Your reporter missed Week One.
Sunny, warm, windy. Good stuff. Its Force 3 gusting 4 as folk arrived, and there was even a degree of trepidation about the strength of the wind from some. Your correspondent was on the commitee boat and it seemed perfectly comfortable from there! The wind was somewhat north of east, and we set a rectangular course with a long beat and run, and two shorter reaches, one of which was a bit shy for spinnakers.
As we set the line it was apparent that the wind was swinging fairly regularly, with the stronger gusts coming more from the east than the lighter patches. The line was pretty much square on the stronger gusts, but definitely port biased inbetween, so there was a lot to gain by picking where you were in the wind patterns and planning your start and first beat accordingly.
For the first start the line was square, and a somewhat depleted fleet set off in a dignified and restrained manner. For the next two starts it was going to be a bit more interesting! The Laser start had appreciable bias, and opinions of what to do varied. Some elected for a moderate start, safer if the wind went back, two elected to be on starboard at the port and, and Tessa Groves, in a Radial, elected for a full on port end start. From the committee boat this looked like the best option to be first to the first shift. Tessa took the transoms of the first two starboard tackers and cleared the rest to make what looked to us the best start tactically, and certainly looked well placed at the end of the first lap. The fast start, 4 minutes later, had possibly the most bias, and Peter Curtis pulled off a classic port end start in his 300, leading to a first beat which was good enough to have him ahead of nominally faster boats at the end of the first lap.
During the race Simon Bean and Rob Petit, the two port end starboard tack Lasers, had a notably tight race, with a good bit of place changing, ended by Rob electing to test the temperature of the water. Rob, I could have told you it's still cold. The pair of 600 sailors, enjoying, but perhaps not completely mastering the gusty conditions, also elected to investigate the water temperature at regular intervals.
As the race progressed the wind tended more to the north, and by the last lap Carl and Julie Mayhew, their RS400 the only spinnaker equipped boat out, sailed a very nicely judged last run which make good use of the shifts to sail the leg almost as a broad reach. This looked very much like a race winning leg, and sure enough Carl and Julie took the race from Peter Curtis by some twenty seconds on handicap. Simon Bean was third in a Laser, just two corrected settings ahead of Peter Halliday's Solo.
Windy! Very Windy!
Steady 20knots plus rigging, with sustained gusts up to 25ish. Not the largest turnout of sailors at the club, and an even lower total on the water... First on the water was Dicken and Nicola in an RS200, first back to the jetty were the same, for a new tiller extension. Whilst Nicola was getting the new tiller extension Dicken decided that now was the perfect time for a little singlehanded cruise round the pond, although it may not have been a completely planned exercise...
Your correspondent was surveying the race from the end of the plank on the Canoe, and frankly I haven't got a clue what was going on, other than that this white stuff kept coming up to hit me... It was a bit windy you see. The course was beat, run, beat, broad reach, great for the spinnaker boat, but a bit underpowered on the runs for the white sail boats, except when the windiest gusts came through... Nicola and Dicken were first to cross the start line, first round the course, and first on handicap too, in spite of their best efforts capsizing yards short of the finish.
Mike Curtis must have sailed a good race in his Laser in the windy conditions, 2nd, just seconds ahead of Peter Curtis in his RS300, with Simon Bean 4th in another Laser. Err that's all I can think of. The chips were welcome, so was a drink! Did I mention it was very windy?
A moderate breeze this evening, mostly Force 2 or thereabouts, and whilst overcast it didn't actually quite manage to rain. Sailing out to the start it felt as if we should be dodging the many swifts we have on the reservoir this year, but in fact they all kept clear of us. Thanks go to Alex Groves, who deeserted his boat at the last minute in order to make up a full duty team with Fiona and Rob Fardon. The best breeze of the evening was reserved for the slow handicap start and first couple of legs, and Arthur Phillips, tonight in a Solo, Matthew Stiles in a National and Dicken and Nicola in their RS200 seemed to be making especially good progress. Course wise there was a good beat, a broadish reach, a run, and a 4th leg that was a nice fine reach for the first and last laps, but tended a bit much towards a fetch for the other laps. Wish the wind would stay still!
In the Laser race Mike Curtis and Rob Pettit were having a good battle round the track once Rob had recovered from an over eager start. From the fast start Carl & Julie Mayhew were predictably heading for the front in what is probably their optimum conditions. It was a good steady race, but few really dramatic incidents followed other than Mark Taylor's teabag finish...
Overall Carl and Julie took the race from the Stiles in the N12, Arthur 3rd and Dicken and Nicola 4th. 5th and 6th were Mike and Rob in Lasers. Final corrected times were even closer than normal - just three minutes separated first and thirteenth, and seven pairs of boats were less than 10 seconds apart on corrected time. No room for mistakes!
The weather had looked very light all day, but folks arrived at the club to see good looking and steady F3 on the water. Everyone rigged up and set off... No sign of anyone wishing to be ashore rather than on the water.
Star of the slow start was Gareth Griffiths, in his new (to him) Solo, crossing the entire fleet with a very classy port end start. Up the beat it was Dicken's RS200 and Graham Potters Albacore that were the first to show at the front though. The Laser start was a more restrained affair, with most electing for a moderate mid line start. In the fast fleet start Peter Curtis and Mike Storey also succeeded with the port end option.
In the race Dicken and Nicola were clearly flying, taking a generous lead early. Peter Curtis was making very good progress through a depleted Laser fleet, and Arthur Phillips well placed and leading the Solos. The wind was clearly dying as the race proceeded, and by the last laps the run especially was getting rather tedious.
The wind really started dying hard as soon as Dicken and Nicola finished, setting the dsal on their efforts and giving them a very comfortable handicap win. Arthur Phillips took second place and Graham Potter third - a clean sweep on the podium for the first start. Peter Curtis at 4th was the only boat from other than the slow start in the top 8, and two Lasers rounded out the top ten.
Windy again! Force 4 gusting Force 6 as folk arrived at the club, although it calmed down to an extent later. It was suprisingly gusty for a southerly breeze and rather patchy. We had a more complex course than normal featuring a bit of everything, including a nice shy reach that was very entertaining on the "assisted" singlehanders, RS600s and Canoe.
A bit of controversy at the start because the Race Officer hadn't sufficiently warned everyone that he intended the start to be between F and the distant mark rather than bank and distant mark, and not everyone took the intended course. In the end it was decided that bank and distant was a fair start and all times were counted.
Dicken and Nicola disappeared into the distance as is their wont, and even lapped Mclean senior before the end of the race. The Lasers had a good battle - too good perhaps to be able to catch the 200. At least one Laser was spotted doing turns at the end of the first beat. Your scribe has to admit that his admired mark rounding, with the sliding seat passing between the upper and lower portions of mark three, was entirely down to fluke, luck and misjudgement!
Overall Nicola and Dicken won by nearly 5 minutes! Mike Curtis was second and best Laser, and Mike Storey third in his EPS. Andrew Barnett and Stephen Day took 4th and 5th in Lasers.
Another decent breeze, actually more moderate than some, F3 to f4. Its good this year. Northerly, somewhat gusty and shifty, and *very* interesting under the clubhouse as ever in those conditions.
Here follows a public service announcement for the benefit of the Laser Fleet. If you look up on your sail you'll notice a logo, not nearly as ugly as the new Olympic one, consisting of red lines radiating from a point, one very long. From time to time on the committee boat you'll see a red flag with the same logo in white on the start mast. Your start is when this flag is pulled down...
Apart from that part of the Laser fleet that went off two minutes early the starts went off fairly quietly. Both RS200s showed early, with Dicken and Nicola being chased fairly hard by Fiona and Rob Fardon: it being the first time the latter crew have had a "just right sailing breeze since they hired the boat. From the fast start Mark Taylor was well placed early in a nice 600 breeze.
The Solos had a very notably close race. By the time I caught up with them well into the race there were four of them practically overlapped on one leg... Our nascent lowrider Moth fleet was zooming about from time to time too, in between a temporary sinking of one caused by lack of bungs!
Overall Dicken and Nicola won by a mile. Mark Taylor came through for second, and Fiona and Rob took third - an excellent result with them so new to the boat and Rob so new to sailing. Fourth was Alex Groves singlehanding a Feva, and enjoying the spinnaker reaches greatly, whilst 5th was John Smith, one of the Laser sailors who did know which flag was which...
Vaguely drizzly at times, F3/4, dropping over the evening, but excellent racing conditions again. The course set was beat, shy reach, run, short beat, short broadish reach, but the wind was going round, and the run tended towards a broad reach, and the short reach went pretty shy at times.
The series leaders were absent, Dicken being exam-bound, but Carl and Julie were present. Its suprising how few times these two teams have actually sailed head to head so far this series. The slow start was depleted this evening with two on duty, and Graham Potter and Fiona Fardon, in Albacore and RS200 respctivly, were soon heading up their fleet. The Lasers had a better turnout, and a pretty close and at times rather vocal race between themselves. A more numerous fast start featured Carl and Julie of course with Peter Curtis close behind. The Mayhews looked very much in sight of the other faster boats until they finally got through the Lasers and things, at which point they did something of a horizon job.
Overall Carl and Julie won by a good couple of minutes on handicap, with Peter Curtis second. Fiona Fardon finished just far enough ahead of Graham Potter to take 3rd for the second week running (by just 9 seconds!), and 5th went to the first Laser, Stephen Day.
Another nice windy evening. A good solid F4 and maybe a tad more at rigging time. We set a quadrilateral course with a tightish reach across the top, a long run, and a shy reach back to the start, but the wind was swinging round a bit all evening and the price orientation of the off wind laps changed appreciably from lap to lap. The key feature of rigging time was a sudden burst of RS200s, with all the 5 boats at the club heading for the start line. As well as the regular 200 sailors Carl & Julie Mayhew had booked one of the Club boats, and Peter Curtis and Alex Groves the other one.
From under the start flag I was expecting a dramatic start to the slow fleet, but in fact they were very restrained. Carl/Julie & Peter/Alex both went left, and Dicken/Nicola went right. Left paid.It was very nearly the only time it paid all evening! The order at the windward was Peter, Carl, Dicken, with the latter then clipping the mark and having to do a turn.
The Laser start was quite restrained with no risk at all of a recall flag, and the Fast start was positively lethargic! The best thing about the fast start was the return of Richard French and his RS600. I don't believe Richard has been able to sail for quite some time so it was good to see him on the water again. The 600s were noticeably very fast on the reach across the top on the first leg and were making good ground. At the end of Lap 1 Peter Curtis was just (very just) ahead of Carl for 1st, with Dicken a way back in third place. Stephen Day in the first Laser seemed to be making good ground, and Mike Storey in the EPS looked far closer to the 600s than he had any right to be! Between the 600s Mark Taylor and Richard French were having a good old battle, with Alistair Maclean not far behind.
On Lap 2 Dicken and Nicola had caught up well to Peter/Alex and Carl/Julie, but they went right on the run and a glorious gust came in for the latter two which missed Dicken completely. The first three Lasers had a particularly good battle on this lap, with quite a bit ofplace changing, and Simon Bean and then Rob Petit getting ahead of Mr Day. The Leeward mark rounding for the 600s was especially dramatic, as they picked up a good old gust on the shy reach and came hurtling up to a mark rounding which already featured two Lasers and a Solo overlapped. They went for any gaps they could see - no choice - and at the 2BL point all five were overlapped! Great fun - especially to watch!
On lap 3 Peter Curtis took a big lead in the 200s with a very well judged run, riding a gust to nearly make it on one gybe - the wind being at that extreme of the swing! Dicken managed to close well up on Carl. Mike Storey was still looking pretty good in the EPS, and a mystery Topper with an adult on board was also circulating pretty well, though close to being lapped by the leaders. On Lap 4 Dicken found a better way up the beat than Carl and took second place by the mark. Mike Storey dropped out on this lap with a broken rudder pintle on the EPS - shame. Carl dropped back a bit from Dicken on this, but Peter preserved his lead, especially when they managed successfully to fly the kite on the shy reach in what was now a lighter breeze.
For the last lap the wind blew up again. Mark Taylor took the left and seemed to gain a ile - the other time left paid in the race! Peter and Alex sailed the last leg witout the kite thinking the extra breeze made the rech too tight. We thought that in the race box too. Dicken also kept the kite in the bag until Carl and Julie, with nothing to losse, hoiseted theirs, so Nicola had to grab the kite half way down the leg. This looked to be keeping them safe ahead until a monster gust hit them just short of the line and they had to quickly run down and drop. Fortunately for them, although Carl and Julie were able to hold the kite to the line, it was really struggling too much and no places changed.
Overall it was an RS200 1,2,3, with Peter/Alex taking Peter's first win of the series, Dicken and Nicola second and Carl and Julie third. The Laser battle was resolvedin favour of Rob pettit who was 4th on handicap, Simon Bean 5th and Stephen Day 6th. And the mystery Topper? Well Matt Styles' Moth gooseneck had exploded on launching, and he had quickly rigged and raced his sons Topper, and to 9th place too...
After racing the MacLeans had organised midsummer supper, and very excellent it was too. Very welcome in place ofthe usual fish and chips.
You know those dank autumn days? The ones where a creeping dampness percolates up from the crushed leaves in the gutter and seeps into your clothing? Well how come we got one in June?
The weather really dominated this week's race. There was a decent breeze for rigging albeit with drizzle about, and plenty of action at start time. The course was (and I say *was* with particular emphasis) beat, closish reach, run, short beat, broad reach back to start. The slow fleet was quite small this week after last weeks 200fest with the two regular 200s, three Solos and one Laser Radial. No great action at the start, with Dicken and Nicola taking an early lead closely followed by Fiona and Rob. A good bunch of Lasers all elected to go left at the start and had a good run up to the top, but a bit more action was reserved for the Fast fleet. Again all went left - well all but one. Your writer elected not to fight at the committee boat end in the IC, but instead came in from port and took transoms with a view to clear air and a nice run up the middle. This proved to be exactly the right way to go, and with the F4 being very much to the Canoe's taste Carl and Julie found themslves in the unusual (for them) situation of not leading round the first mark. Also at the first mark there seemed to be some dramatic action mid fleet for the fast start. I didn't spot the details, but I thought I saw two RS sails in attitudes that differed from the designers drawings... I think I overheard that one RS300 semi pitchpoled! At this point the wind, having gone round some to assist the IC up the beat, elected to go right round and make a nonsense of the whole race track. The first reach was now a run, and the rest of the legs reaches and fetches. This suited your writer just fine, and the Canoe was going well and owner was thinking it could be a good evening unless the wind dropped...
And drop it did. There had been some really impressive banks of cloud about all evening. A long line of heavy nimbus between us and Heathrow was particularly striking. By about lap three the heavens opened and we got reasonably heavy rain and not much wind, and the wind tended to drop for the rest of the race. At this point the 200s looked well clear. The leading fast boats were well into some of the Lasers, but the Lasers were especially spaced out (weekend at Glastonbury lads?) and the leading two or three looked a long way away. Amongst the fast boats Peter Curtis was suddenly making very good progress in the lighter stuff, whilst Arthur Phillips was going steadily in his Solo. To an extent the sort of course we now had, all reaches and fetches, can get somewhat processional, but this is less of an issue with handicap racing where the big differences in straight line speed mean that there's still plenty of opportunity for boat on boat action, and of course the clock is still ticking. I was particularly amused to notice a certain multiple Wednesday series winning helm being pushed well above the rhumb line on one reach by a Laser sailor who had been his crew in some of those series wins...
Anyway come results time it turned out that Mike Curtis, leader of the Laser pack, had won the race by a whole four corrected settings from Dicken and Nicola. First non RS two hander to win a race this year: well done. Peter Curtis came through for third, Fiona and Rob 4th in the other 200, Simon Bean 5th and 2nd Laser, and Arthur Phillips 6th just six seconds ahead of Carl and Julie. Had that luffing session from Rob P cost them the odd place?
Grief, I'm shattered. Both the two favourites for the series took a week off, and a good call it was too IMHO. Its not so much the F6 I found troublesome, it was the rapid shifts and big gusts from F3 to F6 in seconds, making it pretty much impossible to get any kind of reasonable set up on the boat to cope with what was happening. What was mainly happening was, in point of fact, a fair bit of swimming and several retirements. It was that sort of evening. If you were here last Sunday morning it was the same only more so. Wind that's come over a couple of hundred miles of land, stirred up by thunderstorms, clouds, gradient wind, even some sunshine is rarely steady.
More arrived than rigged, and those that actually launched numbered around a dozen. More launched than finished too. Rather than a cohesive report all I've got to offer is a series of vignettes... An RS200 setting of in clouds of spray in a big gust, but it was close to the gybe mark, they were't altogether in control, and as the spray settled back onto the water so did their mainsail... A Solo trying to work out if there was room between said RS200 and mark, going for it and only just making it.. Another Solo seen wearing round rather than gybing on the runs after a first lap swim. An aside - by the way - wearing round in square rigged ship days was the process of bearing off and gybing round because of the problems of tacking such a rig in certain conditions. Dinghy sailors have chosen to use it to mean exactly the opposite... Which means that now some foiler Moth Sailors have identified conditions where its better to gybe round than tack (in order to stay foilbourne) they've had to coin the atrocious neologism "gack" for a process traditional sailors had exactly the right phrase for... But I digress... Oh yes... More than one sailor completely forgetting one of the rather generous selection of marks in the course and having to go back... An Albacore drifting across the reservoir minus crew (on jetty) and part of the mainsheet... huge gusts... and Mike Storey sailing round in a relatively calm and collected manner in his Laser EPS... The race officer shortening very early, and very welcome his decision to do so was too...
So places. Mike Storey won by just about a minute on corrected time in the EPS. Mike Curtis was second, a whole 5 corrected seconds ahead of Gareth Griffiths' Solo. Simon Bean and Stephen Day were 4th and 5th in Lasers, Tessa Groves 6th in "her" Radial, and Peter Halliday 7th. The rest of us didn't even make the early finish!
Fiona Fardon commented after the race that this was the first "normal" Wednesday evening race her husband and new-for-this-year crew has sailed in. Well observed - as I look down this page its been quite a collection of weather, but this was really the first sunny warm F2 with the wind dropping at the end to irritate the later finishers!
The wind was pretty quiet for the slow start, with a shifts and holes to cope with, especially with the winward mark being F, right under the wind shadow of the clubhouse. The starboard layline looked distinctly glassy. There was quite a bit of placechanging up the beat, and one or two penalty turns too, but in spite of rotations Dicken and Nicola led to the first mark as usual, but with Peter Cotterell and Gareth Griffiths rather close than normal. The Lasers, led by Simon Bean and Rob Pettit were starting to catch the mid fleet slow boats rather earlier than normal, and the fast boats catching mid fleet Lasers, so more wind had come in and rather condensed the fleet.
Dicken and Nicola got a bit of wind downwind and established something of a lead, and Peter C and Gareth also got some clear win, but the others were packing together, and it seemed as if three quarters of the fleet were in one overlapped gaggle at the downwind mark at the end of lap 1. More turns ensued. We should also give the Commodore credit for being right up with the other fast fleet boats at this stage. Unfortunately a couple of swims delayed his progress a little, one of which was done with such style (or maybe language) that even the sheep on the bank were audibly letting us know how impressed they were with his efforts... Actually it was something of a chatty race all round I'm told, even though StJ-L was absent.
It was noticeable on the next lap that Dicken and Nicola sailed round the windward mark in a decent patch of breeze, but the next few struggled to the mark with very little... Funny how the most talented sailors are so often the ones who get the best luck...
With a wind drop looking imminent the race was shortened pretty early, and sure enough as soon as D & N finished the wind died off. On handicap Dicken and Nixcola won by a very decent margin. Peter Cotterell took 2nd in his Solo, Peter Curtis third in RS300, then Gareth Griffiths and Arthur Phillips in Solos, and the first Laser Simon Bean in 6th.
Another "normal" evening for Fiona! The prevsious night the training was almost blown off with Force5 gusting and even ocaasionally 7, but tonight it was a gentle and sunny F1-2. There was a notably short startline, yet no particular enthusiasm for being close to it at the start! With a reverse P (is that a q?) course Fiona was showing early at the front of the Slow handicap fleet. She was accompanied by a Fireball - not the most likely of slow boats, so I don't know what was going on there, and Graham Potter was pretty close too. ... Peter Curtis looked to be showing well in the fast fleet, and Arthur Phillips was leading the Solos, who looked pretty good.
It was a decent light weather race - no major holes in the wind, but shifts to exploit and windier patches to catch. The trouble is that's the sort of race that's much more fun to do than read about. The Lasers were noticeably having a good old battle - much place changing and covering. Overall Artur Phillips took the race by a good margin, Peter Curtis took second,, Peter Cotterell 3rd, Fiona & Rob 4th, Graham Potter 5th, and Rob Pettit first Laser at 6th.
Well, so much for normal evenings. F4 and more in the gusts, and that sort of ominous grey in the sky that makes you think rain could be on the agenda. The course set was beat, broad reach, beat, reach/come run, short beam reach to finish, then another beat. There wasn't really quite as much reaching as some might have liked, but enough breeze for everyone and more than enough for some.
At the Slow start Graham Potter in the Albacore and Peter Halliday in a Solo elected for port end port tack starts, which was very much the end to be. Graham rounded first at the windward mark, harried by Fiona and Rob in their 200. The Laser start was less dramatic, but at the fast start Peter Curtis pulled off a really nice Port End port tacker...
By the start of the run Matt Stiles in his 80s Moth was well up with Graham and Fiona, but then it was the bearaway onto the run in a big gust with no T foil and an aluminium mast... Veteran Mothies will know what that means - splash! Such incidents tended to punctuate Matt's race from then on:-). By the end of the run Graham was just ahead of Fiona, Arthur Phillips in the Solo not far away, and Mike Curtis leading the Lasers was looking well placed. Dicken Maclean was leading the fast class in his father's 600. There were several boats looking well placed, but no obvious winner at that stage.
At the end of lap two Fiona and Rob were beginning to stretch away from Graham, and Mike Curtis was still catching, maybe not quite as fast, but he was through the leading Solo by then. At this point Peter Curtis was looking more in touch, Dicken having gone swimming... Water polo? Star capsize award also went to Dicken in spite of Matt's sterlin effort. Dicken was heading down for the lee mark but had been hit by a big gust and was flat out, heeled, and struggling to bear away down to the mark with the rudder maybe not quite biting properly. Just before the mark he got the boat flat, the rudder gave it its all and, wham, straight over to windward and cartching the mast two. Stylish!
Finish set for the third lap, and it was very difficult to call. Fiona took the race from Graham on the water, but not that far ahead. Mike Curtis took third on the water, seconds ahead of brother Peter, and both these seemed to have reasonable times. Arthur Phillips followed soon after, and seemed well placed as well. So when the sums were done was it close? My oath it was! Peter Curtis won, 4 corrected seconds ahead of Mike Curtis, who was 7 seconds ahead of Arthur Phillips. Fiona was 26 seconds behind Arthur, and Graham just 4 seconds behind them! The first 5 were within 41 seconds on corrected time. Maybe these handicaps do work...
A light turnout this week with several regulars on the annual seaside trip to Studland. On arrival time things looked pretty desperate - a glassy surface interespersed with random patches of ripples, probably thermals on their way past I guess. It was looking as if we could have the first abandoned race of the series. However folk rigged boats, and by start time the sun had gone in and the wind was much more even without such extreme lulls and windy patches. With such light winds the race officer wisely set a short triangle of X,F,1 and allowed an optmisitic looking 5 laps. As the wind worked out this was beat, very broad reach, shy reach.
At the slow class start the wind was reasonably steady, if minimal, and a fairly even start was made, although left definitely paid up the beat. Phil Chambers, and his crew, whom I must apologise to - I forgot to write down your name - were doing very well in an Enterprise. In spite of the wind almost completely dropping to mess up folks' TOD calculations two boats were OCS at the Laser start and three went back. Something made me think that the third return, which was unnecessary, was not entirely deliberate as I've never seen someone make their return backwards across the start line before... No names I think [grin]. When returning Rob Pettit apparently fouled another boat, but didn't hear the hail, and so sportingly retired when informed after the race. A little more wind came in for the fast start, and Dicken Maclean, tonight in an RS600 again, and your writer in the Canoe were soon amongst the trailing Lasers with tall sails picking up more air.
The first couple of laps continued very light, and the race officers, anticipating a quiet evening, decided the time was right to bring a few cans onto the Commitee boat. Meantimes Phil was making good progress in the Enterprise, Gareth Griffiths showing at the front of the Solos, and John Leheup had opened up an early lead amongst the Lasers.
About halfway through the race the wind elected to fill in! And it came in very decently, with enough wind for us all to circulate at some speed and do all the laps. It was, in point of fact, a highly entertaining race, for all it seemed so unpromising at the start.
Before I go on to results the rest of the fleet would like to express their thanks to Mr Maclean, who, by going afloat without a trapeze harness in the only wire equipped boat in the race, ensured the wind would fill in for the rest of us:-) Results wise it was good for the slower boats, and again the first 5 were within a minute on corrected time. Gareth won, twelve corrected seconds ahead of JohnL (heard to remark later about how nice it was to catch all the Solos for once), Peter Cotterell (Solo) 3rd, Mike Chambers, who hadn't benefited as much as some from the breeze, 4th, Merv Cinnamond 5th in his Solo, and Mike Storey, who had sailed a very quiet race in his EPS, 6th.
A quiet last race for what has been a pretty busy series. I seem to remember that all of the last few years there has been at least one race lost to a flat calm. This year the opposite was more likely! Anyway it was sunny, with a not-especially-warm northerly F1, sometimes F2 breeze. Kudos goes to the duty team. two of whom weren't expecting to be on a committte boat rather than sailing when they arrived. Thanks for stepping up Rob and John. The northerly wind saw an unusual problem for the RC - a square line with the committee boat at the usual end would have left the crew squinting directly into the setting sun and unable to sight the line. Sensibly they opted to run with the committee boat at would what normally be the pin end. Shame I didn't notice when I ran down and found myself in the middle of the slow boat start rather than just off the line then. Sorry guys. It was my night for stuff ups really as I also managed to pull a boom fitting off a club Laser and forget to write my name down on the chip order, and ended up eating Peter Halliday's supper. Sorry Peter...
Oh yes, the sailing... Fiona and Rob opened up a clear lead early in their RS200, and were looking good until the side of the beat that had previously paid for them went drastically wrong on the last lap. Peter Curtis was the lone starter on the fast boat start, and for large chunks of the race it was Fiona - gap - everyone - gap - Peter! The Lasers had a pretty intense race (me excluded) in which John Magrath took the gun. Arthur Phiillips led the Solos round.
Results wise? Arthur's Solo was good for 1st place by half a minute. Peter Curtis was second, 14 corrected seconds ahead of John Magrath, who crossed the line 12 second ahead of Mike Curtis. Fiona and Rob Fardon corrected out in 5th, 7 seconds behind Mike and only 2 corrected seconds ahead of Peter Cotterell.
1st Dicken MacLean and Nicola Groves, RS200
2nd
Peter Curtis, RS300
3rd Mike Curtis, Laser
Full listing here.
It was a comprehensive win for Dicken and Nicola, counting 8 firsts and two seconds. A fourth was their worst result as a team (Dicken's two lower placings at the end of the series were in a borrowed RS600). Excellent result. Well done folks. Peter and Mike Curtis sailed very consistent series for 2nd and 3rd, but could never match the leader's series of race wins, with one win each. Multiple previous winners Carl and Julie Mayhew ended up down the pack: although they had three wins they didn't have enough races to make a series. I should also mention Arthur Phillip's two wins with a Solo. All that Mothing at weekends seems to be paying in improved speed in the more conventional boat.
Jim Champ 2007