Streaker Ramblings - Elford Numbum races 1 & 2 - 08.01.2017

Grey and 90% overcast without the faintest sign of breeze as we left home for the pond at Piddinghoe. After we had gone through Kingston, and to its south, the horizon was showing a band of yellowish sky – as if it were about to clear. That however never happened until after the sailing had finished

.
Michael Veale was RO for the racing, with Mike Rosier acting as ARO – with Geoff Sheridan (Byte) on the safety boat. More in hope than anger Michael set up a course around the outside of all the marks in the pond with a start line just to the north of the clubhouse and with the windward mark off the Fisherman’s Bay as shown below:-

 

There was no breeze for the start, just very slight air movements, vaguely from the west. Bill Giles (Solution) coming up from the far south east end of the south bank never made it for the start and Chris Foster with daughter Charlie (Laser 2) were late on the water anyway but outside the time limit for starting by the time they eventually got on the water.

At the gun it was Penelope Duncan (Laser Radial) first to drift across the line with Charlie Rigg (Topper) second and Laurence Venus (Streaker) third. Closer to the shore Dave Murley (Laser Radial) was fourth to cross the line whilst  Alan Simmons (Steaker) was fully blanketed by Bill Wates (Laser full rig) at the pin end and apart from Bill.G was last to start.

By the time the fleet was half way to the Fisherman’s Bay mark Laurence was out in front with Richard Beal (Laser Radial) lying second and Alan still in ninth place.

 Laurence was first around the mark and away towards the next mark, off the middle of the east shore before Alan had rounded, having pulled right through the fleet to second place. Bill.W was next to round with Julian Dobson (Laser full rig) next followed by Penelope. Roan Briggs (Topper) led Charlie with Bill Giles still in last place.

Along the leg off the east shore Laurence led by a substantial margin with Alan second and Julian third, nine or ten lengths astern. A length behind Julian Bill.W led Penelope, Richard, Dave, Roan, Charlie and Bill.G with Connie Sturt (Slipper) bringing up the rear. Rounding the mark in the south east corner, for a beat along the south bank, Laurence led from Alan as Bill.W and Julian were having a close battle but Bill.G having seemingly come from nowhere to pass the pair of them and begin to close in on Alan.

Having taken over half an hour for the leading boat to nearly complete a lap the RO decided to end the race as the leader Laurence crossed the line, now re-set near the west slipway on the south shore. At the gun Laurence was first to cross the line with Alan in second place, Bill.G in third and Julian fourth.


With handicaps applied this was as the finishing order with Laurence the outright winner, Alan second, Bill.G third and Julian fourth.

R1

Class	H Cap	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	BCE	Points
Streaker	1137	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		33.13	0.00.00	1.0
Streaker	1137	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons		35.16	0.02.03	2.0
Solution	1090	398	NSSC	Bill Giles		36.31	0.04.40	3.0
RS 200	1047	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	OOD		3.0
Dart 15	934	1531	NSSC	Mike Godwin		OOD		3.0
Byte (origl)	1148	671	NSSC	Geoff Sheridan		OOD		3.0
Laser	1095	7/176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		37.45	0.05.46	4.0
Laser	1095	26/133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		38.01	0.06.02	5.0
Topper 'c'	1341	58082	NSSC	Roan Briggs		46.43	0.07.32	6.0
Laser Radial	1136	142208	NSSC	David Murley		40.10	0.06.59	7.0
Laser Radial	1136	81	NSSC	Penelope Duncan		42.08	0.08.57	8.0
Topper 'c'	1341	27531	NSSC	Charlie Rigg		49.47	0.10.36	9.0
Laser Radial	1136	43382	NSSC	Richard Beal		43.42	0.10.31	10.0

     

Connie was taken in tow by the safety boat and Chris.F eventually got round the lap after everyone else had finished and decided that a second ‘race’ was not worth the effort and retired ashore without a result anyway.

 

Race 2 was sailed over the same course, with barely a ripple on the water no breeze having appeared by the 11.30 start time. The breeze – air movement – had shifted a little to the south giving an almost running start.

Richard was first to cross the line at the gun in midline with Bill.G next and Roan third. Nearer to the pin end of the line Laurence was off ahead of Alan. Laurence was first to round the Fisherman’s Bay mark with Bill.G just outside of him and Alan having lost an inside overlap as the remaining fleet came down from above him.

Approaching the next mark Bill.W and Julian got an inside berth and went ahead of Alan only for him to get back ahead of Bill.W on the leg behind the Island. On the beat up the south shore Laurence continued to pull away from second placed Bill.G and Julian closed in on him.

 Alan could not make up any ground even though a slight breath of breeze began to fill in on this leg. Richard rounded the south east mark ahead of Bill.W with Dave just astern and Penelope  behind him but with Roan just behind her.

The breeze did not hold up and Laurence finished, the RO having decided to shorten this race too to just the one lap, five minutes ahead of Bill.G with Julian a further eighteen seconds astern and Alan another two minutes behind him.

With Handicaps applied the result was yet another win for Laurence with Bill.G second, Julian third and Alan fourth. Connie did not finish this race either.

R2

Class	H Cap	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Elapsed	BCE	Points
Streaker	1137	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		22.22	0.00.00	1.0
Solution	1090	398	NSSC	Bill Giles		27.20	0.05.53	2.0
RS 200	1047	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	OOD		3.0
Dart 15	934	1531	NSSC	Mike Godwin		OOD		3.0
Byte (origl)	1148	671	NSSC	Geoff Sheridan		OOD		3.0
Laser	1095	7/176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		27.37	0.06.05	3.0
Streaker	1137	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons		29.35	0.07.13	4.0
Laser Radial	1136	43382	NSSC	Richard Beal		31.48	0.09.27	5.0
Topper 'c'	1341	58082	NSSC	Roan Briggs		39.53	0.13.30	6.0
Laser	1095	26/133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		33.28	0.11.56	7.0
Laser Radial	1136	142208	NSSC	David Murley		35.34	0.13.13	8.0
Topper 'c'	1341	27531	NSSC	Charlie Rigg		46.04	0.19.41	9.0
Laser Radial	1136	81	NSSC	Penelope Duncan		40.59	0.18.38	10.0

  The Cadets having only had two competitors do not score points in the Numbum Cadet Trophy series this week. The wind – or lack of –made for some very trying sailing conditions and yet again none of the forecasts predicted such low values. Currently the outlook for next Sunday is 17 to 20 knots from the west. We will just have to wait and see how this works out.

 

Alan.S1700