The last two weekends, in
terms of sailing, have been a disaster for me. Over the weekend of 9th
and 10th June we were due to go to Blakeney for the Streaker Open
Meeting. Two weeks before Bett and I had been up in Norfolk – a surprise Birthday
gift from her sister and brother in law was a week in their caravan which they
pitched not far from Fakenham. We therefore had the chance to spy out the area
– it did not seem too favourable to me with, as I later learned, a long tow out
to the racing area against a vicious tide and then racing still within the
harbour and not at sea as I had thought.
Added to that it was a 4 hour plus journey – without the boat – and the
start for the first race was at 10.30am. The wind forcast was not ideal – for
me – so I decided not to go after all and that after having changed safety boat
duty at Lancing. I do not have any results (or report) of the meeting but
understand that Ian Bradley attended and I believe he won the ‘pot’.
Post Script: The results of the Blakeney Meeting have now come to hand and it was not Ian who won but one of the local lady helms - Amy Robinson. The table below gives the full story and a report is due shortly on the SCOA web Site.
The Nationals held at Grafham Water this year over the weekend of 16th and 17th June was not a lot more successful for me. We were staying at Alconbury, with Bett’s sister Steph and husband Colin, just 15 minutes away up the A1 so arrived on site on Saturday morning with plenty of time in hand. As you will see from the detailed report on the Streaker web site (http://www.streaker-class.org.uk/) and on the Yachts and Yachting web site (http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/163955/Noble-Marine-Streaker-nationals) it was going to be very windy. I decided early on to borrow the class Wave sail (No 9) and having rigged set off for the Committee Boat Area, about a mile distant and dead downwind. I had barely left the shore when my rudder came off, having failed to fully engage the retaining clip, but I eventually got it back on. For me it was a frightening sail with a very high expectation of tipping in – I could envisage trouble trying to get the boat upright and me back aboard. There were quite big waves which had white tops and it was breakers on the northern shore. As it happened I did stay upright and did not had a bad start, just to windward Alan Gillard until he swiftly pulled away.
I battled upwind, even with the reduced
area of the wave sail and by the time I had nearly got to the top of the first
beat was not far off last place. I was not enjoying the ‘survival’ conditions
and called the safety boat (the only one I could see) to ask them to advise the
race officer that I was going to retire. Even then it was a struggle to beat
back to the club house and landing area.
Post Script: The results of the Blakeney Meeting have now come to hand and it was not Ian who won but one of the local lady helms - Amy Robinson. The table below gives the full story and a report is due shortly on the SCOA web Site.
| Boat | Helm | Club | Race 1 | Race 2 | Points | Position |
| 1686 | Amy Robinson | Blakeney SC | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1st |
| 1619 | Ian Bradley | Ouse ASC | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2nd |
| 1747 | Alan Robinson | Blakeney SC | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3rd |
| 1746 | Patsy Seymour | Blakeney SC | 3 | 5 | 8 | 4th |
| 1711 | Hugh Ambery | Blakeney SC | 5 | 5 | 10 | 5th |
| 1757 | Gary Hogan | Haversham SC | 6 | 6 | 12 | 6th |
The Nationals held at Grafham Water this year over the weekend of 16th and 17th June was not a lot more successful for me. We were staying at Alconbury, with Bett’s sister Steph and husband Colin, just 15 minutes away up the A1 so arrived on site on Saturday morning with plenty of time in hand. As you will see from the detailed report on the Streaker web site (http://www.streaker-class.org.uk/) and on the Yachts and Yachting web site (http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/163955/Noble-Marine-Streaker-nationals) it was going to be very windy. I decided early on to borrow the class Wave sail (No 9) and having rigged set off for the Committee Boat Area, about a mile distant and dead downwind. I had barely left the shore when my rudder came off, having failed to fully engage the retaining clip, but I eventually got it back on. For me it was a frightening sail with a very high expectation of tipping in – I could envisage trouble trying to get the boat upright and me back aboard. There were quite big waves which had white tops and it was breakers on the northern shore. As it happened I did stay upright and did not had a bad start, just to windward Alan Gillard until he swiftly pulled away.
I battled upwind, even with the reduced
area of the wave sail and by the time I had nearly got to the top of the first
beat was not far off last place. I was not enjoying the ‘survival’ conditions
and called the safety boat (the only one I could see) to ask them to advise the
race officer that I was going to retire. Even then it was a struggle to beat
back to the club house and landing area.
For race two, after lunch, I thought the wind had dropped off a little so
launched again but I got only a hundred or so yards out when the wind hit me
hard and instead of going dead downwind in a northerly direction I headed off
at full blast westwards. A few yards of that and I called it a day and headed
back to the slipway, de-rigged and packed the boat away for the day. After that
I helped out on the slips as boats came back ashore, holding them whilst the
helms looked out their trollies. It was quite busy as there were some 25 Lasers
as well as the 30 odd Streakers – there were 37 entries but some boats never went
afloat that first day and others like myself came in early.
On the water in both of the
races held on Saturday, the third
planned race was postponed until Sunday, after they recorded gusts of 39 knots
– the top end of force 8, Gale, on the Beaufort scale – capsizes were fairly
frequent amongst the second half of the fleet and only the top half finished
the race anyway.
Sunday morning dawned still
quite breezy and the previously quoted start time of 10am was put back until
11.00am (or thereabouts) to allow the breeze to die down as forecast which it
duly did although still around force 4 when I launched. I had chosen to forgo
the Wave sail and use my P & B full sized rig and having launched had a
fairly swift sail across the width of the lake again to the starting area. When
finally the start gun went I was in about the middle of the line, the pin end
seeming to be the place to be. I struggled a bit up the long beat and arrived
at the top of the course ready to bear off around the spacer buoy, and on to
the reaching leg, when my Rudder went sideways - no longer vertical – and that
was the end of my day. Again I called to the safety boat to let the Race
officer know I was retiring – as it happened I had not been logged in anyway,
they would have been (possibly) looking for sail number 9. I managed to get
back ashore eventually, in one piece, to discover that the lower pintle bracket
had snapped and the rudder stock opened up sideways by some three inches. Had I
known, when coming ashore, that there was a chandlery alongside the
clubhouse - and which I subsequently
found and there bought a replacement part (£21.00) – I could possibly have repaired
it on the spot – if I could have had use of a bench, vice and the relevant
tools.
So it was a case of packing
the boat up and spraying it down – to kill off any killer shrimps hiding there
and waiting for the prizgiving. The overall winner and this year’s National
Champion is Tom Gillard, from Sheffield Vikings SC, who had three first place,
a second and third place – the latter of which he discarded. Second place
overall went to, a preivious class champion, Ian Jones, from Dovestones SC, with
four second places and a discarded 5th. Third spot went to a new
name on the block Ian Fryett from Llandegfedd SC which I would guess is in
Welsh Wales. He had one 1st
place a 3rd, a 4th and a 7th place discarding
a 9th.
The other main prizes went
to :- Veronica Falat – First Lady,
Ian Fryett -1st helm over 45, Veronica Falat - Ist helm over 55, Clive Stratton
- 1st hem over 65 and Peter Cogill - Ist
in Silver Fleet. Everyone who entered the meeting got a souvenir mug and
several other minor prizes went to those who managed to finish their race, albeit
in last place.Alan.S 1700
The photographs on this blog
are reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright holder Ben Falat
