Streakerramblings - Alton Water - 22/09/2012

A lovely bright and clear morning start, 7.30am, for the journey to Alton Water, south of Ipswich. It was warm in the car but somewhat cooler in the open air once we had arrived. Whilst unpacking and rigging the boat there was a fairly strong breeze blowing from the far, north side of the reservoir.

Some seven visitors joined two home boats in the fleet for the Streaker Open meeting – no other boats were racing on the day. The furthest travelled by far was Primrose Salt having driven up the day before from the Bristol area (her club is Chew Valley) whilst Alan Simmons had only come up from Hove in East Sussex.
The course was laid with an initial beat, from the Committee Boat moored just off the clubhouse, to a mark on the north shore. The following leg was a broad reach across to the south shore and the another beat to the north west. After that the next leg was a long run to the east and a turning mark on the club side just north of the launching area before heading back through the gate at the Committee Boat.

By the time of the first start the breeze had eased to just about force 3 and first away, at the pin end of the line, was Gerry Ledger (Up River SC) in his home built (from plans) beautiful wooden boat.  At the Committee boat end it was Ian Bradley (Ouse ASC), in his new wooden Butler built boat, just ahead and to windward of Veronica Falat (Waveney & Oulton Broad SC). These latter two began to pull out from the rest of the fleet but after the reaching leg and on the next windward leg misread the location of the marks and headed well west of the true turning point. Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) had by this time managed to pull up into third spot on the water, ahead of Gerry.L and had spotted their error, rounding the correct mark in top spot as they turned back.
Alan.S held the lead for most of the long run back only to have Primrose.S and Gerry, L suddenly come up on their own private breeze and overtake in the last quarter of the leg. Both Veronica.F and Ian.B also overtook Alan. Richard Steadman (Alton Water SC) had also closed up on the run to just astern of Alan.S.

It was also in this first lap that Roger Smith (Deben YC) was seen to capsize close to the north shore, presumably caught out by a gust of wind. He failed to complete Race 1.
In the second lap Ian.B had the main halyard knot come adrift and his sail begin to drop down the mast. His only option was to deliberately capsize and re-tie the halyard.  Unfortunately for him (and without his request) the safety boat intervened and ‘gave assistance’ resulting in his disqualification from the race. Veronica went on to win with Gerry.L behind and Primrose.S third home.  Alan.S had his first 4^th place with Richard.S 5^th, Gary Hogan (Haversham SC) 6^th and Colum Fullerton (Alton Water SC) bringing up the rear in 7^th place.

Race 1 had been quite a long event thus race 2 was announced as being of just two laps only on the same course and held back to back with race 1. At the committee boat end it was Ian.B first across the line with Gerry. L once again well up at the leeward end. The breeze had shifted more to the north than in race 1 and that first beat was very one sided but Ian.B made it in first position with Veronica.F in second and Alan.S in third spot. Down the following broad  reach Alan.S found sufficient breeze to overtake Veronica only to lose out again on the following beat. Veronica.F and Ian.B were just about to round the mark when a flukey puff caught Ian.B out and he capsized, un-intentionally this time. Alan.S rounded next but was soon passed by Gerry.L on the run. Ian.B quickly recovered and also passed Alan.S but was unable to catch Veronica.F who went on to take top spot. A bit further back Gary.H managed to stay ahead of Primrose.S and Richard.S. Roger.S came in ahead of Colum.F

After a longish lunch break the RO delayed the start of the third race to see if any breeze would build, it was almost dead flat calm. By nearly 3.00pm some ruffling of the water was obvious so Race 3 commenced.

At the moment of the start the breeze died again and the fleet, now down to seven boats, drifted towards the course side of the line. In this race the fleet finally spread out with Gerry.L and Ian.B well out in front of Veronica.F.  Alan.S was back in 4^th but fell into a hole near the end of the second beat on the slightly modified course. He had four attempts to round the mark before setting off on the long run back eastwards. Eventually the breeze filled in a little and Veronica.F caught up and passed Gerry.L, Ian.B took the win whilst Alan.S closed up on the leading group but was unable to catch them. Primrose.S was just behind in 5^th, this time in front of Gary.H who led Colum.F home. Neither Richard.S nor Roger.S competed in this final race.

Setting good courses in these trying conditions was very difficult but the RO succeeded in spite of it and some good racing was experienced by all.

Overall Results:-

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	1654	Veronica Falat	Waveney & Oulton Broad YC	1	1	[2]	2
2	1817	Ian Bradley	Ouse Amateur SC	[DSQ]	2	1	3
3	1780	Gerry Ledger	Up River YC	2	[3]	3	5
4	1812	Primrose Salt	Chew Valley Lake SC	3	[6]	5	8
5	1700	Alan Simmons	Lancing SC	[4]	4	4	8
6	1757	Gary Hogan	Haversham SC	[6]	5	6	11
7	1613	Richard Steadman	Alton Water SC	5	7	[DNC}	12
8	1729	Colum Fullerton	Alton Water SC	7	[9]	7	14
9	1758	R. Smith	Deben YC	[DNF]	8	DNC	18

Alan.S 1700