Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 15 & 16 - 22.12.2013

Just before we got up the back of the house was ‘pounded’ with tremendous rain and wind. It had stopped raining, almost, whilst the boat was fitted to the trailer for return to Piddinghoe after repairs to the Transom. The forecast for Sunday morning was appalling with winds at up to 30 knots and the journey down under low grey skies, with the cloud rushing by, did not portend well for the mornings racing.

On arrival it was blowing a good force four, with huge gusts across the water, with the wind coming over the south west corner and heading for the middle of the east bank.
With Chas Humphries as RO, Alan Simmons as ARO and Tim Cox on the safety boat the potential fleet was already three down. Also in the two safety boats were three non-racers, Penelope Duncan, Dan Ford and Quentin Thorp, all of whom were to be kept very busy during this event. Laurence Venus (Streaker) , who had been leading the series decided not to even uncover his boat whilst Josh smith (Topper) and Steve Duncan rigged but eventually decided against going afloat.

A course was set, before the wind shifted further west, with a short leg from a line set to the east of the club to the mark off the Clubhouse in the south west corner. From there there was a broad (hairy) reach to the mark at the south east corner ending with a gybe and then onto the plane behind the Island. This leg ended at a mark midway along the eastern shore and then a solid beat back to the pin end mark of the start line (that was). From here there was yet another reach to the mark off the Fisherman’s bay and another windward leg back to the mark off the clubhouse.

As stated above there was a good force four blowing, well up the scale, with gusts which were of the order of force six – one could hear the whistling in the rigging of the boats on the bank. With each bank of dark cloud that raced through there was a downpour forcing the ARO to dive into the clubhouse so that the results sheet stayed dry.
None the less eight boats took to the water with John Smith (Laser full rig) the first casualty when he capsized, with mast stuck in the mud, mid-way down the southern shore. He was still stuck half way through the first lap. Next to have a dip was Jazz Sayed Laser 4.7) although she was up in time for the start.

 

Matt Springall (Laser full rig) was first away at the gun with Jazz close behind around the first mark. Alex Mills- Barton (Laser full rig) was close to the first Mark and third to turn it but immediately went low, towards the Island, keeping his wind clear from the windward bunch and ended up as first to gybe at the end of the reach, All boats managed to stay upright during the first lap but Alex powered away and crossed the line some 50 seconds ahead of second placed Matt. Third up was Rupert Smith (Laser Radial) with the two mikes (Veale and Rosier) in their RS200 lying fourth and then Jazz fifth. Sixth round in this lap was Dave Murley (with son Aiden) in the Pico and six minutes later John finally made it round for the first time.
Lap 2 saw Alex extending his lead, to just over two minutes ahead of Matt and Jazz taking her second dip of the day and the RS200, with frequent use of the Gennaker, passing Rupert. Darren Field (crewed by Nathan Bloss) in the Vago was half a minute behind Rupert and with a recovered Jazz in 6^th place followed by Dave.M and finally John.S.
Lap 3 had Alex now two and a half minutes out in front of Matt. Rupert lying third went swimming but quickly recovered and did not lose a place although Darren closed up on him. The order remained the same for the rest of the fleet.
Lap 4 saw no place changing nor did lap 5 and only the top three finished lap 6 with Alex by then some five and a half minute ahead of Matt – though he had had a near escape in that lap on at least one occasion. With the handicaps applied the order wad Alex 1^st, Matt 2^nd, Rupert 3^rd and Dave.M 4^th.

Race 16 was held over the same course and the wind if anything had increase to a top end force four with gusts in the mid sixes and wild variations in direction in these too.

At the start it was the RS200 first away and around the first mark with Darren and then Rupert. Alex had been close by the west bank and got stuck in the clubhouse shadow and starting 7^th with only Dave..M (having left Aiden ashore) behind him. Again Alex went low on the first reach but catching and passing the other six boats. Matt, Jazz and Rupert passed the RS200 and the Vago up the first windward leg and by the end of lap1 the order was Alex 21 seconds ahead of Matt, then Jazz, Michael.V, Rupert, Darren, John and Dave.

 

Lap 2 was a bit upsetting when Matt took first one and then another dip and John also did another ‘bottom survey’. Jazz stayed ahead of Rupert but the gap was down to 2 seconds with Michael just a further 5 seconds behind. Matt was in 5^th place in front of Darren, Dave and John.
Lap 3 was sheer chaos with Matt, Michael, Darren and John all taking a dip with the order ending Alex, Rupert, Jazz, Michael, Matt, Darren, Dave and John.
Lap4 had Matt keeping up the swimming practice whilst retaining position and no other place changes.
Lap 5 had Matt with his fifth (seen) capsize and still maintaining his 5^th place and Alex continuing to pull out ahead – by then some six minutes in front of second placed Rupert. Being just four seconds behind Rupert at the end of the lap meant that Rupert had to complete a sixth lap too. On coming ashore however he reported that the wind had dropped off a lot for that final round and had been ‘almost comfortable’. With the handicaps applied Alex was the winner with Jazz second, Dave third and Rupert fourth.

It was a very hairy sail for all, except possibly Alex who revelled in the conditions, with only him managing to stay upright in both races. The rest of the fleet presumably went home for a ‘recovery’ nap.

With Laurence declining to sail it was Alan who went to the top of the leader board for the Frostbite Series and (apparently) cannot be beaten even if he does not sail on Boxing Day.

Results :_

R15

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Posn	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	Laser	203084A	NSSC	Alex Mills-Barton		35.42	0.00.00	1.0
2	Laser	81	NSSC	Matt Sprigall		41.10	0.05.28	2.0
3	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		OOD		3.0
3	Laser Radial	16	NSSC	Tim Cox		OOD		3.0
3	Laser Radial	7757	NSSC	Rupert Smith		35.47	0.05.13	3.0
3	Laser	175741	NSSC	Chas Humphries		OOD		3.0
7	Pico 2	2072	NSSC	David Murley		43.45	0.07.18	4.0
8	Laser 4.7	206330	NSSC	Jazz Sayed		39.16	0.06.58	5.0
9	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	42.12	0.07.37	6.0
10	Vago	808	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	36.32	0.07.25	7.0
11	Laser	177611	NSSC	John Smith		42.47	0.18.59	8.0

R16

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Posn	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	Laser	203084A	NSSC	Alex Mills-Barton		35.26	0.00.00	1.0
2	Laser 4.7	206330	NSSC	Jazz Sayed		35.35	0.03.32	2.0
3	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		OOD		3.0
3	Laser Radial	16	NSSC	Tim Cox		OOD		3.0
3	Pico 2	2072	NSSC	David Murley		40.13	0.04.02	3.0
3	Laser	175741	NSSC	Chas Humphries		OOD		3.0
7	Laser Radial	7757	NSSC	Rupert Smith		42.28	0.06.03	4.0
8	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	36.48	0.08.12	5.0
9	Laser	81	NSSC	Matt Sprigall		38.12	0.08.40	6.0
10	Vago	808	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	38.22	0.09.28	7.0
11	Laser	177611	NSSC	John Smith		38.53	0.15.16	8.0

Alan.S 1700

PS. A very Happy Christmas to all who read this blog.