Streakerramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 3 & 4

Appologies for the delay in publishing this report - a new computer requiring data to be transferred from the original is the excuse.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny with just a tickle of breeze and on arrival at Piddinghoe the car park was half fully already. It transpired that this was mostly fishermen, 'encamped' especially along the eastern bank.

 

A goodly fleet did however appear with some seventeen boats on the water. Laurence Venus was RO for the day and set a course starting with a beat to the east along the western Clubhouse - shore to the bay area. The following leg was a run/very broad reach back to the twin buoys just off the clubhouse and then a single sided beat to the eastern bank. Thereafter there was a run across behind the island and then a close reach back to the starting area.
 

There was a slight problem with the start to Race 3 when the four minute signal was missed and after a general recall the start commenced again.

 First away was Paul Ryan (full rig Laser -  Hardway SC) with Alan Simmons (Streaker - Lancing SC) close behind but slightly upwind. Just below Alan were Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200 -NSSC). Below that pair and close to the pin was Jonty Freeman (Laser Radial - NSSC).

Paul.R pulled out a short lead ahead of Alan.S who in turn got away from the two Mikes in the RS200. By the end of the first lap the order was Paul.R with Alan.S 11 seconds behind and the RS 30 seconds behind him. Next up was Jonty.F and then the full rig Lasers of Steve Duncan (NSSC) and Graham Hardy (NSSC) with Tom Taylor in his Megabyte behind them.

In lap 2 Jonty.F and then Steve.D both passed Michael. V but the rest of the changes were in the lower end of the fleet with Zoe McCaig (Gull - NSSC) climbing from 16th to 13th passing Mel (Pico- NSSC), Colin Pryer (Slipper - NSSC) Giles Colyer (Mirror - NSSC0 an Alex (Pico - NSCC) on the way. . In mid fleet Graham.H stayed ahead of Tom. T and Ellie Wilding (Laser 4.7 - NSSC) then Louis Gorringe (Topper - NSSC) also managing to stay ahead of Terry Jones (NSSC) sailing single handed in a Wayfarer. The slower boats did not fare too well in the predominantly faint breezes experienced during this race. After three laps, for the faster boats, the order on the water was Paul.R, Alan.S, Jonty.F, Steve.D, Michael.V and Graham.H. On handicap it was Alan.S who came out on top ahead of Paul.R and Jonty.F.

This year, for the first time in the history of the winter series racing at Piddinghoe, it had been decided to try two races back to back. This meant that the first race, for the first finisher, was a tad under 33 minutes duration.

 

Thus, after the delayed start of the first of the days races, the second - Race 4 - got underway at 12.15pm with Paul.R again first away, on the same course as the first race of the day it was Steve.D however, who although starting second, kept close to the west bank and rounded the windward mark in the lead. Jonty F was third across the start line but quickly lost the breeze whilst Alan.S was closer to the pin and fourth away. It was not far into the first offwind leg however before Paul.R and then Alan.S got ahead of Steve.D. By the end of the next windward leg Alan passed Paul and then led for the rest of the race, finishing some 33 seconds in front. Steve.D managed to hold off challenges by Tom.T and Jonty.F but in the second lap Jonty edged ahead of Tom as did Michael.V - coming back from 6th at the end of the first lap. This race was only two laps in length and in yet more fitfull breeze and as a consequence the slower boats had little chance to lose or gain places.

As he had been ahead of some faster 'rated' boats on the water Alan.S - and having been suffering from a  nose bleed throughout - was again the winner once the handicaps had been calculated  but with Jonty.F ahead of Paul.R and Steve.D with another fourth place.

Was the two race format a sucess? - the jury is still out - but the writer's personal view is that the races were too short, even with the lack of wind. With more breeze I am not sure that over such a short time space the handicapping may be somewhat distorted.

Alan.S 1700

 

Results

Winter Series Freeman Iceberg 2012

Overall

Sailed:2, Discards:0, To count:2, Entries:32, Scoring system:Appendix A

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	R3	R4	Total	Nett
1st	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0
2nd		Laser Radial	192842	NSSC	Jonty Freeman		3.0	2.0	5.0	5.0
3rd		Laser	156163	Hardway SC	Paul Ryan		2.0	3.0	5.0	5.0
4th	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		3.0 OOD	3.0 OOD	6.0	6.0
5th	Frayed Knot	Laser	81	NSSC	Steve Duncan		4.0	4.0	8.0	8.0
6th		Topper	16013		Louis Gorringe		6.0	5.0	11.0	11.0
7th	Congaheelin	Megabyte	202	NSSC	Tom Taylor		5.0	6.0	11.0	11.0
8th	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	8.0	7.0	15.0	15.0
9th		Laser 4.7	179733		Ellie Wilding		9.0	8.0	17.0	17.0
10th	Jo-Jo	Wayfarer	2820	NSSC	Terry Jones		10.0	9.0	19.0	19.0
11th		Pico 2	2072		Dale Murley	Aidan Murley	12.0	10.0	22.0	22.0
12th		Mirror	19474		Giles Colyer		15.0	11.0	26.0	26.0
13th		Mirror	69544		Quentin Thorp	Jasper Thorp	11.0	15.0	26.0	26.0
14th	Cilin Cryer	Slipper	57				14.0	12.0	26.0	26.0
15th		Gul	No No		Zoe McCaig	Lucy McCaig	13.0	13.0	26.0	26.0
16th		Pico	Blue		Alex		17.0	14.0	31.0	31.0
17th		Pico	Purple Sail		Mel		16.0	16.0	32.0	32.0
18th		Laser	163443	NSSC	Graham Hardy		7.0	33.0 DNC	40.0	40.0