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

This year Sailing week at Newhaven & Seaford SC took place from Monday 3^rd August to Friday 7^th 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 5^th 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 8^th 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 8^th. Dave.R had also climbed up the fleet from 3th to lie 10^th 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