Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 1 & 2 - 05/11/2017

A bright blue clear sky and a gentle breeze as we left home for Piddinghoe and the opening races of the 2017 Freeman Iceberg series. There was an excellent entry for Race one with some 25 boats taking to the water in the North Westerly force three breeze. The RO, Laurence Venus with Richard Beal as ARO (and John Wright as safety boat helm) set a roughly ‘M’ shaped course as below with the start line between an inner and outer pair of marks.

 

 

First away was Duncan McDonald (Streaker, NSSC) hitting the line just above the outer mark but in clear air, whilst Chris Turner (Laser full rig, NSCC) set off second nearer to the shore end mark, a little behind but further to windward it was Bill Wates (Laser full rig, NSSC) who was next to start with Rupert Smith (Streaker, NSSC) a bit to leeward.

By the first mark, off the Fisherman’s Bay in the north end of the pond, Duncan had already established a comfortable lead with Julian Dobson (Laser full rig, NSCC) lying second on the leg towards the mark in the centre of the pond. Rupert was in third place with Chris fourth and Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing SC) in fifth.

By the end of the first full lap Duncan was in the lead and pulling away from Rupert with Julian third and Paul Ryan (Laser full rig, Hardway SC) fourth and Alan fifth. Tiger Cox (Laser Radial, NSSC) was in sixth place, Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS200, NSSC) lay seventh, Chris was eighth, Penelope Duncan (Laser Radial, NSSC) ninth, Lucy McCaig (Laser Radial, NSSC) tenth, Andy Beck ((Laser full rig, NSSC) eleventh, Zoe McCaig (Laser Radial, NSSC) twelfth, Ian Johnson (Laser Radial, NSSC) thirteenth, Bill Wates (Laser Radial, NSSC) fourteenth. In fifteenth place was David Murley (Laser Radial, NSSC) with Tim Cox (Topper, NSSC) sixteenth, Geoff Sheridan (Byte, NSSC) seventeenth, Katie Trollope (Topper, NSSC) eighteenth, Terry Jones (Comet, NSSC) nineteenth and Jazz Turner (Slipper, NSSC) – with her foot in plaster after an operation – lying twentieth. Kerrie Blennerhassett (Topper, NSSC)  was in twenty first place with Ed Rollestone (Oppie, NSSC) twenty second , Stephen Hamilton (Otter, NSSC) twenty third and Thomas Beck (Oppie ,NSSC) tail ender at twenty fourth.

In the second lap there were no place changes  between  the leading five boats but Tiger dropped back to ninth as Michael gained a place to lie sixth and Chris also pulled back one place to lie seventh. Penelope dropped down the fleet to lie eleventh behind Lucy. David displaced Bill to lie fourteenth as Tim.C, Geoff, Katie, Terry and Jazz retained their respective places. Kerrie dropped back to last place behind Ed, Stephen and Thomas and finished at the end of the lap.

Lap 3 saw Paul and Alan go ahead of Julian to lie 3^rd and 4^th respectively and Chris got ahead of Michael. There were no changes in the order of places behind these leaders.

Lap 4 saw the first four places unchanged as Michael went past Julian and Chris to lie fifth. Further back Zoe overtook Penelope to lie 11^th and David went ahead of Ian to lie thirteenth. Geoff overtook Tim.C and Terry went in front of Kattie.

By the end of the fifth and final lap Duncan crossed the line nearly a minute and a half ahead of Rupert who in turn was nearly a minute in front of Paul with Alan in fourth three quarters of a minute further back. Julian slipped back to 8^th behind Chris and Andy and Zoe fell back astern of David.

Race 2 was held over the same course (initially) after a short coffee break ashore.

This time it was Alan who got the best of the start towards the outer end with Chris second away a little closer to the shore and Ian just to leeward of him.

 

Alan got to the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay with a good length lead from Ian but caught the buoy anchor line with his centreboard, and then with the rudder, towing it several yard to the south. By the time he finally got untangled and carried out his 360 degree turn half the fleet had passed him. In the ensuing melee, to find the mark, Paul went into the lead with Chris behind him and Ian behind them. Duncan was a long way back but soon pulled through to cross the line at the end of the lap in second place some forty seconds astern of Paul. The long beat back from the mark to the south of the Island sorted out the fleet pecking order with Lucy claiming fourth place behind Chris and Tim Mellor (Laser full rig, NSSC) – who did not start in Race 1 – in fifth place. Alan held on to cross the line in sixth ahead of Michael with Andy eighth, Ian ninth, Tim.C tenth, David eleventh, Bill twelfth, Julian thirteenth, Zoe fourteenth, Tiger fifteenth, Terry sixteenth, Penelope seventeenth, Ed eighteenth, Geoff ninteenth, Thomas twentieth, Stephen, twenty first and Jazz twenty second. Rupert, Kattie, and Kerrie did not sail in this race.

Lap 2 saw Paul in the lead from Duncan with Chris still third and TIm.M moving ahead of Lucy. Alan had another argument with a mark mooring rope, this time near the middle of the east bank, and took that too for a walk. By the time this was cleared he had lost another three places as Michael, Andy and Julian passed him. Zoe gained four places to lie tenth behind Alan, with Ian dropping further down the fleet to eleventh and David also losing out one place. Bill also lost a place to lie thirteenth ahead of Tiger and Terry. Tim.C fell from grace dropping to sixteenth  ahead of Penelope who retained her seventeenth position. Geoff gaine one place to lie ahead of Ed and Jazz went ahead of Stephen with Thomas dropping back to twenty second and last on the water.

Lap 3 saw no change at the front with the first four retaining their positions as Michael pulled though into fifth place with Andy behind him. Lucy lost out crossing the line behind Andy in seventh place. Alan managed to catch the mark in the middle of the east side yet again and dropped back another place, behind ninth placed Tiger but ahead of Zoe. Ian passed Bill to lie thirteenth as Geoff also passed Tim.C and Penelope to go sixteenth. Ed, Jazz, Stephen and Thomas retatined their respective positions. finishing at the end of the lap but in the same positions as in lap 2.

Lap 4 saw the top five positions unchanged as Paul pulled a little further ahead of Duncan. Lucy got ahead of Andy and Alan regained a couple of places to lie nineth with Zoe still behind him as Tiger dropped back to lie eleventh. Ian lost a couple of places dropping to fifteenth behind Bill and Terry and just ahead of Tim.C. Geoff lost ground to lie eighteenth.
 

 Lap 5  and only Paul, Duncan, Chris and Tim.M completed the lap in the this order with Paul fifty seconds ahead of Duncan – not sufficient to beat him though.

Results:-

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	H'Cap	R1 5.11.17	R2 5.11.17	Total	Nett
1st	Chops	Streaker	1934	NSSC	Duncan McDonald		1132	1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0
2nd	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1132	3.0 OOD	3.0 OOD	6.0	6.0
2nd		Laser Radial	43382	NSSC	Richard Beal		1139	3.0 OOD	3.0 OOD	6.0	6.0
4th	Night Boat	Laser	156163	Hardway SC	Paul Ryan		1097	4.0	2.5	6.5	6.5
5th	Skimmer	Oppie 'c'	2530	NSSC	Ed Rollestone		1665	5.0	2.5	7.5	7.5
6th		Topper	41179	NSSC	Tim Cox		1347	3.0	5.0	8.0	8.0
7th		Laser Radial	158365	NSSC	Chris Turner		1139	7.0	4.0	11.0	11.0
8th	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons		1132	6.0	10.0	16.0	16.0
9th		Laser Radial	89477	NSSC	Lucy McCaig		1139	11.0	8.0	19.0	19.0
10th		Oppie 'c'	5641	NSSC	Thomas Beck		1665	15.0	6.0	21.0	21.0
11th		Laser Radial	8	NSSC	Tiger Cox		1139	8.0	14.0	22.0	22.0
12th		Laser	183234	NSSC	Andrew Beck		1097	10.0	12.0	22.0	22.0
13th		Laser	176670	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1097	13.0	13.0	26.0	26.0
14th		Byte	671	NSSC	Geoff Sheridan		1190	12.0	16.0	28.0	28.0
15th		Laser Radial	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1139	18.5	11.0	29.5	29.5
16th		Laser Radial	142208	NSSC	David Murley		1139	16.0	15.0	31.0	31.0
17th		Comet	473	NSSC	Terry Jones		1204	23.0	9.0	32.0	32.0
18th	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	1047	17.0	17.0	34.0	34.0
19th		Laser Radial	81	NSSC	Penelope Duncan		1139	14.0	21.0	35.0	35.0
20th		Laser Radial	7757	NSSC	Ian Johnson		1139	18.5	19.0	37.5	37.5
21st		Laser Radial	26/133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		1139	20.0	18.0	38.0	38.0
22nd	Smart	Slipper	53	NSSC	Jazz Turner		1385	21.0	20.0	41.0	41.0
23rd		Otter		NSSC	Stephen Hamilton		1272	22.0	22.0	44.0	44.0
24th	Scoundrel	Streaker	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1132	2.0	57.0 DNC	59.0	59.0
25th		Laser	178297	NSSC	Tim Mellor		1097	57.0 DNC	7.0	64.0	64.0
26th		Topper 'c'	45139	NSSC	Katie Trollope		1347	9.0	57.0 DNC	66.0	66.0
27th	Subittissimo (Salty)	Topper	8	NSSC	Kerrie Blennerhassett		1347	24.0	57.0 DNC	81.0	81.0

Alan.S 1700