2009 Anniversary Series and Wednesday Evening Series Pages

Links to results and occasional reports on these series.

Latest results - Anniversary Series

Midsummer Special Results

Latest results - Wednesday Evening Series

About Personal Handicapping at IBRSC

20th Anniversary Open Pursuit Event

Not a report, just impressions. there'll be a report elsewhere... Pretty poor weather, warm enough and dry, but not much wind in the morning and less in the afternoon.

The morning race was a spectacular horizon job by Mike and Alex Storey in their National 12. Gareth Griffiths was second, Rob Wilder from Tamesis 3rd in another Solo, Ben Palmer and Alex Groves 4th in an RS200, Phil Dalby and Suzi Bell from Hampton 5th with the notorious "General Lee" Merlin, and Julian Rickard from Littleton 6th in another RS200.

The afternoon race was pretty horrible - lots of parking up, very light patches, wind from anywhere and mostly nowhere, all sorts of nonsense. On the other hand it produced a highly spectacular finish, with Mike and Alex just getting their noses in front with about three minutes to go, then a spectacular tacking duel with shift after shift coming in and the lead changing umpteen times... In the end Gareth just managed to get his nose back in front and took the race and - somewhat unjustly really considering the huge gap in the first race - the event. Charging through the fleet after them were Ben and Alex in the RS200. It has to be said that the shifts and changes gave them a hand full of court cards, but they played them brilliantly to come through the fleet like that - good? Well the next RS200 was 18th... Joe McLaughlin from Tamesis took 4th in a Solo, Rob Wilder 5th, and Arthur Phillips 6th in yet another Solo.

Full results are here.

There was also a team event held within this - not team racing, but the best three results from a team of 4 counted. IBRSC A included both the Storeys and Gareth Griffiths - 'nuff said! Second team, by a single point went to the Merlins from Hampton, with the Tamesis team just pipped, mainly because whilst McLean and Groves were getting the high cards in the second race, the poor Tamesis Laser was getting dealt twos, threes and fours and was well down the pack...

Other mentions? It must have been a dreadful day to be out in a Topper, but Alistair Smith and Will Scott especially got some mid fleet results which in the conditions were a considerable achievement... Carl Mayhew was sailing a Firefly with *both* his youngsters, Emily and Jamie, who put together were probably lighter than any other sailor there and Emily was probably the star of the prizegiving... Thames SC's vintage section turned up with boats of around double the age of almost all the others on the water (apart from a Solo or two)...The Scott family managed to put together a team of their own... The Curtis tribe could probably have done that too!

Team results here.

This Season's Championships Placings for IBRSC Sailors

  • Laser Radial Grand Masters Worlds - Kevin Pearson: 5th and only two points off second place.
  • 49er - Dicken MacLean (forward hand) Qualified for the gold fleet, and apparently won a couple of races,albeit using the new rig when others were using the old one. I find the eventual results completely confusing!
  • RS200 - Dicken MacLean: 15th
  • RS200 - Nicola Groves (forward hand): 20th
  • Laser 4.7 Nationals - Will Harris: 1st
  • Topper 4.2 (smaller rig) Nationals - Alistair Smith: 7th
  • Topper Nationals - Tom Howard: 91st (from 300 odd and I think 3rd 12 and under sailor)
  • Topper Nationals - Helen Baldwin: 38th Bronze Fleet
  • Topper Nationals - William Scott: 59th Bronze Fleet
  • Enterprise Nationals - Glen Cole: 54th (too many DNCs)
  • 420 Worlds - Ben Palmer (helm) 3rd Overall
  • 29er Worlds - Alex Groves (forward hand) 4th Overall & 1st Youth team)
  • Laser Radial Masters - John Reay: 6th
  • Laser Radial Masters- Kevin Pearson: 20th
  • and I'm sure lots of you know Rob Cage, who now lives in Kent - and won the Radial Masters!
  • Graduate - Graham Hughes/Bradley Hughes: 3rd
  • Feva XL - Peter Curtis/James Curtis: 8th
  • National 12 - Matt Stiles/Jo Stiles: 26th
  • National 12 - Mike Storey/Alex Storey: 30th

And Some other events...

  • Hayling Island Federation Week - Mike/Alex Storey (N12): 5th Medium Handicap
  • Swanage Regatta - Mike/Alex Storey (N12): 1st Monohull Handicap

Wednesday Series Thank Yous

Catering - June Curtis, Jan Cole, Tessa Groves, Alexis Villiers and, er me, plus of course when no-one else was available, Supafish Molesey!

Bar - Glen Cole and Eddie Holland

All the duty teams and everyone who turned out and raced!

I hope you've enjoyed this season's write ups, and that they've maybe inspired one or two people to get out there and compete themselves, and perhaps also provided the odd smile on a Thursday morning. My thanks to those who have commented - it does help if you know people are reading especially as according to the stats my keenest reader is a Mr Crawl at Yahoo.net...

Jim Champ

Wednesday Series Fun Race

Well, if only it were like that all the time... Bright sunshine, warm, a cloudless sky, and a nice force 2 breeze. Gorgeous.

In an appropriately light hearted manner there were unusual numbers of crews on some of the boats, Kevin Pearson sailing a radial rig in light weather to check out his sail for the upcoming worlds, and Bradley Hughes sailing his first ever race in an Optimist. Credit to those who encountered Bradley on the start line in perhaps not the best of places, and just sailed round without inappropriate encouragement! At my end of the start line all was simpler. I didn't see a lot of the race from the end of my plank to be honest, but Kevin Pearson was going extremely fast with the Radial rig - second on the water in front of the pack for chunks of the race, and, as it turned out, second to finish too, ahead of all but Evan Cairns of the full rig Lasers... I hope that bodes well for his Worlds campaign - good luck and keep us posted. I'm fairly sure that I saw Graham Hughes in front at one stage in the Graduate although it was rather in the distance, and he was third to finish on the water. Handicap - well here are the results.

ClassSail NumberHelm NameStartPYFinishLapsElapsedCorrected
Graduate2771Graham Hughes19:30115520:06:5320:36:530:47:54
Solo3385Tom Wilson19:30115520:06:5820:36:580:48:01
Laser Radial178519Kevin Pearson19:30111120:05:5620:35:560:48:31
Solo3457Mervyn Cinnamond19:30115520:07:5120:37:510:49:09
Laser168989Evan Cairns19:30108820:05:5020:35:500:49:24
IC257Jim Champ19:3092620:15:5530:45:550:49:35
Solo4073Peter Cottrell19:30115520:08:1320:38:130:49:38
Solo4071Peter Halliday19:30115520:09:3620:39:360:51:26
Laser168842John Smith19:30108820:07:1920:37:190:51:27
Laser121982P Hughes19:30108820:08:1920:38:190:52:50
RS 2001237Alasdair McLean19:30105920:07:3220:37:320:53:10
Topaz Uno1599Nick Marley19:30121220:16:3520:46:350:57:39
Enterprise18614Simon Bean19:30111620:13:1720:43:170:58:11
Enterprise22267Luke Martin19:30111620:14:0520:44:050:59:15
Optimist4117Bradley Hughes19:30170020:20:4010:50:401:29:25

Anniversary Race 16th August

Quite a nice breeze for this one, I guess around the top of force 2, although at rigging time it was showing signs of building to rather more. The duty team was *very* light, and your scribe sulkily abandoned his Canoe for the race in order to make up the bare minimum of two people in the safety boat and one in the commiteee boat. Folks, if you can't make your race duty days *please* arrange a swap...

Anyway the course was a sort of q course - beat, shy reach,gybe and shy reach back, and then a couple of deep reaches come runs (which was which depending on the state of the shifts) and back up again. It looked great for the Canoe (he said even more sulkily!). Unusually the start/finish line was set about a third of the way up the beat. I've been mulling over whether this could be a good idea, I would be interested in what folk had to say. You can use this form if you don't have my email address handy.

Peter Curtis was clear of the entire fleet early on. In fact the only time he saw another boat in the race was when he was lapping them. The next fastest boat was Matt Stiles' National 12, and he soon pulled clear of the Lasers. Graham Hughes, sailing with two (very small) crew in his Graduate was also seen pulling clear of the Solos on the first lap. The Lasers seemed to scatter very early, with Andy Barnett taking the lead, but the Solo "pack" had a notably tight race, vocal, and with much luffing and three and four boat overlaps at marks. At the end of lap one Peter Cottrell was the leading Solo, but on the next lap Gareth got through, and eventually overtook the Graduate as well. The third lap was notable for an extraordinarily loud cry of starboard, heard right across the lake. It transpired that this was a family incident, Curtis P versus Curtis J and H... The mid fleet Solos were battling right to the end, with, I think places changing on the last little beat up to the line.

So results. It was with no great suprise I saw the numbers coming out with Peter Curtis first and Matt Stiles second. Andy Barnett took third, and Gareth Griffiths 4th, a whole two corrected seconds ahead of Steve Day's Laser. Peter Cottrell rounded out the Top 6. In the personal handicap David Lawton (Solo) won, Peter Curtis was second, James Curtis (Feva) third, Caroline Baldwin 4th, Quentin Day (Laser) 5th and Dave Clark (Solo) 6th.

The Anniversary handicap now takes a month off, as next month we have the Open pursuit event, but will conclude in October. Peter Curtis already has three wins in the scratch event, so he can make a space on the mantelpiece for the trophy! Gareth Griffiths has I think secured second, but there are any number of candidates for third. In the personal handicap Peter is theoretically leading, but is ineligible for any prizes as a band zero competitor. David Lawton, James Curtis, Tony Butler and Caroline Baldwin can all win the series, and I imagine there are any number of candidates for the top three...

2009 Wednesday Series Roundup

Please note this is a bunch of entirely personal opinions from your self-appointed reporter, it doesn't represent the club officers (and of course I'm not one of them) in any shape or form... If they (or anyone else) want to chip in send me an email (or use this form).

Looking through my reports there seem to have been a good few windy, even some very windy races, not many drifters, not that much sunshine, and no races lost to flat calms. It hasn't been a summer of idyllic lazy days, roasting in the sun, so no dominant highs on the weather map, so breeze about...

I guess the big news about this summer has been the increase in numbers. I'm not going to inflict statistics and graphs on you (though I do have them!) but we have been experiencing a downward trend in Wednesday turnouts for a few years, and that has most definitely been reversed. In general turnouts are back to around 2005/2006 levels which is a very satisfactory reversal: we can all pat ourselves on our collective backs, and perhaps buy our new executive a beer after the fun race next week...

Anyway what about individuals? The series leaders are in print enough below anyway. I think its well worth mentioning Alistair Smith as the sole Topper. Another turnout - even a second duty for average points - would have put him well in contention for the podium in the personal handicap series, and he also scored some good results in scratch. We elevated him out of beginner status halfway through the series, and he kept turning out the results. Luke Martin and crew (please remind me of your name mate) also deserve a mention. Starting from week 5 they've been out every week but one since then, and are showing improving results all the time. Actually they beat me in the scratch series, in a Club Enterprise at that, so maybe I should delete the last sentence in spite [grin]. Nick Marley in the Topaz Uno is another new face who's been turning out and improving.

There were a few old faces it was good to see back too. Tom Wilson was back and in form in an increasingly competitive Solo fleet, going especially quickly after he treated his boat to a new sail at the end of the series, and Kevin Pearson and John Reay were always competitive and knocked out race wins in their Lasers. Its instructive to look at the awarded average points for duty evenings... Gareth Griffiths sits at the head of that list after his super consistent series, but Kevin and John, both with 3.4, were up there with Mike Curtis (3.3) and Peter Curtis (3.4). When its so close its really important to get as many races in as possible, and you've got to have some sympathy with Peter, whose new job left him unable to compete at the end of the series. Peter actually beat Gareth in three of the five races they both sailed...

Still, you can't take anything away from Mr Griffiths. Every finish in the top 4, and only one 4th at that. Wonderful consistency in such a competitive series. Here's his thoughts on getting his name on that big board in the clubhouse...

"So Gareth - what made the difference this year?"

Over the years I've sailed at the Barn in many different classes - first Scorpions in the early 80s - quite successful at that time, winning a few Opens (including WOTSC) but I didn't have time for Wed. Then after a few years boat-less with a young family I started sailing a Moth becoming just a Wed sailor sailing it for fun because I couldn't devote the time to become competitive. Then my daughter got a bit bigger and we started sailing an ISO again only on Wed (she wasn't really big enough but it was fun), when she went to University and my son started to sail we dropped down to a 29er (much lighter sheet loads than an ISO) again doing only Wed. When he stopped, I sailed his Topper for a season before changing to Solo last year and returning to more full time sailing. I had dabbled at other sports (notably ice hockey) but last year I decided I was getting too old for Ice Hockey, needed a boat I was more suited to and so bought an older Solo to learn the ropes. I spent the first winter learning to love the Solo in an old boat (now sailed by Tom Wilson) before getting my current boat just after the end of the Wed series last year. The biggest difference is that I'm sailing weekends again and getting the practice of sailing in a fleet where I have to be on my toes to win. Sailing the winter series against a few winter members and having Arthur pushing me in lighter weather not to mention Peter, Mervyn and Frank who can be a real handful in light weather has made me a much better sailor again.

So, this year is the first year I have sailed hard and felt properly competitive for many years - last year with the old solo I was getting close (third overall just behind Mike C) - sailing weekends and Wed again and getting back in the groove. This year, I think for the first time, I started the series with a fully competitive boat that I had sailed successfully all winter so I hit the ground running, in a class that I really like and for which I am a sensible size. I have to say it probably helped that Peter Curtis was unable to make the last few weeks but we have had a very close series between the top three, and the lasers of John Reay and Kevin Pearson would have been close with a few more races.

"What's it like doing Wed in a Solo?"

The first thing that's different is we start first - I previously thought that was an advantage when I sailed 'fast boats' because we start in clear air but now I'm not sure. At the weekend when we start after the lasers they make great wind indicators for the first beat. On Wed it's a very different feeling - same as in the pursuit series - knowing that you are on your own up front being chased by faster boats with nothing to easily tell you what the wind will do next (and they can watch every shift you get). That is a very different feeling which has taken some getting used to - winning a race from the front is very different to winning a race by overtaking everyone and I'm not at all sure which is easier!

The new Wed membership has allowed us to tempt Tom Wilson back into fold (with my old boat but a totally different rig) as well as some seriously good laser sailors. We had to reclassify Tom half way through the series on the personal handicaps. I looked at the board in the club last night - did you realize that Tom won the Wed series in a Solo back in 1974. As he has got to grips with the class again has clearly not lost his skill, and with a brand new sail last night he is only getting quicker. Despite being the one constant fleet over all those years the Solos have rarely won the Wed series. Only Tom in '74, Craig Moffett a couple of times and Peter Cottrell have managed it compared to many Scorpion, Fireball, ISO and RS wins. It's funny how the classes move on like that. This year we have different classes in the top four positions which is pretty healthy for the handicapping.

I think this year the standard in Solo fleet has gone up, I am definitely more competitive at Open meetings and it's still just as hard to beat the fleet. We are seeing new sails and we know that we will see a new boat in the autumn. It's got to be a good sign for us as a fleet, but also for the club. Not only are Wed numbers looking much better, our weekend turnouts have been well up. Practice certainly pays. Maybe this is the start of the 'Solo years' on the honours board.

Wednesday 12th August- Last Series Race

Well, to be honest is was a rather lacklustre race to finish the series. Dull, overcast, and wind shifting everywhere to make a complete nonsense of the course. It also dropped, at times almost completely, so here were no end of compressive gusts on runs and goodness knows what. This did at least provide a certain amount of entertainment as boats arrived at marks with anything up tofive or six overlapped. The first lap was very reachy for the fast handicap boats - even the first leg, which had been a beat for the Solos and Lasers, was a shy reach, and Mike Curtis took full advantage and gained a handy lead over the rest of the fast handicap boats, and even got well in amongst the Solos on lap one. Mike, and to an extent the Solos got something of a wind "gate" on the second lap, with only Kevin Peasron of the Lasers keeping out of the rest of the pack which was bunched and rebunched multiple times by the wind.

Results- well Mike won by a mile,with Tom Wilson and Peter Cotterell 2nd and 3rd in Solos. Kevin Pearson took 4th in a Laser, and 5th was a tie between Mervyn Cinnaond (Solo) and Alistair Smith (Topper), Alistair did one lap less than the rest, which did give him less of the really quiet stuff, but on the other hand he was the only competitor to get a full ration of beating in his course, otherwise he might well have placed higher...

OK the series. As predicted last week Gareth Griffiths takes the series, with Mike Curtis and Julie Harrison second, and Peter Curtis third. In the Personal Handicap the top prize goes to Fiona and Rob Fardon, with Arthur Phillips just second from John Smith. Congratulations all.

Next week is the fun race to round off the series. Later this week I intend to write up a summary of the series, with some thoughts, and I am also promised a "How I did it" piece from Gareth Griffiths, so check these pages out again soon...

Wednesday 5th August

A classic Wednesday evening race - a warm summer evening, force 2 breeze, tending to drop... As advertised [grin]. The track was beat, short shy reach, run, a semi beat come fetch half way up the reservoir and another run back to the start. Did I mention it was nice and warm, without being hot and sweaty?

We had a good turnout of Solos, and a rather competetive start close to the bank without a lot of room on the line. Peter Cotterell went right, Gareth Griffiths and most of the others left. Right looked good early on, but Gareth came through to lead at the end of the first lap - building up quite a healthy margin in fact.

Other fleets were somewhat depleted - the Studland factor I guess. Not much to note about the Laser start, but we had an OCS at the fast fleet start with Fiona and Rob running out of line at the port end and having to go back. However they tacked and ducked back quickly and got back to lead the fast fleet at the end of lap one. There's not a lot you can write an evening like this - it was just a pleasant and relaxing Summer evening race, which doesn't make for good press, but does make for happy sailors...

Results... Well it was something of a Solo night, to say the least... Gareth Griffiths won, followed by Tom Wilson, Peter Cottrell and Mervyn Cinnamond, all in Solos. Chris Smith, in a Laser tonight, followed by Fiona and Rob Fardon completed the top six. The personal handicap top six were Luke Martin (Enterprise), Chris Smith (Laser), Tom Wilson (Solo), Alasdair McLean (RS 200), Peter Cottrell (Solo) and Mervyn Cinnamond (Solo).

Series wise... Gareth Griffiths is clear in the lead now, and only something like a Rule 2 DND could cost him the series according to my calculations. I believe that Mike Curtis is second and Peter Curtis 3rd overall, but thereafter change is more than possible. In the Personal Handicap Series Fiona and Rob Fardon currently lead, but any of the first four or five can overtake them with a win in the last race...

Wednesday 29th July

Windy again. Not quite champagne sailing, being overcast and with occasional drizzle come rain, but the worst of it did hold off until pretty much everyone was derigged and sat down with a pint and a cooked supper:-) It was Force 5ish early on, dropped some, shifted, built again, shifted some more, dropped again, tending to tail off as the evening (such as it was this late in the season) progressed. This late in the season. That's a depressing thought isn't it...

Anyway, its tricky to accurately describe the course due to the aforementioned shifts but it went roughly beat, probably a run, probably a beat, some sort of reach and then a gybe and a short reach back to the start line... Is that clear? If not, sorry! Not the most complex of courses, but it was quite good enough to confuse Carl Mayhew and our Commodore, in Carl's RS400, who managed to get lost on the first lap and sail to the wrong mark. Lost on an oval reservoir in the middle of Surrey is quite a feat really, although I shouldn't mock, goodness knows its happened to me often enough when I've forgotten to memorise the course board!

Maybe not the most eventful of races... One Laser sailor described it as being a race that as soon as you got the boat set up for breeze it went light, and as soon as you reset the boat for the light stuff the breeze came in again. How do you describe that? Irritating maybe? There certainly wasn't as much falling over as you might expect in those conditions, even though Gareth Griffiths had a good go after unearthing an old and very flexible tiller extension from the depths of his garage to replace the one where the UJ broke the other week... The flex was too much for the Solo gybe, and his last gybe at the last mark nearly went definitively wrong with the plastic conduit comprising the tiller almost bending double. There's no excuse for using conduit nowadays mate, not with the fishing tackle Shop in Surbiton doing a 1.8 metre landing net handle for about twelve quid. One trapeze/wing or two conventional sized tiller extensions in one of those:-).

Somewhat dischuffed were some of the fast fleet, being sent round for an extra lap in what seemed to be a dying wind. These things do tend to balance out over a series, most everyone gets an odd half lap or so in something unenviable, but its even less welcome when the lack of wind is seasoned with added drizzle... Anyway, results...
It was pretty close, as you'll see if you look at the race times. Kevin Pearson (Laser) won by a decent margin, but the next few were very tight on time. Gareth Griffiths took second with the flexibly steered Solo, Mike Curtis (RS400) 3rd and 4th was also an RS400, Carl Mayhew's with the series points allocated to Rob which is why the results say Laser... 5th was John Smith in a Laser, one corrected second ahead of Fiona Fardon's RS200. In the personal handicap the top six were Nick Marley, Topaz Uno, Grahame Stevens, Solo, Fiona Fardon, RS 200, John Smith, Laser, Dave Baldwin, Laser and P Hughes, Laser.

Well series... The game is afoot, you might say, and with two races to go and only one discard to kick in there are still three folk with a mathematical chance of winning, although sadly Peter Curtis' chance is liable to stay mathematical as a change of job has precluded him from reaching the startline for the last few races. Realistically then its between Mike Curtis and Gareth Griffiths. Their "banked" results stand them at 14.1 points for Gareth, and 15.5 for Mike. Gareth's 8 best results are 3 wins, 3 seconds, a third and an average points for his OOD evening, currently standing at 2.1. Mike's are 3 wins, 3 seconds, a third and average points standing at 3.5. So for both anything below a third place in the remaining races will count for nothing, and average points are pretty much certain to remain in Gareth's favour... The permutations are almost endless...

The personal handicap is even closer. So close that any of the top six or seven are still in contention for the prize, and the permutations are such that I don't propose to say anything other than that Messrs Fardon, Scott, Smith, Phillips, Marley and Cairns had better get out there and sail as hard as they can on the next two Wednesdays...

Wednesday 22nd July

Breezey. A solid force 4 at launching time - a launching time that was perhaps not quite as early as it might have been for some competitors - no names [grin]. Course wise we had a medium length set of beat, reach, run, shy reach and another short run.

Setting courses is always an interesting challenge, and most especially for handicap races. (here follows an *entirely personal* digression, although I'm sure the sailing secretary would be pleased to hear everyone's opinions) because the course can have such a big impact on the race results. You want an interesting mixture of reaching, running and beating, and you want balance between the amounts of each. Although I've always been a big fan of the quadrilateral course for simplicity and ease of setting, this season I'm coming to believe that on our lake its all too easy for it to become too biased towards spinnaker boats because its so very difficult to get a shy reach in. Thus before you know it (especially if the wind shifts the wrong way) the course is three quarters spinnaker reaches and one quarter beating. Traditionally we've often used what one might call the "unwrapped Olympic" with two separate beats, one feeding a run and one a triangle. This is good for longer races and especially class racing, but for shorter handicap races the sheer length of the race brings, I think, too much of an element of luck, especially on Wednesday evenings when "who is where when the wind drops" becomes a decider. It also means that average lapping turns into something of a lottery - you really need the fastest boats to be doing at least 4 laps for average lapping to be reasonably fair. Its a good choice for the pursuit races though don't you think? I'm beginning to wonder whether a track like last nights, with the shy reach up to a second shorter run is a fairer option. It does make for two hoists and drops per lap though, which is unkind on the more mature spinnaker crews. Should we experiment with a leeward mark well clear of the leeward bank do you think? That would get a shy reach in without having the second spinnaker hoist, and it would also give room for the spinnaker boats to have a go at the reach (or part of it) using the kite without immediately ending up in the bank if there's a big gust... It goes against the grain not to have as long a beat as possible though. Like everything else in sailing its complicated and there are no easy answers.

Anyway, back to the race. A good breeze, if tending to reduce slightly during the race. You have got to say that this race was all about the Laser competition. John Reay, Evan Cairns and Kevin Pearson were all there, and all in the lead at one time or another. Evan took the best route off the line to the first shift and led early on, but any kind of lead was hard to maintain as gusts tended to compress the fleet on the runs, and with two runs per lap this effect was magnified. John took the lead mid race, but was somewhat hampered by the fast fleet as well as the gusts, and all were bunched right up again as they reached the second leeward mark on the penultimate lap. Kevin went left, got the shifts right all the way up the beat, and maintained the lead right to the finish, making him first overall as well as first Laser. Usually such tight battles push folks a little way down the pack on handicap, so it was good to see the Laser triumph. Graham Potter (Albacore) slipped into second on handicap, just ahead of Messrs Cairns and Reay, with Mike Curtis taking 5th in his RS400 and Fiona Fardon 6th in an RS200.

In the personal handicap it was a Laser again - Jamie Scott getting the bullet, with Evan second, Fiona third and in 4th place Luke Martin, who is making leaps and bounds in performance with the Club Enterprise. Graham Potter was 5th and John (Laser)Smith 6th. Series placings - take a look, its anyone's game yet!

On an entirely different note thanks to the shepherd who last night moved his three Houdini sheep to a different reservoir. Hopefully we'll have a little less of the Droppings of the Lambs underfoot!

Anniversary Race 19th July

Windy. Quite seriously windy in the gusts. I would guess that it was averaging top of F4/5 and gusting 6. I'm not going to be the best of reporters having been late for the (late) start and seriously preoccupied thereafter. Mike Curtis, the Race officer commented, that had he actually started the sequence on the dot of 10:26 there would only have been about three starters...

What do I remember... Peter Curtis was more or less seen leaving in his RS300. He commented afterwards that it was one of those races where pretty much everything seemed to go right. Well for Peter maybe... The course was beat, broad reach, run, short beat and then a very broad reach come semi run back to the start. As well as being strong the gusts were fairly nasty. Unusually for a westerly breeze it was fairly unstable, especially up near the windward bank, where there were a lot of those nasty eddying gusts which are ore ususally a feature of easterlies. I particularly remember one sneaky gust, which on reflection must have been two superimposed, which first lifted and then a second or so later violently headed.

What else... a fair bit of swimming went on, and one or two kites were left in the bag which should really have come out. A tip for those new to spinnakers. The big coloured thing is really your friend in strong winds because the extra speed makes gybing easier and safer (less apparent wind) and because the sail also steadies the boat. Provided you don't let it collapse the drive from a spinnaker tends to be steadier and more tolerant of shifts and gusts, whereas if the mainsail is doing all the work it tends to be a lot more on and off. People will also tell you the spinnaker lifts the bows. This is a myth I'm afraid, but it certainly feels as if it does because the boat is steadier and safer. The fly in the ointment is of course getting it up and down, but provided you pick your moment and your gust its almost always possible. Its a lot easier with asymmetric sails where the crew doesn't have to go forward to put a spinnaker pole on the mast: in the days of pole kites I can remember reaches where I wanted to put the kite up but could never risk vacating the back of the boat to do it...

Results? Peter won by a country mile. Mike and Alex Storey were second in their National 12, then Simon Bean, (new member?) David Evans and John Smith in Lasers, and Chris and I believe Alistair Smith rounded out the top six in their Scorpion. Very good results especially for the two handers, who did not, shall we say, have excess crew weight on board. Under the personal handicap results were similar - not suprising in such demanding conditions, but the Storeys won with Peter C second, the Scorpion Smiths 3rd, John (Laser) Smith 4th, Charlotte McCarthy 6th in her Laser Radial and David Lawton (Solo) 6th.

Now the series - We're past halfway through with four races of the seven complete. If we count two races from the four the top 6 are Peter Curtis (RS300), Gareth Griffiths (Solo), Mike Storey (National 12), Arthur Phillips (Solo), Carl & Julie Mayhew (RS400) and Brian Greenaway (Laser). The personal handicap results are very close and with two discards the top six are Tony Butler (Laser), James Curtis (RS Feva XL), David Lawton (Solo), Peter Curtis (RS 300), Malcolm Barnes (Solo), and Brian Greenaway (Laser). (Almost) anyone's game yet in either series though...

Wednesday 15th July

Force 4/5 at rigging time, although it tended to drop over the evening to about F3 at the end of the race. With only one name signed up for the duty team (here's a little reminder for Messrs Matt Stiles, Paul Armitage, Ken Duffel, Stuart Gurney and Peter Hughes to sign up for their evening in the race box) Chris Smith and I left our boats on the bank. I had what would I hope would have been a decent course set when to my horror, at 7pm the wind went right round to west from South West, then swung back again... Such a wind change would make a nonsense of my picked course, so I hastily set something that might cope with such a radical wind change. Naturally the wind then stayed vaguely static in direction and the original course might have done. Anyway what was on offer was a medium sized course of beat, broad reach, run, shy reach, with the run definitely one sided most of the time.

I don't know what else was on offer tonight, but it was, I think, the worst turnout of the series. And it looked like a great evening to be out there to me. Shame. The Lasers had the best turnout, and they also had the most dramatic stay, with John Reay getting the best of things at the pin end. All were close though, and I think the first three were overlapped at the third mark turning up from the run to the shy reach. A couple of minutes later Mike Curtis, leading the fast start fleet, turned round the mark."you're being a bit optimistic" I thought, as they didn't take the kite down. "You're being very optimistic" I thought, as they failed to keep up to the rhumb line. "Shall I run for it now" I thought as they rapidly approached the jetty I was standing on, but at that point they ditched the kite and two sail reached up to the mark. The Laser seemed to be having a good old fight right through the race in fact, most notably Kevin Pearson and Evan Cairns, who I think were overlapped at the *last* mark and finished seconds and feet apart.

Mike Curtis won by about 10 seconds on handicap from John Reay, with Mike Storey 3rd in the EPS, then Lasers Pearson and Cairns, and Graham Potter rounding out the top six in his Albacore.

Wednesday 8th July

A dull evening. In pretty much all respects really, I can't really say why: nothing seemed wrong with the course or anything else, but neither weather nor race really sparkled... We missed the thunderstorms that were about last night, but it was heavily overcast and I think I just heard thunder outside now... The wind was a sort of solidish F1, North westerley and not spectacularly shifty.

To be fair there was a bit of drama for the slow boat start. A good fleet/fight of Solos all fancied the port end of the line, so those who had attempted a port tack start found themselves having to take a lot of transoms... Having seen this no-one attempted the port tack option for the other starts. The course was - when it was set - probably beat, shyish reach, short beat, run, shyish reach back to the start. However by this time the wind had already gone round enough to make both beats and runs pretty one sided: indeed the short beat was effectively a fetch and the long one not that much better.

As the race progressed the Solos were, as fancied, doing very well, Gareth Griffiths leading. Mike Curtis got clear fairly early in a rather diminished fast fleet, whilst Evan Cairns was probably best placed Laser. Solos were always looking good, but towards the end of the race Ken Duffel made quite a change in his Merlin and suddenly started looking well placed. Not quite well enough though, as Messrs Griffiths, Cinnamond, Cottrell and Phillips made a Solo 1,2,34, with Ken 5th in the Merlin just beating Tom Howard, who was last of the Solos in 6th place.

In the personal handicap Ken Duffell won, followed by Mervyn Cinnamond, and Jamie Scott (Laser) third. Peter Cottrell, Arthur Phillips and Gareth Griffiths filled out the top 6. Oh yes, a special commiseration should go to Alistair Smith. Topper's don't enjoy the very light stuff anyway, but he seemed to have his own personal flat calm follow him round the track. Ouch!

Personal Handicap Changes

As warned, at half way through the series we've reviewed the handicaps, and have made a few changes. Not too many I don't think, but some of our estimates were a bit generous, and some a bit harsh, and so there are a few tweaks. Only one person is changing more than a single band (sorry Tom!).

Sailor New Band Change
Tom Wilson1-2
John Smith2-1
Malcolm Barnes2-1
P Hughes2-1
Alistair Smith4-1
Evan Cairns2+1
Kenneth Duffell2+1
Alasdair McLean4+1
Andy Howard4+1
Scott, Jamie4+1
Nick Marley5+1

Unsuprisingly this also means that the leader table in the Personal Handicap in both Wednesday and Anniversary series changes - take a look. It also means some of my commentary below is untrue, but hey, it was true at the time...

Wednesday 1st July

Another easterly this week. Moderate, Force 2ish I guess and most certainly without such vicious gusts and characterised last week, but was it ever shifty... You could see lanes on the water, and gusts almost wandering about with no rhyme or reason. Boats close togther could be in quite different wind. A day to play the percentages and make moderate choices... Gorgeously warm of course - its been the warmest week of the year so far if you aren't reading this in southern England so don't know...Anyway we had a long course tonight, a sort of unwrapped Olympic with a long beat, a very broad reach, a beam reach across the reservoir, another pretty long beat and a run ack to the finish. Or at least that was the plan... With the wind swinging as it was life was never that simple...

The wind chose to give the slow fleet a very port end biased start. Gareth Griffiths and Tom Wilson were early to show - and indeed Tom kept close to Gareth for around half the race. The line was more normal for the Laser, and by the time the fast boats started it was in anything staboard end biased... Your editor thought he got the best start, but I tacked no more than 20 yards earlier than both the Curtis brothers in RSs various, and some 20 yards ahead and somehow that had tuned into some 200 yards behind by the time of the next tack as a different wind stream took them higher and faster... Mike Storey, who'd taken a port tack start and gone right, at times looked 100 yards ahead and then as much behind again as the wind swung one way and the other up the beat. This was the tale of much of the race for most of us to be quite honest. The winners of the first beat were undoubtedly the Curtis navigated RS300 and RS400, and they took a handy lead on the downwind section, follwed by Mike Storey, whilest the rest got something of a lull. Meanwhile Gareth in the Solos was seeing John Smith, followed by John Reay already very close on the tail radar, and yet from there they never seemed to get much closer...

As the wind swung for (and against) for different people there were some spectacular winners and losers Mike Curtis in the RS400 found that the runs tended to require little or no gybing, which put him in a considerable advantage, but on one lap Gareth Griffiths got a really tasty shift that pretty much got him to the windward mark without tacking, and in the end that was probably the defining moment (well minutes) of the race. Gareth won by about a minute of corrected time, with Mike Curtis second, Peter C third and John Reay (Laser) and Tom Wilson) Solo sharing the points for 4th on a handicap tie. Fiona and Rob Fardon (RS200) took 6th with a steady race. Tom Wilson's tied 4th place unsuprisingly gave him another race win in the Personal Handicap, with John Smith (Laser) 2nd, Fiona and Rob 3rd, Dave baldwin (Laser) 4th, Mike Storey (EPS) 5th and John Magrath 6th.

Series wise, well, it really is everything to play for. Mike Curtis is 1st, counting two wins and three seconds. Gareth Griffiths is 2nd with two winds, two seconds and a third, and Peter Curtis 3rd, also with two wins, two seconds and a third, and the duty evening average points separating them. As the average points include discarded races the odd down the pan result may become very significant indeed. Arthur Phillips, who might possibly be regretting having an evening playing with the foiling Moth (it wasn't really breezy enough) also has two wins, and is in 4th, with John Reay (one win) still in contention in 5th, in spite of having to count every race he's attended so far... The personal series is curretly led by Tom Wilson, with a possibly generous classification. John Smith isn't far behind, followed by Fiona and Rob and then Graham Potter. Alistair Smith (Topper) is currently counting a DNC and has dropped some way down the list but also has plenty of good results.

Wednesday 24th June

Good grief that was hard work! An easterly is never the greatest of wind directions at Island Barn, and this one was pretty gusty and shifty even before it was disturbed by the trees at the east end of the reservoir... Up around mark 2 - which was, you might say, not a universally approved choice as a windward mark - it was a real challenge just to get to the mark at times... The whole course was a long beat, a shortish reach (very short for flying a kite in my opinion, but that didn't stop those who had them getting in the required smart boat handling), a very short beat up the side of the reservoir in the gusts and shifts up to the above mentioned Mark 2, a long run and then a short reach to complete the lap.

Start sequences saw quite different line bias for each start due to the wind changing. Just to make things more exciting the hooter for the start sequence was misbehaving and not always sounding so it was necessary to pay attention to the flags!

There was plenty of drama and a fair bit of swimming going on... perhaps the most interesting leg of the race was the one that saw Messrs Reay and Pearson (Lasers) dicing down the run with Gareth Griffiths (Solo) who was on starboard... It all resolved itself at the mark with Kevin Pearson left capsized and mast the wrong side of the mark... John Smith got dumped out of his boat by a big shift that then left the boat upright and, but for the mainsheet round his foot, attempting to sail away... Much other action, bruises, and damp clothing...

Results.. John Reay, unsuprisingly perhaps in the conditions, won, but Gareth Griffiths was only 9 seconds behind on handicap, rueing the half a lap spent draining the Solo of water after a gust caught him unawares... Matt & Jo Stiles took third in the Club Feva, Graham Potter in the Albacore took 4th with a performance that seemed to involve rather less drama than most of our races, and Mike Storey 5th in the EPS. Series - well take a look... suffice to say its wide open, especially if John Reay can get a decent number of races in over the second half of the series. In the personal handicap Alistair Smith took another race in the Topper, with Tom Wilson 2nd and John Smith 3rd - and those are also the series top three...

Anniversary Race Sunday 21st June

Rather light really. In fact very light at times. At my (late) rigging time there appeared to be an extraordinarily healthy number of Solos and Lasers rigging up at the west end of the pond, but almost no faster boats at all: Curtises and the like were all absent and only the Carl and Julie Mayhew's RS400 and my Canoe were represented of boats with three figure handicaps. I didn't get to see the fast boat start due to the aforementioned light winds, late rigging time and startline at the far side of the reservoir: I don't wish to embarrass myself further on the topic...

It was a strange sort of race really: there was an awful lot of waiting in calms and watching people catch up, then getting away again, and an awful lot of wind changes. The first beat in particular seemed enormously frustrating. The Mayhews took an early lead as you'd expect, but weren't really heading over the horizon in the way they often do: fickle winds and odd wind directions I guess were impeding them... Unusually the Solo fleet seemed to become split in half during the race, and the second half, together with the Stiles in a Feva and a couple of others got virtually becalmed on the last lap, finishing some six minutes behind the rest. Eddie Holland sportingly elected not to finish in order to have the bar open and ready for the rest of us which was greatly appreciated:-)

Results... Brian Greenway took the race in a Laser, with Gareth Griffiths some 20 corrected seconds behind in a Solo - a very good performance in what on the face of it were more Solo conditions. Arthur Phillips (Solo) was 3rd, Dave Bean (Laser) 4th, Mike Lipscombe (Solo) 5th and the Mayhew's 6th in the 400. With the personal handicaps Mr Greenway won again, two wins in one race seems good value! Second was very provisionally Topper 9066 (I don't know who was sailing it, and the personal handicap is subject to correction... Mark Timbs, Dave Bean and John Magrath took the next three places in Lasers, and Dave Strachan's Solo rounded out the top six.

Series wise Gareth Griffiths and Peter Curtis tie for the lead, with a first and a second each, Arthur Phillips and the Mayhews are close for the next two places, whilst Brian Greenway's win brings him into the top five. In the personal series the top three are unchanged, all getting discards of one form or another, but Mr Greenaway's other win brings him up to 4th in that series, with David Lawton up to 5th.

In other news I seem to have destroyed the much maligned club laptop with the aid of a pint of ginger beer shandy. Attempts at revival will start tomorrow, but I am not optimistic about its chances. If any of your employers would like to donate a redundant laptop to the club then feel welcome to make the offer: we don't need anything very sophisticated: just a species of windows (W98 is good enough), an ethernet interface and preferably a copy of MS Excel will fit the bill...

Wednesday 17th June

Intimidatingly windy as folks turned up at the club - white horses everywhere and regularly F6 on the anenometer. It dropped down a fair bit for rigging time, maybe calming a couple of slightly unsteady livers, but built a little at launching time. The race was I guess mostly F4, sometimes 5, some pretty big gusts but only moderately shifty.

Course wise we had beat, almost square run, short beat, and shyish reach back to the start. The shy reach was often a lot of fun...

Rather a disappointing turnout of Lasers tonight - normally the breeze is good for getting the Laser fleet out, but several of the usual suspects were missing... The fast start was firstly entertained by the unusual sight of Peter Curtis capsizing shortly before the gun, but to his opponents disappointment he managed to get in and sorted in time for a reasonable start. HAving a less reasonable start was your editor. I was planning to duck transoms and go for clear air on port, but the time I cleared the last transom I was looking good to ram the committee boat amidships. This didn't seem to be a good idea, so I had to take their transom too...

Amonsgt the slow fleet Gareth Griffiths (Solo) was very close to Graham Potter (Albacore) for a lot longer than Graham was altogether comfortable with. Mike Storey (EPS) was very well placed among the fast boats - indeed ahead of Peter Curtis (RS300) for several legs. Ken Duffel (Merlin), was well placed for a while, but they dropped back with spinnaker problems. With the way the wind was coming in bands it was one of those evenings where you could get lucky and fly down an offwind leg, or alternatively be unlucky and trundle down looking at spray flying on boats in front of or behind you...

There was in the end suprisingly little swimming in the race. although a few pretty close calls. Results wise Peter Curtis won, Mike Curtis was 2nd and Gareth Griffiths third . John Smith took his laser to 4th place with Mike Storey 5th in the EPS and Arthur Phillips (Solo) 6th. John Smith won the personal Handicap from Fiona and Rob Fardon with Mike Storey 3rd and Arthur Phillips 4th.

Wednesday 10th June

Overcast. Southerly, a lot of cumulus type cloud cover. It looked shifty to me... Actually it wasn't too bad in that respect, but it was never especially windy: solid F1 verging on F2 I guess. There was a rather light turnout: not sure if it was football - the arch at Wembley was very visibly lit up at dusk - tube strike, or maybe a bit of both. The Laser fleet seemed especially thin on the ground with much of the top end absent. Course wise Mike Curtis set a generous length, but not the easiest to describe - beat, reach across the top, run, shorter beat, broad reach back to the start. Well that was how it started anyway - the wind went round some and made the run pretty one sided by the end.

From the first start Graham Potter (Albacore) was predictably making good progress. Amongst the Solos the absence of Griffiths and Phillips gave Tom Wilson clearer air, which he took full advantage of, making very good progress early on. Meanwhile comedy at the fast handicap start was provided by your scribe. Slightly early for the start I thought, I'll just sink the stern of the Canoe a bit to slow down. Yep, you guessed it, I stepped off the boat with a certain amount of Bugs Bunny style arm waving as I lost my balance... With 30 seconds to the gun... So that was a good start donated to folk with little need of it... Early leaders from the fast fleet were predictably Peter Curtis (RS300) and Mike Storey (EPS), but also very much up there were new members Ken Duffell & Brian Corking in a bright red Merlin Rocket. Welcome guys...

Come 8 o'clock the wind looked very much as if it was giving up for the evening, and Mike wisely hoisted the S flag. Graham's Albacore was in the lead, but Tom Wilson was not far away at all. Also looking well placed were Peter Curtis and Ken Duffell. On handicap Tom Wilson won by a country mile, with Peter second, Graham 3rd and Ken 4th. John Magrath and John Smith grabbed 5th and 6th in Lasers. Tom also won the Personal handicap - I think we may be about to review his handicap band as he's been in the top three every race! Luke Martin took second place in a Club Enterpise - an excellent performance - John Smith 3rd, Malcolm Barnes (Solo) 4th, John Magrath 5th and Graham Potter 6th.

Series - well both the Scratch and Personal Handicaps look wide open. Mike Curtis leads from Peter Curtis, Gareth Griffiths and Arthur Phillips, all within two points of each other. Several others could very conceivably come into play if they can turn out more often: John Reay being an obvious candidate. Tom Wilson (handicap changes pending?) is currently leading the Personal Handicap from Alistair Smith, then John Smith and Malcolm Barnes, but its anyone's game yet...

Wednesday 3rd June

Another overcast evening. When folk arrived the wind was showing all the signs of dropping off into something of a drifter but it never happened. Amateur weather forecasters confounded! In fact if anything it tended to build through the evening, at least until most folk had finished. I would guess that it was probably F2, maybe F3ish at times, roughly northerly and moderately shifty. Not especially warm, but you can't have everything: it was a good evening's racing and those of us who were't brave enough to go out in shorts and a T shirt were plenty warm enough!

There was a healthy turnout - nearly 30 boats on the water. In fact the race turnout was the best for at least five years, and the overall turnout for the first six races is also the best for at least five years, so things are on the up - come and join in:-)

Well, what do I remember seeing... A pretty hard fought start for the slow fleet. I remember being unable to pick out Graham Potter's Albacore from amongst the pack of Solos from where I was, so they must have been pretty tightly packed on the line... Gareth Griffiths, Arthur Phillips & Graham P were predictably among the early leaders. We were missing two of the top Laser sailors, including John Reay, just back from winning the Radial Masters event at Grafham, because they were running the racing, but there was still a good bunch. John Leheup and Rob Pettit were the early leaders, Rob somewhat hampered by an outhaul rigging problem. As an aside, why did the Laser class allow itself to be transformed from being one of the simplest boats of all to rig to being so amazingly complicated? I suppose at least know this expensive new kit is better than all those silly knots and loops... But I digress. There was a good selection of different boats out for the fast class start, and they were very considerably mixed all the way up the first beat with no especial regard for handicap order. Peter Curtis was I think the leader in his RS300, but Mike Storey's EPS and Mike Curtis' RS400 were thereabouts as well as I remember.

The course was quadrilateral, and with the decent breeze the reaches were somewhat shy for the spinnaker boats. The bottom one especially looked a struggle at times, and there were occasions when I saw folk holding on to the kite when I thought they might have been better to follow the gust down then head up two sailed... It was a delight on the Canoe though, especially when a good gust came through... The fast boats seemed to get up to the main pack of Lasers and Solos quite quickly, but the leaders seemed to have spread out quite considerably... Peter Curtis was leading fast boat for rather longer than his brother would have been comfortable with.

Results... on scratch Gareth Griffiths took the race in what I didn't think were especially Solo friendly conditions, so that was a good performance. Peter C was second, and John Leheup a very respectable third. Mike Storey's EPS was 4th, Mike Curtis 5th, and Arthur Phillips 6th. With the personal handicap Alistair Smith won by a good margin in his Topper, improving on second last week, from Tom Wilson, John Smith and Malcolm Barnes.

Wednesday 27th May

Overcast, windy, pretty gusty and shifty. Good though - a fun evening after a series starting with mostly quiet races. Those who, before the start, suggested Fiona's quadrilateral course was going to be over friendly to the spinnaker boats hadn't quite got the effect of wind strength dialled in - shyish reaches that would have been very comfortable in a F2 were definitely a struggle in what I guess was averaging F4. The single sail boats on the other hand were flying...

Incidents... your correspondent was managing plenty of his own, but noteworthy was the gust/shift on the first run that took out both the leaders in the Laser fleet, heard commenting afterwards that this running by the lee technique might have its disadvantages... I must say though, I have noticed that skill in that particular technique seems to be a good marker of the front of fleet competitors amongst our Laser Sailors... John Smith gratefully accepted the lead.

The most dramatic moment I was involved in was duelling with Mike Curtis' RS400, hurtling down the bottom reach on lap one without having pulled the sliding seat aft on the Canoe. The result was that the Canoe was seriously considering investigating the depth of the reservoir with her bow whenever I tried bearing away. All well and entertaining, but ahead of us, and just within three boat lengths of the mark was Alistair Smith in his Topper, glancing worriedly over his shoulder at the heavy metal coming up behind in clouds of spray... Mike decided (if I interpreted his shout correctly) that I didn't have water at the mark, leaving me wth the choice of attempting to go behind him, in which case the only way I could have avoided his rudder would have been if the rapidly submerging bow had passed beneath it, wiping out the Topper, whose 100% right of way was undisputable, or luffing up and missing the mark... I missed the mark, but not (to add injury upon injury) a capsize trying to retrieve the situation too hastily...

Meantimes Peter Curtis, freshly back from 8th at a Feva nationals cursed by light airs, was hurtling round in his RS300. Lets say that I don't wish to dwell on his on the water position in relation to those of us with faster boats. Graham Potter (Albacore) and of course Gareth Griffiths (Solo) wwere looking pretty good from the first start.

And results? Well Peter won by a margin with the standard handicaps. A damp John Reay was second with his Laser, Gareth 3rd in the Solo, Graham 4th with the Albacore, and Mike Curtis 5th in his RS400. Looks as if the handicaps worked then. Peter Halliday, who's suffered quite a selection of glitches so far, was 6th in his Solo. In the personal handicap John Smith (who was second Laser in scratch results) won by just three corrected seconds from Alistair Smith's Topper, with Graham Potter 3rd and Peter Halliday 4th.

Wednesday 20th May

A nice sunny evening... Summer evening? maybe not, but spring anyway. A pleasant breeze force 2ish, warm, and not too shifty on the whole, so a very pleasant evening...

Plenty of pin end bias at the start line, so most were picking the port end. In the Laser start Evean Cairns got the best start, ducking back across the startline at the right moment. There was an especial pile up for the fast start when an unexpected gust brought the starboard end guys along the line quickly when the port enders figured they were going to have room to cross... Much crash tacking ensued... Mike Storey was seen disappearing into the distance whilst most of the rest of us disentangled themselves.

Graham Potter (Albacore) led all the way round in the Albacore, Arthur Phillips chased by Tom Wilson led in the Solos, but had a fairly straightforward race. After his flash start Evan Cairns managed the starring move of the evening, succeeding in capsizing in the midst of quite a bunch at the gybe mark, and then spending more time than he might have liked sorting himself out. John Leheup was seen covering Mike Curtis (in a Laser this eveninng) when he got ahead, and held on nicely for first Laser.

There was more place changing in the fast fleet than there ought to have been - Peter Curtis especially was a very hard act for the "faster" boats to get past after he came out of the start line punchup pretty well...

Arthur Phillips took the win on Handicap with Tom Wilson second, Graham Potter third and John Leheup 4th. Michael Curtis (in a Laser remember) was 5th, and Fiona and Rob Fardon first of the fast handicap fleet in an RS200

Anniversary Race Sunday 17th May

This is a customer service announcement on behalf of the Laser fleet... Please note that full rig Lasers start the Anniversary race on the first start under the H flag with the fast handicap boats...

It was pretty horrible at rigging time - a good Force 6 with loads of rain. A significant percentage of those present decided discretion was the part of getting wet, cold and uncomfortable. Fate, Murphy, or whoever/whatever naturally then decided that the rain and wind should abate some for the race - we even saw some sun at times... I wouldn't want to give you the impression that it was anything other than very breezy though.

As suggested above the fast fleet set off without the majority of the full rig Lasers. Carl and Julie Mayhew took an early lead, but with Peter Curtis in rather closer attendance than they might have liked. The wind went round a fair bit for the start sequence, giving considerable port end bias for the start sequences, but that was nothing compared to the race, where what was a spinnaker reach on lap one had turned into a reasonable beat by laps 4/5, whilst the original beat was more of a reach...

Gareth Griffiths took an early lead amongst the Solos, mixing it with the (late starting) Lasers much of the time. To be quite honest the race is something of a blur for most participants, with much wind and speed interspersed with a certain amount of swimming... Most notable, perhaps, was Andrew Ford's last leg in his Solo, which he hurtled down at considerable speed, very nearly managing to pip Arthur Phillips, who had thought he was well clear, for second Solo.

Results wise Gareth G, who was flying upwind, won the race by an astonishing four minutes on handicap. Peter Curtis was second, Carl Mayhew third, Arthur Phillips 4th, by one second from Andrew Ford, and David Simpson 5th, sporting a Radial rig.

With two races in the series gone we can think about overall results... Without discards the top places all go to those who fished both races of course... Peter Curtis (RS300) leads, with Arthur Phillips (Solo) 2nd, Tony Butler (Laser) 3rd, and James and Harry Curtis (Feva) 4th. And with the Personal Handicaps Tony Butler is in first place on tie break from James and Harry Curtis, Malcolm Barnes (Solo) 3rd and David Clark (Solo) 4th.

Wednesday 13th May

Overcast, in fact dank and dreary and threatening to drizzle...

A lightish easterly wind, very patchy, but maybe not quite as shifty as most easterlies. Extremely patchy at times if fact... A generous amount of bias on the pin end saw most folk selecting that as the place to be. Especially selecting the pin very precisely were the Laser fleet. Rather more selected that point than there were room for in fact, which resulted in considerable animation, two guns and some hasty returns... Your correspondent was well placed to see the pin end, and in my opinion **** ****** who was at the pin should consider himself very lucky not to have been greeted with silence at the finish... Still if they didn't see you over it doesn't count!

It was something of a bijou coursette - a shortish beat, broad reach come run and a triangle - so something of a distorted Olympic as the two beats were on separate marks. Consequently picking the shifts right was key, and geting the right patch of wind on the downwind legs - which there was rather less choice about - was also important.

Amongst the fast boats Mike Curtis took an early and good lead, Arthur Phillips looked good amongst the Solos - in fact most of the Solos looked good - whilst the Kevin Pearson came through the Lasers well after returning at the start.

In the end it was something of a Solo night - Arthur Phillips first, Peter Cottrell 3rd, Mervyn Cinnamond 4th. Mike Curtis took second, and Kevin Pearson was 5th. It was good to see John Reay back at the club, although as he was the other Laser pushed over the line he may not have been that convinced about the warmth of his welcome...

Wednesday 6th May

Overcast, but a pretty decent breeze and no rain. We set a 'd' course - beat, short run, broad reach, shy reach, but a tendency for the wind to swing south between clouds tended to make the last reach rather less shy than we had intended. We set a moderate amount of port bias on the line, but for the sequence there was the aforementioned swing to the south, so it was definitely enough bias for most everyone to pick the pin end. This was particularly the case for the Solo start, where Arthur Phillips, intending a port tack start, found himself having to take rather more transoms than he would have wished...

The Lasers, on the other hand, all picked starboard tack at the port end, resulting in a very tight bunch at the pin and also a lot of agonising on when to risk the tack onto port, which was preferred... It looked like fun from where we were standing...

Early shows were Gareth Griffiths amongst the Solos, and Kevin Pearson very definitely taking the lead in the Laser fleet - indeed into the Solos rather earlier than they would have liked... Mike Curtis was looking well placed early on in the fast handicap fleet, a status considerably enhanced when the wind went just right for them to storm up the shy reach with all 3 sails fully operational...

Mike C was doing well all through the race, but Kevin Pearson was looking very well placed in the Laser until last lap, when a combination of a good gust and shift for Mike and both bad luck with gusts and a mainsheet round the boom cost Kevin dearly.

On handicap Michael Curtis took a safe first in the 400, with Kevin Pearson 2nd in the Laser. Peter Curtis took third in his RS300, Gareth Griffiths 4th in his Solo with Evan Cairns and Rob Pettit 5th and 6th respectively in Lasers - so all the starts and classes pretty well mixed up.

When the personal handicap sums were done it transpired that Mike had won under both systems, albeit tied with Malcolm Barnes (Solo) for first, with Tom Wilson (Solo) 3rd, John Smith (Laser) 4th and Paul Armitage (RS400) 5th.

Wednesday 29th April

We had 19 entries, including 4 who've joined using the new Wednesday only membership, plus Graham Hughes, Matt Stiles, Gareth Griffiths, etc. - good quality fleet. The wind was pretty good as we set the course. However as for the race, the wind went light as the slow handicap started and then picked up again after the fast handicap started, so it rather gave the race to Mike in the 400, particularly as he finished first on the water as the wind was dropping off. He was followed by Gareth. The big surprise was Matt Stiles in a Club Laser, 3rd overall.

Peter Curtis

Anniversary Race Sunday 19th April

Well, first running of a race using the new personal handicap system. No-one's actually shot me yet, but maybe that's because as I write I'm the only person who's seen the results.

Well, if nothing else it was a glorious day for sailing. A healthy turn out of boats, particularly amongst the Solos, and some very close racing in sunshine and a nice breeze. Spring has come. A northerly breeze, quite variable in strength and direction. I can't do much of a report on this race as I cunningly missed the start so didn't see very much.

Take a look at the results above, and see how you think the handicapping is working. The boats were close today - there were a lot of gusts tending to consolidate the fleets on the downwind legs, and consequently sailors in the higher bands were generally favoured.