I am sorry that I missed this Race but it appears you had an exciting and possibly exhausting day on the water. Many thanks to Fleur Bryant who acted as Race Officer and wrote this report:
Wow! What a race! Firstly, well done to everybody for getting out there and giving it a go. You did brilliantly! For those that made it to the end of the race, I hope you didn’t get too wet and you managed to enjoy yourselves. The lap times were so short (about 6 mins per lap instead of 9 to 11 minutes in recent weeks for the 2.4s) that it was quite a job keeping tabs on you all!
The Start of the Race was delayed because Mark D had drifted too close to the shore, which was keeping the rescue boats busy re-floating the significant numbers of boats that ran aground. Once D was moved, the race got underway. Fortunately the wind dropped a bit to allow for an easier start line. It was great to see lots of good tactical positioning prior to the start leading to a big bunch close to the start line when the Gong sounded.
Well done to Mike Blatchford for his great start. First across the line ……. maybe, but in all the excitement remember not to sail too close to the wind on the Beat since, although you may think you are going to get the upwind mark sooner, actually the boat is not moving as fast as it could if you were to ease off the wind a bit, and hence you end up taking longer to get to where you’re heading!! This was also the case for the Venture. The first beat saw some really close racing within the Access’ and Liberties fleets. There were some issues at the Windward Mark with a number of people heading too close to the shore and running aground. (Oh dear!! Ed) Try to assess the position of the Mark before planning your route up to it. There was plenty of room to reach the Mark but heading to the left of it was not ideal for the wind direction or depth of water.
The first lap was extremely fast, with Peter Gregory leading the fleet round in just 6 minutes 45 seconds. After this point, it got rather busy in the race box, single-handedly recording each of your times on the results sheet, so the subsequent tactics and sailing have avoided any further scrutiny and assessment 🙂 !
There were a couple more Port / Starboard incidents which you should try to avoid as much as possible by keeping an eye on what other boats around you are doing and anticipating where they are likely to tack/gybe and how that might affect you. However beyond this, the overriding rule is to avoid a collision – so even if you are in the right, you still must avoid hitting someone!! (PLEASE!! Ed).
Well done again to everyone that made it round, you are all heroes! We look forward to seeing you next week for the FINAL Race of the Spring Series.
———— Results Update !! ————
The Final Results (pending any further updates), are:
- 1st Peter Gregory
- 2nd Bill Garry
- 3rd Mark Cayzer & crew
- 4th Mike Blatchford
- 5th Fay Watson & crew
- 6th Andy Wallace
There were DNF’s (DID NOT FINISH) for: Bob Fisher & Steve Farmer in two single-handed 303’s, Martin ?? in a Liberty, and Brian Mac in the Venture.
There was also a single-handed 303 (sail number 3) for which we have no name…..if anyone knows the sailor of No:3 on that day, please let us know…
The gusting wind and encroaching weed probably made this the most exciting race I have ever been in. Most of the time it was just a case of survival. Most of the time I was experiencing something between sheer joy and sheer terror, particularly when I had weed wrapped around the rudder and the steering decided it would take control. At one time I was hurtling along on a starboard tack when I saw a Lazer stalled sideways on about 10 yards ahead with several very nervous crew looking very worried as my lack of steering threatened to torpedo them. Luckily two factors saved us, a small gust of wind and the fact that the boat had not been polished. The same can’t be said when I collided with Mike Blatchford (sorry Mike). As for the DNF I think it should be changed to ‘survived