Grey,overcast
skies and cool light breeze from the west as we left Sunday morning for
Piddinghoe for the last races before Christmas. Overnight there had been a lot
of rain but apart from a couple of large puddles through Kingston Village there
was no significant surface water visible on the journey.
Laurence
Venus, RO for the day, set a course which was effectively as last week but
traversed in the opposite direction. The start line was between two buoys of
the south side of the pond, adjacent to the middle slipway, giving a beat into
the west corner and the twin buoys off the clubhouse. The next leg was a broad
reach along the west side turning just off the fisherman's basin followed by a
turn back to the centre of the pond. The next heading was easterly towards the
shore with a gybe onto a leg behind the island and the final leg a beat up the
south side to the clubhouse mark passing inside the ‘gate’ on the way. The
breeze had settled into the west at about the top end of force 3.
Although
close to the holiday there was still a good turn-out of seventeen boats for the
start of the first race. The fleet headed towards the southern end of the line
with Paul Ryan (Laser full rig - Hardway SC) in the lead but with Alan Simmons
(Streaker – Lancing SC) well placed
above Tom Taylor (Megabyte – NSSC)
but with Rupert Smith (Laser full rig –NSSC) just astern and Jonty
Freeman (Laser Radial – NSSC) behind him. After a short stretch the leaders had
to tack to clear the bank and hope that they were sufficiently ahead of the
rest of the pack and that this port hand leg would make the mark in one go.
Rupert.S did make it, as did Paul.R and Jonty.F. Alan.S however got caught up
and overtaken by Julian Dobson (Laser full rig – NSSC) but stayed ahead of
Michael Veale and Bill Waites (RS 200 – NSSC) and Mike and Chris Rosier (Laser II – NSSC). 
In lap 2 There was no change in the positions of the top three but Tom.T just squeezed past Alan.S (by 1 second on the line) , Julian.D found his way past Chris.T and Michael.V with rooky crew Bill. W, dropped behind Mike .R to cross the line at the same time as Chas.H. Further back Dan and Rebecca went ahead of Louis.G.
Lap three saw Alan.S overtake Tom.T again and Michael V drop further back behind Chas.H and Terry.J. There were no changes in this lap at the back of the fleet.
In lap 4 Tom.T yet again overtook Alan.S whilst Chris.T won his battle with Julian.D but there were no changes at either end of the fleet.and there were no changes at all in lap 5. The final lap was sailed only by the top three with Rupert. S retaining his lead to the line – just one second ahead of Jonty.F with Paul about a minute behind them.
After correcting the times, and applying the handicaps, Jonty.F was first, Rupert.S second, Alan.S third,Paul.R 4th and Chris.T fifth.
Race
16 followed with a start at 11.50 over the same course but in a slightly
stiffer breeze – among the Laser sailors there were to be several capsizes, one
helm reporting six in this race alone, all leading to lost places.
In lap 2 Rupert.S and Tom.T stayed out in front whilst both Jonty.F and Alan.S passed Paul.R and tied across the line some 25 seconds behind Rupert.S.There was a bit of place changing further back as Terry.J climbed up to 12th behind Louis.G and David.M also passed John.S.
In lap 3, whilst tacking round the twin marks, off the clubhouse, Jonty F ‘lost
it’ and capsized letting Alan.S and Tom.T pass him whilst recovering. Just
before this Terry.J had fallen in on the beat towards this mark – having had to
negotiate around him may have upset Jonty’s concentration.
Finishing position at the end of laps 3 and lap
4 saw no changes at the front of the fleet but Alan.S closed up on Rupert.S, a little, to a gap of 30 seconds. The mid fleet
order settled to Julian.D at 9th, then Dan.f, Terrry.J Louis.G,
David.M, John.S ,Quentin.T and Colin.C at 16th. In lap 4 Julian.D
managed to pass Mike.R and close in on Chas.H. Lap five saw Rupert.S still out
in front of Paul.R, Alan.S and Jonty.F who had managed to re-pass Tom.T. Chas.H
had a few more dips allowing both Julian.D and Mike.R to overtake him with the
order of the second part of the fleet staying unchanged.
The only change in lap
6 was when the final lap (lap 7) There
was a battle for 3rd place on the water when Tom.T got himself 1
second ahead of Alan.S having also
overhauled Jonty.F. With the times worked out and handicaps applied the winner
of this race was Alan.S with Rupert.S in 2nd place, Jonty.F 3rd
and Paul.R 4th with Louis.G in 5th spot.
For
full details of the Main Results go to this link :-
http://www.nssc.org.uk/results/2012/freemanicebergcadets.htm
As
this will be posted just in time on this Christmas Eve I wish all my fellow
competitors and Blog readers a ‘Very Happy Christmas and an enjoyable and
Prosperous New Year in 2013.
Alan.S
1700
No comments:
Post a Comment