Streaker Ramblings – Elford Numbum Race 15 & 16 – 211/2/2016

With a forecast for strong, force 6 plus, winds, and a prospective buyer for my Aero 7 coming down from Norfolk we decide not to go to Piddinghoe on Sunday. As a result the report below is courtesy of Laurence Venus and the photos are ‘salvaged’ from race 11, last week.

Furthemore I am pleased to inform you that the Aero has gone to a new home – the front lawn is, temporarily, free from a dinghy.

Laurence's Report :

The weather on arrival was gusty F5 WSW wind, cloudy but dry. With the forecast for stronger winds to come and with some powerful gusts whistling through the rigging several decided not to sail. Eventually we had enough boats for a race. I decided to use my reefed down Wavesail. The RS 200 went out early and capsized a few times. Then the wind seemed to drop as some drizzly mist came in but there wasn’t sufficient time to change back to the full Wavesail which as it turned out was just as well as the wind did increase again during the race with some vicious F6-7 gusts and large wind shifts.

The course was a basically a diamond shape with a sausage across the centre. It consisted of a very short beat from the start line next to the windsurfer slipway to the corner mark opposite the clubhouse then a short broad reach parallel to the south bank, around the ladybird mark then a long hairy run to the white mark very near the far bank. Next was a beat back up the sausage to the ladybird mark followed by a broad reach parallel to south bank to the dirty yellow mark in the southeast corner, pass the far side of the island to the far bank white mark then parallel with north bank to the spiral mark in fisherman’s bay then a beat back to the ODM and then on to the corner mark opposite the clubhouse for the finish line.

Micheal Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200) were first across the start line followed by James Cuxson (Radial) then my Streaker with its tiny reefed Wavesail. James got into trouble trying to tack around the first mark which allowed my Streaker to overtake James Radial. The RS200 lead down the run followed by me but James caught up overtook the Streaker to round the white mark in second place.

With the increasing winds the Radial couldn’t pull away from the Streaker then James found a huge gust on the beat back to the ladybird mark too much and capsized allowing my Streaker back into 2^nd spot again.

In the meantime the reefed RS Vision sailed by Katy Wilfort and Phoebe Godin was having great problems especially long the north side of the pond where the winds were at their strongest and capsized a few times before retiring. Toby Wride sailing a Topper capsized several times then finally retired after capsizing on top of the ladybird mark. The rescue boat crew couldn’t free the mark and ended up towing the Topper and mark back to the south bank and then managed to entangle it which caused a few problems for me as I was heading up the beat looking for the ladybird mark to round. Toby decided enough was enough and also retired.

At the back of the fleet was Charlie Riggs battling on in these very trying conditions but eventually he managed to do two laps and finish the race despite lots of capsizes.  The RS 200 was well out in front and gradually extended their lead throughout the race and succeeded in sailing the whole race without capsizing although they had been over a few times before the start. James did manage to overtake my Streaker again only to succumbed to yet another capsize and eventually finishing 1 minute 50 seconds behind me. Micheal and Mike were the only boat to manage to sail 4 laps and deservedly won what was a very tough race. My Streaker and James Radial sailed 3 laps and were 2^nd and 3rd respectfully. Charlie did well to finish and was 4^th on handicap.

Not enough boats wanted to sail for a second race so only the one race today.

Laurence Venus.

R12 - 14.2.16

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	33.24	0.00.00	1.0
2	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		29.47	0.02.33	2.0
3	Donna Lee	Laser Radial 'c'	174808	NSSC	James Cuxson		31.37	0.04.28	3.0
4		Topper 'c'	27531	NSSC	Charlie Riggs		37.57	0.16.35	4.0
5		RS Vision	258	NSSC	Kathy Wilfort	Liah Hunter	DNF		7.0
5		Topper 'c'	15693	NSSC	Toby Wride		DNF		7.0