Streakerramblings- Mengeham Rythe & Broxbourne - 1st & 2nd Sept 2012

This time you get a two parter with both the Mengeham and Broxbourne Opens covered.

Mengeham is a fairly local club for us but this was a first time for a Streaker Open at this venue in Chichester Harbour. Only one minor detour when we went into a close when almost at the club – we could see the masts of nearby Yachts.

After an early briefing, nine Streakers set sail down the Mengeham Rythe channel into the main open water area of the harbour where the committee boat was moored to the north of East Head (and West Wittering). As with the briefing an early start was required, with a very light following breeze, a still flooding tide on the nose and grey skies, in order to reach the start for 11.00 hours.

As it happened the competitors need not have worried as the nine Streakers and twenty three Solos then sailed round and round and round whilst the Race Officer kept moving the marks about and looking, hopefully,  for some breeze. It finally filled in just before 1300 hours and the Solos eventually got away on a goodly sized course with the first beat towards the north west. The Streakers were off six minutes or so later in the force 3 breeze and the fleet split, some going on port initially and the others on starboard with Veronica Falat (Waveney and Oulton Broad SC) first to the windward mark and Paul Whyld (SeafarersSC) in hot pursuit. Third up was Penny Dormer (Mengeham Rythe SC) and the Ian Whitfield (Tamworth SC) with son Matthew (also of Tamworth) just behind. Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) was sixth at the top end of the beat with Frank Fern (Mengeham Rythe SC) just behind,  then Gary Hogan (Haversham SC) and Basil Messenger (Mengeham Rythe SC). By the end of the second lap (the Sausage) Paul.W managed to edge in front of Veronica.F whilst Penny.D withstood a challenge from Matt.W who had by then overtaken Dad Ian.W. The order of the four at the rear of the fleet stayed unchanged.

 

Race two started at about 1400 hours and again the fleet split but it was Veronica.F who got to the top in front once again with Paul.W  once again not far behind. These two stayed in front for the rest of the lap but it was Alan.S who surprised himself with a nifty bit of off wind sailing to end up in third postion. Penny.D was lying fourth and Ian.W fifth whilst Frank.Fwas in sixth Gary.H seventh and Matt.W way back in eigth and just ahead of Bas.M.

Lap two saw no change at the front with Veronica.F taking the gun from Paul.W and inspite of losing ground up wind Alan.S held on to third place until just before the gun when Ian.W had just that little extra upwind speed. Frank. F pulled up one place to fifth whilst Penny.D dropped three to seventh but Matt.W could not improve and finished eight with Bas.M behind him.

So race three kicked off on a reset, shorter course, at about 1500 hours. For Paul and Veronica it was make or break with the winner of the pair taking the meeting. Veronica was in the lead soon after the start gun and try as he may Paul was unable to catch her in the first lap. Ian.W got ahead and stayed ahead and stayed in 3^rd place in front of Alan.S with Frank.F just behind in fifth spot. Penny .D held sixth spot ahead of GaryH and Matt.W was back in eight once again with Bas.M at the tail. In lap two, the sausage,  Veronica held off Paul.W’s challenge to take the race and the meeting. Ian.W came in third ahead of son Matt who piped Alan.S on the last leg from the bottom mark to the finish line, this in spite of the latter having overtaken best part of the fleet on the downwind leg. Behind Alan the order was Frank.F, Penny.D, Gary.H and lastly Bas.M.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	1654	Veronica Falat	Waveney & Oulton Broad YC	2	1	1	2
2	1787	Paul Whyld	Seafarers SC	1	2	2	3
3	1548	Ian Whitfield	Tamworth SC	5	3	3	6
4	1446	Matt Whitfield	Tamworth SC	4	8	4	8
5	1666	Penny Dormer	Mengeham Rythe SC	3	6	7	9
6	1700	Alan Simmons	Lancing SC	6	4	5	9
7	1705	Frank Fern	Mengeham Rythe SC	7	5	6	11
8	1757	Gary Hogan	Haversham SC	9	7	8	15
9	1794	Bas Messenger	Mengeham Rythe SC	8	9	9	17

 

Penny Dormer was awarded a Streaker Class burgee as the leading finisher not in the main prize list.

Alan.S 1700

 

Broxbourne, on Sunday, had little more breeze than Mengeham on Saturday but the sun was shining and by the time of the first race it was about force two. Again this was a combined meeting , this time with Lasers (twenty or so) and eleven Streakers came to the line for the first race. This time Veronica Falat had a new challenger in Ian Bradley (Ouse A S C) and as nearly all the Streakers had spotted the Lasers staring at the pin end all went there, Alan.S seemed to be first across the line but by the end of lap one – of an intricate criss-crossing course – he was back in 10^th place. Mark Langston (Beccles ASC) was third, Mark Mason (West Oxfordshire was lying fourth, Ian Mansfield (Alton Water SC) was 5^th, Peter Selway (Broxbourne SC) 6^th, Gerry Ledger (Up River SC) 7^th, Martin Wyland (Broxbourne SC) 8^th, Geoff Town (Broxbourne SC) 9^th,Richard Dean (Broxbourne SC) bringing up the rear in 11^th behind Alan.S. By the end of the second lap, in fitfull and shifty breezes, Ian.B had overtaken Veronica.F, Mark.L was still 3^rd, Ian.M had pulled a place up to 4^th overtaking Mark.M. Both Gerry.L and Martin.W had climbed a place whilst Peter.S had dropped back two to 8^th with Geoff.T in 9^th ahead of Alan.S still in 10^th place, but ahead of Richard.D.

In the final lap there was no change in the lead pair with Ian.B in first at the finish with Veronica behind.  Ian.M had climbed up to a very creditable third place with Mark L in 4^th.Once again (as at Mengeham) Alan S had a nifty little sail along the off wind leg on the north side of the water and pulled up to 5^th . Gerry.L was 6^th home with Peter S clawing back a place to 7^th passing Martin.W on the way . Mark. M was not having a good race falling back from 5^th in lap one to finish 9^th just ahead of Geoff.T and Richard.D. During this race (and the next two races) there was a fair amount of crossing of the two fleets but apart from having to tack quickly or bear off astern there were no report incidents - had it been windier who knows!

 

Race two, after a general recall for the Lasers, was off to a clean start for the Streakers and very quickly Ian.B took the lead which he held throughout the race. Likewise Peter.S took and maintained second position. Mark.M held 3^rd position in laps 1 and 2 only to drop back to 5^th at the end. Gerry.L held onto 4^th place throughout the race. Unusually Veronica.F was , for her, a lowly fifth until climbing back to third in the final lap. In sixth until the final lap was Martin. W who then lost two places to 8^th . It was not Ian.M’s best race either as he fell back from 7^th to 9^th whilst Mark L climbed up  two places to finish 6^th. Similarly Alan.S was 9^th after one lap but up two to 7^th at the finish. Geoff .T and Richard D once again brought up the rear but their placings hide some good positions during the race.

Race three started with Veronica.F out in front of Ian.B (the overall meeting winner) and was not going to let him win all three races and she was away and out in front from the start gun.

Behind these two Peter.S firmly established himself in 3^rd position although he was strongly challenged by Alan.S in lap 2 until he failed to give sufficient room for an inside boat to gybe (and got clobbered with the boom) and had to do turns. The irony being that he had previously called out another boat for the same reason and requested him to do turns. Alan later also clobbered a mark when trying to edge round inside another boat which did not help, having to do yet another turn. So after one lap Mark.M was lying 4^th, Alan.S 5^th, Mark.L 6^t,  Ian.M 7^th, Richard.D 8^th, Gerry.L 9^th, MartinW.10^th and Geoff.T 11^th. In lap two there was no change in the front three but Mark.L moved up to 4^th,and Mark M down to 5^th. Alan.S with all his banging and crashing dropped back from 5^th to 8^th. Ian.M clawed back one place to 6^th , Richard.D dropped to 10^th whilst Gerry.L gained two to 7^th and Martin.W pulled up one place to 9^th leaving Geoff.T at the back again. In the final lap , as before the three leaders, Veronica.F, Ian.B and Peter.S remained out front in that order. Alan.S benefitted yet again from excellent offwind speed to climb from 8^th to 4^th at the gun. Next home in 5^th was Mark.M then Mark.L in 6^th down from 4^th.Martin.W gained from 9^th to 7^th at the end and Gerry.L fell one to 8^th. Ian.M lost out again dropping 3 places to 9^th whilst Geof.T pulled up one to finish in 10^th ahead of Richard.D.

The breeze throughout the racing was fitfull in strength and true to Broxbourne shifty as hell. In you got in phase you were streets ahead, some people did but most were not so lucky. After the first race the Race Officer exclude the legs in and out of the ‘Box’ which given the conditions was an eminently sensible decision. It was, in that first race, getting a bit hectic with boats from both fleets coming and going and crossing upwind and down wind.

Results:-

1^st Ian Bradley, 2^nd. Veronica Falat, 3^rd. Peter Selway, 4^th. AlanSimmons, 5^th. Mark Langston, 6^th. Gerry Ledger, 7^th. Mark Mason, 8^th. Ian Mansfield, 9^th. Martin Wayland, 10^th. Geoff Town,11^th. Richard Dean.

Veronica Falat also took the Lady Helm’s prize and Alan Simmons was awarded the ‘Overs’ prize.

Alan.S 1700