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Wednesday Series Race 9 (Week 10)

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  • The series is well under way now, and I've bitten the bullet and (I hope correctly) amalgamated results for folk sailing different classes. Let me know about any errors. Its also very easy to miss people's duty turns off, so let me know if I've missed any of those. I also had a glitch with last weeks results file, and any errors I corrected last week may have disappeared. Not doing that well am I! Anyway, arriving at the club first yesterday the first thing that was visible was hundreds of damn seagulls, on our boats, on our jetties, look at the [redacted] things...

    And the next thing that was visible, as you can see from the photo, is not a lot of breeze. In fact it was to, if anything, drop for the next hour or so, and it was only after getting very fed up with working on amalgamating results that I rigged the boat, thinking that even drifting couldn't be any less inspiring...

    Drifting it was too, taking some minutes to get to the middle of the reservoir where the team had set up a start line in the hopes that some kind of direction would appear in the wind. The forecast did include some sort of gradient wind turning up in late evening, so there was some basis for hope. Anyway they set a triangular course which I suppose covered about a quarter of the reservoir area with the first mark set in what looked most likely to be upwind, and hoisted an AP. There's not usually time for a postponement on a Wednesday evening, but this was probably the longest evening of the year.

    So yes, a course was set, and some wind did start to fill in, so we went for a sequence. Naturally it came in at a bit of an angle to what was expected, but you know, better than nothing, and the first leg was vaguely upwind. The first start was hotly contested with a big bunch and the very favoured starboard end. I suppose there maybe wasn't quite enough wind for people to be early and pushed over, but must have been close. There weren't many Lasers out, but there was also a reasonable bunch for the last start.

    The wind was never what you'd call steady or reliable, but it did pick up through the race. The direction was a bit unfortunate, as the course ended up as a nearly fetch, a very broad reach but not run, and a shyish reach, but we whizzed round and most did 5 laps, so there was actually a good bit of action, and it sure beat sitting in the clubhouse doing the results, or for that matter watching the television at home...

    So, the results. A Solo evening, as you'd expect. Been a lot of those this year. Gareth Griffiths and Paul Playle bagged first and second. Kevin Pearson took 3rd in his Laser, Caroline Baldwin 4th in her Byte, Mike Curtis 5th, taking the RS400 from his expanding selection of boats (would you like to borrow the Canoe next week Mike?) and Harry Phelps 6th with an RS200. 

    In the personal handicap Caroline won from Harry and then Paul. Roy Poole took 4th with his Merlin, Gareth 5th and Ian and Clare 6th in another RS200.

    Series wise, well it looks very promising for both leaders, who are currently discarding first places - Gareth has 5 wins in the standard handicap series and Harry 5 wins in the personal handicap. Solos are 2nd and 3rd in the standard series as well - its just been a Solo summer I guess. Kevin Pearson stands 4th and has two wins - the only races that haven't been won by a Solo...

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