Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Race 17 - 26/12/2014

Cold, High Grey skies and barely a whisper of breeze as we left Hangleton for Piddinghoe this Boxing Day morning. The sun was trying to break through, just a hazy outline but it failed to appear all morning. On arrival at the pond it was almost dead calm with half the water like a mill pond and barely a ruffle on the other half.

What little breeze there was was coming from the north west corner of the pond and the RO, Laurence Venus, set  a course with the intial beat starting from a line , between a pair of marks, just off the 1^st slipway east along the south side. The windward mark was a mark close to the Fisherman’s Bay  in the north  west corner. It was then a broad reach to a mark mid way along the eastern shore followed by a run behind the Island to the mark in the south east corner. This was followed by a beat up the south side to a mark in the south west corner just off the clubhouse before setting off to the Fisherman’s Bay mark once more. Some fifteen boats took to the water with Alan Simmons taking out his Aero 7 for his fifth race of the series and Alex Mills-Barton (Laser full rig) joining in the Series once more.

At the gun it was Alan, in midline,  who was first away whilst Alex who roll tacked away from the pin end. Third across the line was Matt Springall (Laser full rig) with Darren Filed and Louise Currell (RS 200) fourth and Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200) fifth away but to windward of Darren. Alex was first to the windward mark with Alan less than a boat length behind and along the bottom run the pair were alongside each other. Behind this pair Darren was closing on Matt with Julia Dobson (Laser full rig) in fifth spot ahead of Tim Cox (Laser Radial).In mid fleet the order at the end of the lap was Graham Hardy (Laser full rig) 7^th, Bill Giles (Solution) 8^th, Michael 9^th and Chris Rosier (Laser full rig) 10^th. David Murley (Laser Radial) was 11^th, Penny Springall (Laser 4.7) 12^th, Chas Humphries (Laser full rig) 13th, Jamie Smith (Laser 4.7) 14^th and Tiger Cox (Topper) 15^th.
Lap 2 saw no change in place for the two leaders but Alex extended his lead over Alan to 50 seconds and Darren passed Matt to hold third position. Whilst Julian held on to 5^th place Graham overtook Tim and Michael passed Bill.G. A little further down the fleet Chas went up to 12^th passing Penny on the way as Jamie retained his position ahead of Tiger.

Lap 3 and Alan pulled back about 10 seconds on Alex’s lead but made no significant gain ahead of Darren who was using his Gennaker on the offwind legs. The beats, along the south and west sides of the pond were both capable of completing without a tack so the offwind legs were the only areas for overtaking. Occasionally there were a few extra little puffs of breeze but these were few and far between and only in a few areas. Tim fell back behind Michael and Bill.G to lie 9^th but there were no other changes down the fleet.

Lap 4 and Alex pulled back those few seconds lost in the previous lap to lead Alan by 55seconds but the rest of the fleet positons remained unchanged – apart from Chas passing David to lie 11^th. Jamie and Tiger finished, tied on the line, at the end of this lap.

Lap 5 saw Alex extend the gap ahead of Alan to one minute 24 seconds  but the gap between Alan and Darren remained much the same and Matt fell back a little but still in front of Julian and Chas, David and Penny finished at the end of the lap.

Lap 6, the final lap, and Alex crossed the line with a slightly reduced lead (40 seconds) ahead of Alan, in turn 18 seconds ahead of third placed Darren. Matt was fourth, Julian 5^th Graham 6^th, Michael 7^th and Bill.G, Tim and Chris.R 8^th,9^th and 10^th. Once the handicaps had been applied the sequence was Alex 1^st, Alan 2^nd, Matt 3^rd, Julian 4^th and Darren 5^th.

This had been a difficult race given the lack of breeze and its awkward direction limiting opportunities to overtake around the course. It did however give everyone an opportunity to sail without having ‘survival’ conditions. The Safety boat crewed by Jonty Freeman and Penelope Duncan were not exactly overworked spending more effort in setting the marks and then just looking on.

Results :-

R17

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Rank	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY No	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	Laser	207509/203984	NSSC	Alex Mills-Barton		1088	57.17	0.00.00	1.0
2	Aero 7	1150	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1065	57.59	0.01.55	2.0
3	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1146	OOD		3.0
3	Laser	153670	NSSC	Matt Springall		1088	59.30	0.02.13	3.0
5	Laser	7/176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1088	59.59	0.02.42	4.0
6	RS 200	285	NSSC	Darren Field	Lousie Currel	1051	58.17	0.02.57	5.0
7	Laser	163443	NSSC	Graham Hardy		1088	60.26	0.03.09	6.0
8	Laser Radial	16	NSSC	Tim Cox		1122	63.23	0.04.19	7.0
9	Solution	398	NSSC	Bill Giles		1080	62.32	0.05.40	8.0
10	Laser	142334	NSSC	Chris Rosier		1088	63.55	0.06.38	9.0
11	RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1051	62.06	0.06.46	10.0
12	Laser Radial	142208	NSSC	David Murley		1122	58.09	0.08.55	11.0
13	Laser 4.7	153670	NSSC	Penny Springal		1185	61.30	0.09.30	12.0
14	Laser	138193	NSSC	Charles Humphries		1088	57.16	0.09.32	13.0
15	Topper	26340	NSSC	Tiger Cox		1322	56.17	0.09.53	14.0
16	Laser 4.7	2063	NSSC	Jamie Smith		1185	55.56	0.14.20	15.0

Note!  For the Full Series results follow this link :- http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/index.php/sailing/club-series-results

 

 

This being the last race of the series the prize giving followed, once the overall results had been calculated. The Freeman Iceberg Trophy was won by Laurence Venus with Darren Field and Louise Currell runners up and Michael Veale and Mike Rosier taking third. Tim Cox was 4^th and John Nash 5^th. Alan, having split his outings between two boats still gained 20^th (Aero) and 22^nd (Streaker) – not too bad with some forty entries in the series. Prizes were also awarded to the winners of the ‘Menagerie Fleet – Laurence again, the Laser Fleet – Tim Cox and the Cadet Fleet – Josh Smith. The event wrapped up with free Mince pies, Mulled wine and Coffee for all entrants and Dutymen.

Alan.S 1700

 

PS. Here’ wishing all readers of this blog a Happy, Prosperous and Successful New Year for 2015