The course was similar to last week’s, starting with a beat across the north side of the pond. It was then a gybe and run to a mark on the western side, close to the flag pole area, then another gybe off to a mark just north of the Island. The following leg was to be a broad reach to a mark south of the Island concluding with a close reach up the western side of the pond to the top, starting mark. This leg effectively meant boats passing the same mark but in different directions which was to lead to problems during the later stages of the race.
16 boats came to the line for the start, including a number of new entrants including two Toppers by which time the breeze had picked up to a good force 3. At the gun it was Jonty Freeman (Radial –NSSC) first away with Steve Duncan (Laser full rig - NSSC) just a tad behind but to windward, followed by Rupert Smith (Radial – NSSC) and then Julian Dobson (Laser full rig – NSSC).
These four soon tacked off onto port tack towards the middle of the pond whilst the Streakers of Laurence Venus (NSSC) and Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) , a bit to leeward headed for the northern bank along with the following pack. Once Laurence and Alan tacked they had to cross the followers and whilst Laaurence made it Alan was bulked by the RS 200 of Michael Veale crewed by Mike Rossier (NSSC) and had to duck his stern.Paul Ryan (Laser full rig) had not had a glorious start but by the end of the first lap had pulled up to second place on the water just 9 seconds behind Jonty.F with Steve.D just behind these two. Behind these three it was Laurence.V just 7 second ahead of Rupert.S and then Michael.V. Alan.S was languishing in 7th place some 17 seconds behind.
By the end of lap 2 Paul.R was just ahead (4 seconds) of Jonty.F, Steve.D still held 3rd spot and Laurence.V still held fourth only 3 seconds ahead of Rupert.S and Michael.V. –thse two on exactly the same time.
The next changes , in lap 3 were when Steve.D managed to overtake Jonty.F, albeit briefly and Alan.S finally managed to get past Michael.V into 6th spot.
Jonty re-passed Steve in lap 4 and Julian.D pulled through to 8th position ahead of Michael.V , whilst Alice Smith (Topper – NSSC) climbed up to 11th place from 13th and Bill Waites (Radial - NSSC) managed to sail the wrong course and got himself disqualified.
In lap 5, there were no more changes but in an incident in lap 6 when there was a coming together of three boats, Steve.D, Bill Giles (Solo – NSSC) and David Hutchin (Laser full rig-NSSC) at the mark near the flag pole.
Steve.D was on the reaching leg whilst the other pair were gybing around that mark – about half a lap behind. There was a bit of vocalisation but all three boats suffered some delay and lost places, Steve.D dropping from 3rd to 6th, Bill.G from 10th to 13th whilst David.H gained a place by the end of the lap. Alan.S also gained a place to 5th from Steve’s loss. Also in lap 6 Tim Cox (Laser full rig- NSSC) retired although whether he was also involved in this or another incident is unknown to the writer.
In laps 7, 8 and 9 there were no more place changes although with an increase in the wind strength (to a good middle force 4) there was a bit of closing up with Alan.S especially making some ground on Laurence.V although insufficient to make a real challenge. At the finish gun the order was Paul.R, Jonty.F, Rupert.S, Laurence.V, Alan.S and then Steve.D.
Callum Johson (Pico – NSSC) sailed a steady if slow race and in lap 6 managed to get ahead of Sasha Stonard (Topper – NSSC) – in his first race of the series. Callum was afterwards heard to say he wished he could go a bit faster – and be ahead of both of the Toppers at least.
In the middle of the fleet Chas Humphries (Laser full rig – NSSC) had a mixed race but slowly pulled up from 12th in lap 1 to 9th by the time he finished his 8th lap. There were several capsizes for the less experienced helms but a spectacular show was put on by Michael.V and Mike.R when they laid their RS 200 flat with spinnaker up on the first running leg in the second or third lap. They did not both fall out and soon recovered but it was a sight to see. Through out the fleet there were mini battles taking place during the race, many very close encounters and a few loud words, some a bit excessive!
Results (Unofficial- provisional):-
1st. Laurence.V, 2nd. Alan.S, 3rd. Jonty.F, 4th.Paul.R, 5th. Rupert.S, 6th.Steve.D, 7th. Alice.S, 8th. Michael.V, 9th. Julian.D, 10th.Chas.H, 11th. Bill.G, 12th. Sasha.S, 13th. David.H, 14th. Callum.J. Tim.C – retired and Bill.W – disq -sailed wrong course.
Alan.S 1700.
PS. If I get it wrong, fail to mention your name or miss out any spicy or exciting bits please comment on the blogsite or better still tell me on the day. I have to work with what I see on the water (not easy to recall it all later) and then from positions gleaned from the lap charts.
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