberty – Sail #25
  2. Kim Sparkes 303S – Sail # 4
  3. Derek Preston Liberty – Sail #24
  4. Tom Phillips 303S – Sail #8
  5. Trevor Monk 303S – Sail #6
  6. Mark Cayzer and Alan Cayzer 303D – Sail #7

We hope that you have enjoyed reading this Race Report and seeing the photos of your friends will inspire you to contact Steve Thomas and Peter Ashwell so that you are invited you to the next Thursday Sailing Session. Bravo all of you sailors!!