Friday 21 August 2015

Sailing Week, Newhaven & Seaford SC - August 2015 - Part 2


NSSC Sailing Week (Pm) Races 5, 6 & 7 – August 2015

(See part one of this report for Adult Pm Races 1, 2, 3 & 4)

With Thursday sea sailing cancelled (and Piddinghoe the venue for sailing and Wave boarding) It was arranged that two ‘extra’ races would be held on Friday morning and Matt Springall agreed to act as RO for the races which were combined with the Cadet races 3 & 4 – their results being extracted from the overall results.
With a shoreline start in a westerly direction and a force 2 to 3 breeze there were some 24 boats on the line. There were 4 Toppers, 3 Oppies and a Taz in the Cadet as well as Jaz in her Fireball, Bea in a Laser 4.7 and Nick in the Laser II. The adult fleet was joined by Ed Thorburn in his Dynastar Cruiser and Simon Suter crewed by Johnathon Vernon in an RS 200. With an outer lane for the Cats and the Keelboat they were quickly away up the initial beat, paced by the two Fireballs, Rupert Smith and Jazz Sayed with Laurence Venus (Streaker) quickly ahead of Alan Simmons (Streaker). With a long windward leg the Fireballs soon out-paced the Cats and Alan and John Nash were hazarded near the windward mark by Ed.T in the cruiser. Laurence continued to find clear air and at the end of the lap was a minute and a half behind Rupert but fifty seconds ahead of Alan. In turn Alan was right up with John.N – just four seconds separating them - wth Ed.T thirty five seconds astern of Alan.By the end of the second lap John and Andrew Cornish (RS 400) had climbed from eigth place to lie fourth behind third placed Laurence. Ed.T had dropped back to 9th having been overtaken by James Clapham (Dart 18) and Dave Robertson (Hobbie). Terry Jones (Sprint 15) had also picked up a couple of places to lie tenth ahead of Penelope Duncan (Laser Radial) whilst Lizi Herne (Topper) dropped from eleventh to thirteenth behind Simon.Lap 3, the penultimate lap, saw no change among the three leaders but Alan passed John Cornish and John.N – who dropped back to 9th and 10th with a rigging problems. James.C and Dave.R thus moved up the fleet to lie fifth and sixth. Terry also moved into seventh place ahead of Ed.T as Simon went ahead of Penelope. Apart from Rupert and Jazz the rest of the fleet finished at the end of this lap. Jazz was almost a minute and a half behind Rupert at the end of their final lap.
With handicaps applied Laurence came out on top with Alan second, Rupert third, Jazz fourth and Lizi in fifth place.

Race 6 was held back to back with race 5 over the same course with the same culprits, Rupert and Jazz, hot off the line. By the end of the first lap John.C. crossed in third place with Dave.R fourth. Alan and Laurence had a close batlle with Laurence crossing the line fifth, just eight seconds ahead by the end of the lap.Next up, in seventh, was James.C with Ed.T behind him. John.N was not having a good race and was lying tenth, ahead of Penelope with Terry behind her.
Into lap 2 and Rupert held his lead from Jazz and John.C whilst James C moved up from seventh to lie4th ahead of Laurence and Dave.R passed Alan. Ian Johnson (Laser full rig) also climbed up the table to eigth in front of Ed.T as Terry passed Penelope as did Ed Hall (Laser Radial). Bea Cameron (Laser 4.7) finished the lap in fifteenth place ahead of Flynn Hall (Laser 4.7) and Simon.
Lap 3 had the first three places unchanged but with Laurence improving as he overtook James C to lie fourth.  Both Dave.R and Alan also overtook James.C as did Ian. John.N managed to stay ahead of Terry to finish tenth.
Handicaps were applied and the winner was found to be Laurence with Alan second, Rupert third, Jazz fourth and Ian fifth.

 After Lunch it was time for Race 7 and Laurence stayed ashore as RO - as recorder he had thereafter to dash home to sort out the week’s overall results, separate the Cadets, Fast and Slow Fleets, Pond races and Adult Morning Fun Race. The course was the same but with the sea breeze having by now picked up to a good middle force 4.
The regular bunch were first away, Rupert and Jazz in their Fireball and the Cats of Terry and James. A choice had to be made however, to keep going west or head straight out into the tide. For the Cats it was a westward heading but the dinghies were split into two groups. Rupert was first to find the windward mark and held on to the lead from Terry. By the end of the first lap James.C was lying third ahead of fourth placed Jazz, next came Dave.R and then Tim Cox (Firebll) with John.N behind him. Alan crossed the line back in tenth place behind both Ed Hall (Laser Radial)  and John.C. After this group Jo West (Laser Radial) led Bea, Penelope. John Morrison (Stealth) was in 14th place,, Fynn Hall (Laser 4.7) was 15th, Ricky Smith (Hunter Europa) was lying 16th, Andy Beck (Mirror) 17th, Trevor Quinell (Laser Full Rig) 18th and Jo Whitehead (Laser Radial) 19th.  Kingsly Cox (Laser Radial) retired after missing a mark and a Laser II did not finish the first lap..
Lap 2 and James.C took over the lead from Rupert who was also passed by Terry and Dave passed Jazz to lie fourth. Tim stayed 6th ahead of John.N as Alan made ground and passed Ed.H and John.C.to lie 8th. John.M moved up to11th passing Bea Jo West and Penelope on the way. Bea also passed Jo.West to lie 12th. Fynn retained his 15th place as Jo Whitehead passed Ricky. Any was next in 18th ahead of Trevor who promptly retired.
Lap 3 and James.C still led Terry whilst Dave.R overtook Rupert. Jazz, Tim, John.N and Alan retained their relative 5th to 8th positions as John.C and James.C  move ahead of Ed.H. Jo West gained the advantage back from Bea both ahead of Penelope and Andy gained a place ahead of Ricky to lie 17th.

Lap 4 and the leading eight places remained as for the previous lap. John.C passed Ed.H  only to be passed himself by John.M at the back of the fleet the order also stayed the same as in the previous lap and Jo West, Bea, Penelope and Finn all ended their race
Lap 5, the penultimate Lap and although James.C still held the lead Dave.R got past Terry to cross the line in second place. Fourth home was Rupert with Jazz 5th, Tim 6th and John.N 7th. Alan and John.M tied on time across the line in 8th place with John.C10th and Ed.H 11th bringing up the rear.
Lap 6 was contested by only the leading four boats but the order did not change from lap 5.
With the handicaps applied it was a win for Rupert and Chris in the Fireball, Terry took second place with Alan 3rd, John Nash 4th, Ed Hall 5th and Bea Cameron 6th.

 
At the Prize Giving the overall winner of the week was Laurence Venus with Rupert Smith second and Alan Simmons third.
The Fast fleet was won by Rupert Smith with Jazz Sayed second and Terry Jones third.
Laurence took the Slow fleet Trophy with Alan Second and John Nash third
The Cadet Series was won by Jazz Sayed with Bea Cameron second and James Cuxson third.
The Pond races in the morning were won by Jazz Sayed and the afternoon ones by Bea Cameron and Alan won the only AM Adult Fun Race.

For the full detailed results follow the link to:-         http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/index.php/sailing/club-series-results

In the end, due to the two extra races on Friday almost the complete programme was fulfilled – seven out of nine – and the conditions for these as near ideal as one can get for good sailing. There was still fun to be had on the two windy days and the campers did not have to brave too much rain during the week. It seems the evening entertainment went down well with all the participants too.

Alan.S 1700

Thursday 20 August 2015

Sailing Week, Newhaven & Seaford SC - August 2015 - Part 1


This year Sailing week at Newhaven & Seaford SC took place from Monday 3rd August to Friday 7th August. The programme was for Cadet races and Adult Fun Races each morning and then two races, B to B, in the afternoons Monday to Thursday with a single PM Race on the Friday, always assuming that the weather would play fair. Inevitably it did not with no racing on the sea possible on the Tuesday or Thursday due to strong’ish winds and resultant heavy swells on the beach. Cadets and Adults, as a result. de-camped to Piddinghoe where the School Toppers, Oppis etc were brought into play. There is not enough space here to report fully on the Cadet, Adult Fun and Pond racing but as with all the results these can be found on the NSSC web site (about halfway down the page) on the following link :- http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/index.php/sailing/club-series-results.

So to the Afternoon Races and Monday was a nice little breeze, force 2 to 3 with a bit of a delayed start for Race 1 as they safety boats (and marks) could not get off the mud in Newhaven Harbour. A course was eventually laid and the race started from the committee boat moored in Seaford Bay. The line was quite busy, with an eighteen strong fleet, but among the first away was the Fireball helmed by Rupert Smith, crewed by Chris Turner. Up  there with them was John Nash in his full rigged Laser and second Fireball helmed by Tiger Cox with Kingsly Cox crewing. Alan Simmons in his Streaker was also amongst the leading bunch with Jazz Sayed crewed by Zoe McCaig in yet another Fireball just astern. For a change Alan was ahead of Laurence Venus, also in a Streaker. Rupert led the fleet and finished his first lap in some 10 minutes, followed by Tiger with John.N rounding third and Alan fourth. Lap 2 saw Rupert pulling away from the rest of the fleet to lead Tiger by some 2 minutes. Both John.N and Jazz passed Alan, whilst he remained ahead of Laurence. Lap 3 had Rupert and Tiger still in front of Jazz but Alan passed John.N leaving Laurence behind him. By the end of Lap 4 the three Fireballs will still out ahead  with Alan behind them. Dave Robertson sailing a Hobbie 16 Catamaran, with Commodore Ian Johnson crewing had climbed up to 5th place and crossed the line simultaneously with Laurence and John.N. Lap 5 saw Jazz pass Tiger to lie second with Alan third. Laurence’s time was not recorded but he must have been close behind Dave.R and possibly ahead of John.N..In the final lap 6, Rupert led Jazz and then Tiger over the finish line. Dave.R managed to pull ahead of Alan who was pursued by Laurence and lastly John.N.
With the handicaps applied it was a win for Rupert with Alan second (would have been first if the race had ended a lap earlier), Laurence third and Ed Hall (Laser full rig) fourth.

Race 2 (back to back with Race 1) saw the Fireballs of Rupert and Jazz sprint off the line, hotly pursued by Laurence, with Noel West (Laser full rig) pulling out ahead of Alan. By the end of the lap the order was as at the start with Laurence already a quarter of a minute ahead of Alan.  In lap2 the breeze was, if anything, a trifle lighter but Rupert continued to pull out ahead of Jazz and Laurence surged away from Alan whilst Noel was passed by Alan. Terry, in the Dart, went ahead of John.N who dropped back to seventh in the now twelve strong fleet, with Ed behind him.
Positions at the front remained unchanged in lap 3 with Laurence now a minute in front of
fourth placed Alan. Ed and Tim Cox (Laser Radial) crossed the line at the same time in 8th place.

Lap 4 (the ultimate lap) had Rupert finishing first ahead of Jazz, then Laurence and fourthly Alan.
With the Handicaps applied the winner was Laurence with Alan second, Rupert third and Noel fourth.

With no sea racing possible on Tuesday, due to high surf and strong wind Race 3 commenced on Wednesday. Once again there was an eighteen strong fleet including  Ricky Smith in his Hunter Europa Sarah Gribble crewed by Carolyn Turner in a Squib, Andy and Thomas Beck in their Mirror and Kathy and roger Thomas in their Miracle.

With a start line from the shore, Rupert was first away with the Cats in the outer lane. By the end of the lap Rupert was ahead of John Morrison in his Stealth Cat with Jazz behind Laurence held fourth place with John.Clapham (Dart 18) fifth and Alan sixth.
By the end of Lap 2 John.M was leading Rupert and John.C had passed Laurence, whilst Terry had passed Jo West (Laser Radial), and Kingsly Cox (Laser Radial) to lie 8th. Dave.R had also climbed up the fleet from 3th to lie 10th passing Kingsly and Kathy on the way.

Lap 3 (the final lap) saw Rupert regain the lead from John.M with Jazz next home in third place. John.C took fourth place ahead of Laurence and then Alan.
With the handicaps applied Laurence was again the winner with Alan in second place ahead of Rupert.

Race 4 over the same course but with slightly more breeze (and also Back to back with Race 3) set off with fifteen entrants..For the umpteenth time Rupert and Jazz in their Firballs were soon in the lead with Dave in his Hobbie behind them. Laurence who rounded the windward mark ahead of Alan and John.N.
With the breeze dieing away the above order remained for the second lap there were no place changes among the first six boats but Jo.W lost a  place to John.C with Kathy behind her and Kingsly in his Laser full rig bringing up the rear.
With the Handicaps applied Rupert was the winner with Laurence second and Alan third, Jazz fourth and John.N fifth.

As  stated above I offer no detailed reporting of the Cadet races except to state that the first of these finished with Jazz winning the first in her Fireball with Bea Cameron in a Laser 4.7 second and a Topper (unknown helm) third and Jamie smith in a Laser Radial fourth.

Race 2 of the cadet series, on Wednesday was won by James Cuxon in a Topper with Nick Panzera and T Wright in a Lase II second, Joel third in a Topper and Jazz fourth.

The only Adult race, Wednesday morning, was won by Alan from Jack Turner (Laser Radial) with Ed Hall (Laser full rig) third and Sarah gribble and Carolyn Turner in their Squib in fourth place.

Part two of this report (Races 5,6 & 7) will appear separately – giving you time to absorb this missive – with the overall week’s results

Alan.S 1700