Streaker Ramblings - Elford numbum Races 7 & 8 - 25/01/2015

Bright Sunny blue skies , no breeze and cold as we set off for Piddinghoe and at the end of the half hour journey nothing had changed as we arrived at the Pond. The water was as flat as glass with not a ripple in. The reflections of the cloud and Downs were incredible but regrettably the camera was not on hand. The boat cover was stiff with frost but without sheet ice as in the past couple of weeks. The breeze began to set in, fitfully, from the south west and as a consequence the RO, Chris Turner, decided to set a ‘committee boat’ start from a mark near the middle of the east side of the pond with the first leg to windward to a mark in the south west of the Pond, just off the clubhouse. For this, the first, race of the day, 14 boats took to the water.

 

First away, at the gun, were Darren Field and Louise Currell (RS 200) from the middle of the line. Next away were Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200) close to the pin end with Alan Simmons (Aero 7) close behind but in their wind shadow. At the pin end the next starters were Laurence Venus (Streaker) and close behind Bill Giles (Solution). The breeze was still very light and it proved necessary to tack away to find clear air which both Alan and Laurence did but it was Laurence who came off best.

Darren was first to round the windward mark, followed by Michael, then Laurence, Zoe McCaig (Laser Radial), Roger McCall (Laser full rig).
Down this off wind leg, and in spite of the use of their Gennaker, Laurence caught and passed Darren as did Alan briefly. Along the ensuing fetch Laurence pulled clear ahead but Darren  was able to gain the inside berth at the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay. On the way back to the start mark, midway along the east side, Michael, also using his Gennaker, made ground on Alan. He lost out on the next windward leg only to recover somewhat on the following off wind leg.

The lap finished with Laurence in the lead just ahead of Darren with Alan in third place. Roger was next home in 4^th place with Michael close behind him and Julian Dobson (Laser full rig) lying 6^th. Zoe was next through the line at 7^th ahead of Bill.G with Bill Wates (Laser full rig) in 9^th, Dave Murley (Laser Radial) 10^th, Terry Jones (Laser full rig) 11^th, Bill Hudson (Topper) 12^th, Stuart Field (Mirror) 13^th and Charlie Rigg (Pico) 14^th.

Lap two saw Laurence putting a bit more distance between himself and Darren and Alan dropping a few more seconds behind in third place as Michael overtook Roger to lie fourth. Bill.G overtook Julian and Zoe whilst the rest of the fleet stayed in unchanged order.

Lap 3 and Darren closed the gap on Laurence as Alan fell into a hole whilst trying to get around the mark off the clubhouse with Roger passing Michael to lie just 10 seconds behind Alan. By the end of the lap Michael had fallen back behind Julian and Bill.G as Julian also passed Bill.G to lie fifth. Bill.W went ahead of Zoe whilst the last three, Dave, Terry and Bill.H remained in that order, Stuart and Charlie having finished their race after just two laps.

Lap 4, the final lap, saw Laurence pull away from Darren a little as Alan made up a tiny bit and pulled away from Roger to cross in third place. Julian, Bill.G and Michael remained in 5^th, 6^th and 7th place Bill.W, Zoe, Dave, Terry and Bill.H having finished after 3 laps.

With Handicaps applied Laurence was the winner with Darren 2^nd, Roger 3^rd, Julian 4^th and Alan 5^th.

For the second Race Chris(RO) decided that the breeze had shifted sufficiently to allow the beat to be parallel with the south shore and the rest of the course to, effectively, be rounded in the opposite direction to that of the first race. Thus the start line was from mid way along the south shore.

First to cross the (new) line was Laurence at  the shore end with Drarren close up to windward. Near the pin end Michael was just ahead of Alan. As they closed to the bank first Laurence and then Darren tacked on to port. Michael meanwhile continued down the line on starboard whilst Alan spotting what was about to happen tacked off quickly. Michael continued on leaving neither Darren nor Laurence room to tack back towards the shore and a collision occurred encompassing all three boats. On the way to the windward mark (off the clubhouse) both Laurence and  Darren recovered the distance they had lost and it was Laurence who was first to round, closely followed by Alan and with Darren finding the inside berth to round ahead of Michael.

On the run down the next leg to the mark in the middle of the east side Alan pulled up on Laurence. Laurence was luffing and heading for the wrong side of the mark  until Alan called him to that effect. Both had to gybe and then gybe back as Alan claimed water and thus took over the lead. The two following RS 200s, Darren and Michae,l using their Gennakers had to sail high and then gybe for the mark thereby losing more ground on the leading pair and allowing Julian to slip past them. Terry up to windward on the run was then able to get on the inside of Julian as was Roger. At the end of the ensuing short windward leg Alan just led Laurence but these two pulled out from the pursuing pack with Roger getting inside Terry at the mark and Michael pulling away from the pair of them. Roger having had to tack to get round the mark then slipped back astern of Terry on the ensuing broad reach across the pond in front of the Island to the mark in the south east corner. Up the windward leg Alan stayed ahead of Laurence whilst  Bill.G passed Julian, Terry  and Roger to cross the line in third place. Darren, who also passed them and caught Michael, both of them crossing tied at 4^th whilst Bill.W crossed the line in 9^th place. The final group were led by Dave ahead fo Zoe, Bill.H and Stuart.

Lap 2 saw Laurence finally getting back ahead of Alan in the last few yards of the final beat to cross six seconds ahead. Bill.G and Darren stayed in the same relative places while Julian overtook Darren and Michael to lie fourth. Roger gained a place to lie seventh passing Terry on the way whilst Bill.W led the rear group of Dave, Zoe and Stuart. Bil.H did not finish the lap.

Lap 3 had Laurence continuing to pull away from Alan with Bill.G closing up on Alan.

Julian passed Darren to lie fourth with Michael fifth and the rest of the fleet in the same order as in the previous lap.

Lap 4, the final lap, and Laurence was still in the lead from Alan who had managed to close the gap from 29 to 16 seconds at the same time pulling away from Bill.G. Julian held his fourth position and the rest of the fleet also held all their respective positions from lap 3.

After applying the handicaps Laurence was the outright winner with Alan in second place, Bill.G in third, Julian fourth and Roger fifth.

 Results:-

R7

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	BCE	Points
STREAKER	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1146		37.16	0.00.00	1.0
RS 200	285	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	1051		37.32	0.03.21	2.0
VAGO	808	NSSC	Rupert Smith	Chris Turner	1064		OOD		3.0
LASER	191067	Pevensey Bay	Roger McAll		1088		39.20	0.03.57	3.0
LASER RADIAL	177611	NSSC	John Smith		1122		OOD		3.0
LASER 4.7	182532	NSSC	Josh Smith		1185		OOD		3.0
LASER	176670(7)	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1088		39.33	0.04.10	4.0
AERO 7	1150	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		1065		38.45	0.04.07	5.0
Solution	398	NSSC	Bill Giles		1080		40.08	0.05.01	6.0
TOPPER		NSSC	Bill Hudson		1322		38.00	0.05.45	7.0
RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1051		40.51	0.06.40	8.0
LASER RADIAL	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1122		32.51	0.05.29	9.0
LASER	133416(26)	NSSC	Bill Wates		1088		32.33	0.06.01	10.0
LASER RADIAL	142208	NSSC	Dave Murley		1122		34.00	0.06.38	11.0
LASER	30678	NSSC	Terry Jones		1088		35.08	0.08.36	12.0
MIRROR	5	NSSC	Stuart Ford		1385		32.42	0.10.11	13.0
PICO	No No	NSSC	Charlie Rigg		1335		38.36	0.16.54	14.0

R8

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	BCE	Points
STREAKER	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1146		36.21	0.00.00	1.0
AERO 7	1150	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		1065		36.37	0.02.50	2.0
VAGO	808	NSSC	Rupert Smith	Chris Turner	1064		OOD		3.0
LASER RADIAL	177611	NSSC	John Smith		1122		OOD		3.0
Solution	398	NSSC	Bill Giles		1080		38.00	0.03.45	3.0
LASER 4.7	182532	NSSC	Josh Smith		1185		OOD		3.0
LASER	176670(7)	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1088		40.10	0.05.39	4.0
LASER	191067	Pevensey Bay	Roger McAll		1088		40.38	0.06.07	5.0
RS 200	285	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	1051		40.22	0.07.02	6.0
LASER	133416(26)	NSSC	Bill Wates		1088		41.57	0.07.26	7.0
RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1051		40.44	0.07.24	8.0
LASER RADIAL	142208	NSSC	Dave Murley		1122		43.34	0.07.59	9.0
LASER	30678	NSSC	Terry Jones		1088		42.25	0.07.54	10.0
LASER RADIAL	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1122		44.41	0.09.06	11.0
MIRROR	5	NSSC	Stuart Ford		1385		35.29	0.13.31	12.0
LASER4.7	2063	NSSC	Jamie Smith		1185		DNF		15.0
TOPPER		NSSC	Bill Hudson		1322		DNF		15.0

 

Another ‘difficult’ day for sailing with such light breezes with the odd occasional puff barely reaching force 3 but mostly a middle force 2 scenario. Getting a good, clean, start was paramount as was staying in clear air. In the first race there were a few ‘breathless’ holes if one was unfortunate to fall into one.

Alan.S 1700