Streaker Ramblings - New Year's Day - 01.01.2015

Heavy grey skies, not even the hint of the sun and a cold strong breeze as we left Hove for Piddinghoe at noon. The race was not due to start until 2.00 pm – to allow a little sobering up from the festivities of the night before. The forecast was for increasing breeze throughout the day, starting at about 16 knots at noon and increasing to 26 knots by late afternoon. Alan did not anticipate sailing in those conditions and although it was not much over force 4 on arrival at the pond he contented himself with fitting his newly ‘tapered’ main halyard and repacking the boat as he heard the ‘whistling’ in the rigging of the nearby parked boats – a sure sign of gusts in the force 6 region. With no safety boat crew signed on, or at least dithering as to whether to sail or not he stepped into the breech as helm, ably crewed by Jenny Cornish and hastened to assist Laurence Venus (RO) to set up the start marks and adjust the other marks of the course Laurence had designed. The start was delayed for 10 minutes as a result.

 

                                                            The Course.

At the gun it was Alex Mills-Barton (Laser full rig) who was first away towards the south west corner mark. Close by but downwind was, the returning, Roger McCall Laser full rig – Pevensey Bay SC). However he was not fully powered up and was quickly overhauled by Darren Field and Lousie Currell (RS 200), Tim Cox (Topper), and Rupert Smith and Chris Turner (Vago). Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200) were not far behind and Jamie Smith (Laser 4.7) brought up the rear of the seven strong fleet.

 As he was about to finish rounding the windward mark Roger caught his Rudder then mainsheet around it and headed off towards the jetty on the south side of the pond. By so doing he caught up Jamie and Michael on the shore side of him. With a bit of bumping and shouting these two finally got clear and set of down the first – dead downwind – run, to the mark in the middle of the east side. This should have been taken on starboard tack but some tremendous gusts on this leg led to the odd impromptu gybe and then a subsequent one needed to round onto the leg behind the Island. If there were no capsizes this time round there were certainly some on subsequent legs. A close reach followed behind the Island to a mark in the South east corner and then there was a screaming reach across to a mark off the Fisherman’s Bay with a beat back to the line and the south west corner. Roger took a goodly while to disentangle himself from the marks – which Alan and Jenny had to quickly re-set once he had gone. Roger made it round the course for the first lap managing to catch up with Jamie and pass him. At the end of the lap Alex was in the lead commanding the small fleet and already 20 seconds ahead of Darren. Third round was Rupert then Tim and with Michael in 5^th place.

Lap 2 was almost as ‘interesting’ with Roger succumbing to a capsize on the run, burying his mast in the mud and, after much pushing and nudging by the safety boat, eventually got it upright once more but decided to call it a day. Darren also capsized letting Rupert and Michael get past both staying upright.as did Tim in 5^th place behind Darren once he had recovered.

Lap 3 saw the strength of the wind and gusts increase even further and the entire, now six strong, fleet had to fight to survive. Even Alex was not immune to very tippy downwind legs but crossed the line still well in the lead with Rupert second and Darren pulling back ahead of Michael. Tim and Jamie stayed in fifth and sixth place respectively. If they did not fall over all had some very near misses.

Lap 4 and it was Alex who had two unexpected gust on the running leg, suffering a dry capsize on the second occasion. Darren also tipped in near the mid east side mark when he suffered an involuntary gybe with Michael, flying his Gennaker, on the inside berth. Once again the safety boat was called in to play to help get the RS head to wind after several, unsuccessful, self-help attempts. He and Louise then decided to head for shore. Rupert continued to charge along behind Alex, who by the end of the lap was now 3 minutes in front, ending some one minute forty second in front of Michael. That left Tim and Jamie to come round 4^th and fifth with Jamie finishing this time around.

Lap 5 and just four players left with Alex still mastering the conditions to cross the line four and a half minutes ahead of second placed Rupert and third placed Michael a minute and a half further adrift. Tim, still the tail ender, crossed in fourth place to finish his race.

Lap 6 and it was only Alex and Rupert still racing and since both managed to remain upright they completed the lap first and second with Rupert ending his race then.

Lap 7 was a mere formality for Alex as he was a lap ahead of Rupert and had already started to go round once more. With the handicaps applied Alex was the winner with Tim taking second place, Rupert third Jamie fourth and Michael fifth and last. Jamie had sailed a remarkable race, given the conditions, remaining in control of his boat ‘most’ of the time and recovering from dips very rapidly. Considering his light weight he performed excellently.

Results:-

 

New Year's Day Race 1st Jan 2015 - NSSC -Piddinghoe

R1

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1		Laser	203084	NSSC	Alex Mills-Barton		1088	33.59	0.00.00	1.0
2		Topper	26340	NSSC	Tim Cox		1322	33.44	0.04.14	2.0
3	Bob	Vago	85296	NSSC	Rupert Smith	Chris Turner	1064	34.07	0.05.38	3.0
3		Aero 7	1150	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1065	OOD		3.0
3	Misty Blue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1146	OOD		3.0
6	Hot Toddy	RS200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1051	30.22	0.06.55	4.0
7		Laser 4.7	2063	NSSC	Jamie Smith		1185	30.13	0.09.04	5.0
8		Laser	191067	Bexhill SC	Roger McCall		1085	DNF		10.0
8		RS 200	285	NSSC	Darren Field	Louise Currell	1051	DNF		10.0

                      Alex was presented with Laurence,s new New Year's Day Trophy