Streakerramblings -Freeman Iceberg Race 5 - 4th December2011

As last week it was a grey overcast sky, very high cloud but without a break and just a gentle breeze as we left home.

On arrival at Piddinghoe and whilst rigging the boat there was another westerly breeze of about force 2 – Windguru was forcasting force 4 initial building to force 5 later in the day - this faded to almost nothing until just before the racing started.
The course Kay set was practically as last week with an initial very short beat, to the clubhouse corner, along the northern side followed by a close reach back to the start pole end. A broad reach across to the eastern side then down behind the island before a final beat back up the western side.

Sixteen boats were afloat for the start and Darren Field (Byte CII, NSSC) made off at the shore end ahead of everybody else – just a little too early – and was called back to start properly. At the pin end it was Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing SC) who was legitimately first away and tacked off to get what he thought was clear air in the light – force 1 - breeze. At the shore end it was Tom Taylor (Megabyte, NSSC) closely followed by Laurence Venus (Streaker, NSSC) who made it to the turning mark first with Alan.S through next and then Ed Thorburn (Finn, NSSC).

Whilst Laurence, Alan and Ed were scrapping along the northern side of the pond Tom broke away and established a goodly lead on the next reach. By the end of the lap Ed was up to second with Laurence still ahead of Alan and beginning to edge away. Behind this group were Paul Ryan (Laser full rig, Hardway SC), Jonty Freeman (Laser Radial, NSSC)  then Darren.F (having re-started) with Rupert Smith (Laser full rig, NSSC) behind him.

By the end of lap 4 Tom. T was still ahead of Ed .T but Jonty.F  had climbed up to 3^rd place ahead of Laurence whilst Alan.S was down in 7^th having been overtaken by Jonty, Paul and Rupert, the breeze by then having increased to a good force 4 – planing was possible on some of the reaches. Laurence had a slight collision with Jonty’s stern on one of the reaches when he lost control of his boat and ended up doing a 720 degree penalty.
In lap 6 Tom.T suffered a broken (Carbon) mast – at the site of a previous repair – and had to be towed home, his moments of glory dashed and so Ed.T went into the lead with Jonty.F hard on his heels. This was also the final lap for Dan Ford and crew (the girl) Becca Gibson in their Magno (NSSC) who had embarked on a capsize whilst both were on the wrong side of the boat. Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200, NSSC) had been using their spinnaker on all the reaches and runs in the course and were closing on Alan.S and finally passed him on the final reach of the next lap. Rupert .S had been climbing up the fleet and finally got ahead of Paul.R in lap 6, the most eventfull of the total nine laps sailed.

Alice Smith and Alex Stanard (Laser II, NSSC) also slowly climbed up the fleet from 13^th in lap one to 8^th in lap 8, one spot in front of Darren.F.
Josh Smith (Topper, NSSC) only completed one full lap before retiring whilst his dad John ( Pico, NSSC) spent a long while with his mast stuck in the mud before the safety boat eventually freed him. Steve and Penelope Duncan (Fireball, NSSC) in their first venture out this year – but not racing, Steve said – followed the fleet round, keeping out of everybody’s way (mostly) and also spent a goodly amount of time on their side when Penelope’s trapeze wire snapped during the main windward leg.
Throughout the race the two full rig Lasers of Bill Wates and Graham Hardy (both NSSC ) had a good tussel half way down the fleet, Bill coming out on top at the finish. The lead held by Ed.T and Jonty.F at the finish was still not enough to beat Laurence.V time on application of the handicap correction.

Results (Unofficial, unchecked) :-

1^st .Laurence Venus, 2^nd. Jonty Freeman, 3^rd .Alan Simmons, 4^th .Ed Thorburn, 5^th. Rupert Smith, 6^th .Paul Ryan, 7^th. Darren Field, 8^th.Michael Veale, 9^th.Alice Smith,10^th.Bill Wates, 11^th.Graham Hardy, 12^th.Steve Duncan, 13^th. Dan Ford, 14^th.John Smith, 15^th. Tom Taylor and Josh Smith.

The series table after 4 races now stands as 1^st.Jonty Freeman, 2^nd. Ed Thorburn, 3^rd. Alan Simmons, 4^th.Paul Ryan, 5^th. Michael Veale, 6^th. Darren Field, 7^th. Tom Taylor, 8^th. Laurence Venus, 9^th. Alice Smith, 10^th. Rupert Smith, 11^th Dan Ford, 12^th Graham Hardy, 13^th Bill Wates, John and Josh Smith come in at 18^th and 19^th place as they keep changing boat class.

Alan.S 1700

PS. The sun finally began to break through as we were half way home.