Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 5 & 6 - 17.11.2013

Fully overcast grey skies, brightening a touch on the edges as we drove down to Piddinghoe. On arrival there was a touch of breeze, perhaps force 2. The race team for the day, Alice and Brendan Smith and Lucy McCaig had set a relatively simple course. With a start line from the west end of the clubhouse there was a windward leg to a mark off the Fisherman’s Bay.  A reach from here led back to a mark half way up the southern shore and then a further beat towards the middle of the eastern shore. This was followed by a run behind the island and then a close reach back up the southern side to a mark right in the western corner hence to the start/finish line.

With a fleet of eighteen boats on the water it tended to get a bit busy at the start line with Darren Filed and Louise Currel first away, in their Vago, at the pin end. .At the shore end it was Julian Dobson in his full rig Laser. Between these two were Alan Simmons and Laurence Venus in their Streakers and Rupert Smith in a Laser Radial just behind but upwind of Darren. Those starting down the line, towards the shore end, had to call for water but then tack again or duck behind the rest of the pack sailing in on Starboard. The advantage lay with those able to tack away toward the middle of the pond as soon as possible. The winner in this case was Laurence who turned the windward mark well ahead of the remainder of the fleet and with only Darren anywhere near him.

By the end of the first lap Laurence was already 15 seconds up on Darren with Steve Duncan (Laser full rig) a full minute behind and then Alan a quarter of a minute behind him. Jazz Sayed and Bea Cameron in their Laser II were lying 5^th just astern of Alan with Chris Turner (sailing a Byte CII) next in line. Behind Chris were Julian and then Chas Humphries and Graham Hardy (both in full rig Lasers). John Smith (full rig Laser) tied for 10^th place with Rupert and Michael Veale and Mike Rosier in the RS200 were 12^th. Zoe McCaig (Laser Radial) was in front of Terry Jones and Bill Wates (both full rig Lasers) with Josh Smith lying 16^th in his Topper ahead of David and Aiden Murley in a Pico and Charlie Rigg also in a Topper.

In lap two Steve overtook Darren to go into 2^nd place, still a minute and three quarters behind Laurence,  John Smith moved up one place into 9^th and the two Michaels moved up to 10th passing Rupert on the way and dropping Graham  from 9^th to 12^th. Bill also overtook Terry to go up to 14^th whilst the back three remained unchanged. Lap 3, the final lap, saw no changes throughout the fleet and Laurence came home some two and a half minutes ahead of Steve, with Darren next and then Alan. With the handicaps worked out it was Streakers 1^st and 2^nd and Chris taking 3^rd place ahead of Steve.

Race two, held back to back with race 1, was run over the same course and yet again with a tight pack at the start. Once again Julian was the first to start and was able to quickly tack away towards the centre of the pond. Next up was Bill.W with Laurence a little behind but upwind and Alan just to leeward of Bill. The two Michaels had been a bit too eager and ended up near the shore but having to tack behind most of the fleet to be able to cross the line. Steve had also been nowhere but going off to the east found clear air which quickly pulled him through the fleet passing  Julian who had rounded the windward mark just behind Laurence. Chris who had also been well back at the start ended the lap in 4^th place ahead of Alan and Darren. Bill was lying 7^th in front of Jazz and Bea whilst Rupert and Chas tied for 9^th. The RS200 was in 11^th place followed by Graham, Zoe, Terry, John, Dave and Charlie. Josh did not finish that first lap.

In lap 2 Alan and Darren passed Chris  and Chas got ahead of both Jazz and Rupert but there were no further changes lower down the fleet. Comments were however overheard that Chas was making a bit of a nuisance of himself with some lack of discipline in port and starboard situations, even causing Chris to tip over at one point. Lap four was changeless for the front four, Laurence, Steve, Julian and Alan, whilst Chris managed to pass Darren to get back to 5^th place. Jazz and Bea meanwhile overtook both Bill and Chas  as did Rupert, Bill dropping to 10^th and Chas to 9^th.Graham recovered a place ahead of Michael and John gained two to lie 13^th. The slower boats only finished two laps. In the final lap Laurence was first home just 12 seconds ahead of Steve with Julian in third place two seconds ahead of Alan. Darren came home next having passed Chris once more with no further changes down the fleet. With the handicaps applied it was Streakers 1st and 2nd ahead of Steve and then Chris.
It was a light wind day and true to form the shifts at Piddinghoe were almost unpredictable leading to frequent place changing, quite a bit of which is not reflected in the lap positions.

Results :-

R5

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Posn	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	Points
1	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		29.59	1.0
2	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		32.5	2.0
3					Alice Smith	Brendan Smith	OOD	3.0
3					Lucy McCaig		OOD	3.0
3	Bandit	Byte C11	2941	NSSC	Chris Turner		34.15	3.0
6	Frayed Knot	Laser	203084	NSSC	Steve Duncan		32.32	4.0
7	Bob	Vago	808	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	32.42	5.0
8		Laser	176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		34.26	6.0
9	Gay Amigo Won	Laser	175741	NSSC	Chas Humphries		35.05	7.0
10		Laser	177611	NSSC	John Smith		35.23	8.0
11		Laser 2	4157	NSSC	Jazz Sayed	Bea Cameron	33.45	9.0
12		Laser Radial	7757	NSSC	Rupert Smith		37.21	10.0
13		Laser	163443	NSSC	Graham Hardy		36.28	11.0
14	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	35.28	12.0
15		Laser Radial	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		38.41	13.0
16		Laser	133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		38.47	14.0
17		Laser	11	NSSC	Terry Jones		40.36	15.0
18		Topper	4	NSSC	Josh Smith		34.07	16.0
19		Pico 2	2072	NSSC	David Murley		39.39	17.0
20		Topper	6	NSSC	Charlie Rigg		40.39	18.0

R6

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Posn	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	Points
1	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		41.12	1.0
2	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		43.27	2.0
3	Frayed Knot	Laser	203084	NSSC	Steve Duncan		41.24	3.0
3					Alice Smith	Brendan Smith	OOD	3.0
3					Lucy McCaig		OOD	3.0
6	Bandit	Byte C11	2941	NSSC	Chris Turner		45.20	4.0
7		Laser	176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		43.25	5.0
8		Pico 2	2072	NSSC	David Murley		40.34	6.0
9		Laser Radial	7757	NSSC	Rupert Smith		46.44	7.0
10	Bob	Vago	808	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	45.10	8.0
11	Gay Amigo Won	Laser	175741	NSSC	Chas Humphries		46.55	9.0
12		Laser	133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		47.12	10.0
13		Laser	163443	NSSC	Graham Hardy		47.20	11.0
14		Laser 2	4157	NSSC	Jazz Sayed	Bea Cameron	46.06	12.0
15		Laser	177611	NSSC	John Smith		48.53	13.0
16	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	47.23	14.0
17		Laser Radial	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		50.24	15.0
18		Laser	11	NSSC	Terry Jones		49.27	16.0
19		Topper	6	NSSC	Charlie Rigg		52.02	17.0
20		Topper	4	NSSC	Josh Smith		DNF	18.0