Deben YC - August 29th 2010

It was not a very 'august' start to the day, arrising at 5am for a 6am get away I checked with theDeben site to discover that the first race was not scheduled until 12.30pm. The site link to the weather Guru showed at least a middle force five was due by that start time and increasing later.
It was a bright enough day although heavy black clouds hovered overhead and we had a good swift journey up – just over three hours to Deben YC , just south of Woodbridge and north east of Ipswich, including a leisurely coffee break. We were first at the club, which was not yet open when we arrived.
One has to park some distance away from the club area then go across a manually controlled (Bett) railway level crossing before traversing a foot path to the rigging area adjacent to the club house. What we did not know was that the local council had introduced parking fees but we paid up in the end – hitherto parking had been free on Sundays so we were nearly caught out.
We rigged the boat in excessively boisterous conditions above the launching ramps and I was in two minds whether or not to bother to sail. In the end I decided to give it a go and come back from the sailing area, some half a mile from the club, if I was unhappy.

The meeting was held jointly with some Enterprises, eight of them and six Streakers. Once at the starting area things began to go wrong. I along with a couple of Ents got stuck in the riverside mud. Fortunately for me I was able to turn the boat and sail out of the pudding. The Ents were not so lucky with at least one breaking his rudder in the process. It was certainly windy with extremely vicious gusts seemingly from all directions.
Eventually race one got underway, heading back up river in the direction of the club, and whilst I was close to the line I was about fourth to the windward mark with one boat behind me and, so I subsequently discovered, at least two of the three behind me inverted. Mike Hanes (Deben) was first to round the mark followed by Pierre Naude (Deben) and David Shuster (Deben). Gary Hogan (Haversham) even passed me up that first leg and the lot stretched away on the reach across the river.
Near the far bank it was a case of either a gybe or up the cut to wear round onto the third leg which was almost a run, certainly it was tippy enough. I think it was down this leg that David S took his first (of many) dips. I made it in one piece and then had to fight up the next beat slowly closing in on Gary. H. Half way up the next running leg my boat came out from beneath me and came over the top of me as I tried to right it and I reluctantly called for the rescue boat to use my rigging to get it vertical again whilst scooping me up inside in the process. I then high tailed it back up the cut to the club having decided to call it a day. When I got back to the recovery ramp there were at least two Ents there already so I did not feel quite so bad about my decision to quit.
As a consequence of my retirement from the fray I have to rely on third person reports (none of which have surfaced so far) of the rest of the racing, all of which was curtailed in some way. I believe the second race lasted only one lap and the final race saw all but one competitor taking a dip in reported forty mph gusts. Even the committee boat had to leave station to assist the boat recovery. I believe it was about this time that Dave Shuster suffered a halyard breakage, one way or another he ended up being towed home to the club. As the fleet returned none were sure whether they had finished or not or if the last race had been abandoned – it had not.
A disappointingly small entry, probably due to the forecast but the conditions at Deben, over the past few years, have been generally blustery to say the least – not something that the club can do much about except perhaps to choose a different month for the meeting and then hope!

Results:-

1st Mike Hanes, 2 points. 2nd Pierre Naude, 4 points. 3rd Peter Cogill (Rotherham SC), 6 points. 4th David Shuster, 7 points. 5th Gary Hogan, 8 points. 6th Alan Simmons (Lancing SC), 14 points.



Alan.S 1700

PS. If I do get some more detail I will edit this blog later on.

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