The breeze had risen to a reasonable force 4 for the first race for the 15 Lasers and 11 Streakers. The course, with a shore start, had been set to include two beats, two runs and a reach. Hot off the line and into an almost unassailable lead was Frank Catt (Downs SC) with Steve Garrett (Bough Beech SC) in hot pursuit and John Wolsoncroft (Broxbourne) also having a cracking start. Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) had been tipped over the line early and had to restart in next but last place. By the end of lap one Alan had pulled through to 3rd place and was joining Steve G in battle whilst the pair were both making ground on Frank.C. By the end of the second lap Martin Wayland (Broxbourne) appeared from lower down the fleet (having, he said later, not had a good start) to close up on this pair. At the finish it was Frank, then Alan followed by Martin and Steve in fourth place. Bill Steven (Broxbourne ) thought the wind too much for his liking so stayed ashore for this race. The breeze throughout had been variable in strength and direction under the large black clouds that began to appear. Under the clouds there were quite a few hefty gusts. It was a condition that was to last for the rest of the day frequently dropping away to a force 3.
Race two, after lunch, saw Frank.C first off the line once more with John.W having yet another good start. Alan.S had a better placing over the line and Steve.G was nowhere to be seen. It transpired that in hoisting his sail he had damaged the gooseneck fitting and had had to stay ashore to fix it for the final race. Taking his place it was Martin.W who got engaged with Alan and later on Frank and came home in third place again. At one point Alan caught and passed Frank only to lose out again on the next beat in the prevailing shifty conditions but these three had some very close competition. Not far behind these three Gary Hogan (Haversham SC) came home in fourth place. John.W capsized during this race and got his mast head stuck in the mud. The rescue boat had to help him recover so that was the end of his race. Bill.S ventured out in this race, after a somewhat shaky launching, but gave it best half way through. At the finish it was Frank.C in first position, Alan.S second, Martin.W third and Gary.H fourth.
After another short break race 3 started on a new (figure of eight) course and with a fleet reduced to nine boats. Yet again it was Frank.C who had the best and lead start, hotly pursued by Steve.G - now back on the water again. Alan.S was nearly there but a little further down the line, however he set off to catch the other two. With the new course came new pitfalls, a short reach at the northen end of the water was in the wind shadow caused by the ‘forest’ at that point and the leading group eventually got caught up by Geoff Town (Broxbourne SC) and Gary.H. By the final lap these two passed both Alan and Steve but Frank managed to escape the carnage. It was only on the penultimate leg that first Alan and then Steve managed to salvage an inside berth on the gaggle of boats (including the leading Laser) at the final turning mark. Alan just pulled out ahead on the last stretch to the line but suffered a heading gust whilst Steve had a freeing one and just pipped him over the line by a second. This meant that Frank.C fished first, Steve.G second and Alan.S third with Geoff.T in fourth.
Overall results:-
1st. Frank Catt, 2nd. Alan Simmons, 3rd. Steve Garrett, 4th.Martin Wayland, 5th.Geoff Town, 6th. Gary Hogan, 7th. Ian Nash (Broxbourne), 8th. Nick Hayes (Broxbourne) 9th. John Wolsoncroft, 10th. Reg Mulley (Broxbourne), 11th Bill Steven.
My most successful results (excluding Weston) this year and as an added bonus to the second place I also was awarded the Masters Trophy for the meeting plus two lovely bottles of wine. Congratulations are due to Frank Catt on a clean sweep with the unusailable three first places and to Steve Garrett for a fine recovery from his fittings problem. I will unfortunately miss the last Open of the season at Alton Water due to other engagements.
Our journey home was however a nightmare, having left Broxbourne at about 5.15pm, when we came back across the Thames at Dartford on the M25 and the turned off onto the M23. Apparently there had been a serious accident, at 4.00pm, between junction 11 and Junction 9. The Motorway was closed and as we approached junction 11 we ran into the first of the major traffic jams the closure had ensured. We had little choice but to crawl along at never more than 8mph until finally all the traffic was diverted off at Crawley (junction 10). We got through the town OK but once back on the A23 out the town there was yet another hold up stretching all the way up the hill to Pease Pottage and that was moving at about 1mph! We finally got home at about 9.15pm.
Alan.S 1700
No comments:
Post a Comment