Streaker Ramblings
Race 13 & 13 – 18.02.2018
Pale
blue cloudless skies with a slight breeze and bitterly cold as we left home for
Piddinghoe and on arrival in the car park it was noticeably windier. Using my
hand held Anenometer on the south bank a breeze of 18 to 19 knots was recorded
with gusts up to 24 knots. The forecast on XCweather was for 21 knots. Yours truly decided not to sail and began packing up
the Streaker for return to Hove.
Six
boats decided to sign on for this the final race of the Elford Numbum 2018
Series. The RO for the race, Laurence Venus, assisted by Chas Humphries and
with Bill Wates and Penelope Ducan in the safety boat, set an ‘M’ shaped course,
as below, with the start from the south bank with the first leg along the south
shore.
At
the gun Duncan McDonald (Streaker – NSSC) was first to cross the line on
Starboard tack close to the south bank. Rupert Smith (Streaker – NSSC) was next
away, on port tack, near to the pin end mark about a length behind. Next away quite a bit
behind was Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS200 – NSSC). A long gap and then
Tiger Cox (Topper – NSSC) with Dave Murley (Laser Radial – NSSC) on his stern
but a little to windward were next to go. Finally Geoff Sheridan (Byte – NSSC)
started a long way back, having been recovered from the reds on the west bank
by the Safety boat.
Rupert
was first to round the windward mark at the south east corner of the pond with
Duncan hot on his heels and then Michael in the RS rounded in third position.
Duncan went ahead of Rupert along the reach behind the Island when the latter
had a near capsize in the powerfull gusts along that leg. All three remained
upright after the first gybe and along the next leg to the mark off the
Fisherman's bay.
The order remained unchanged up the following beat and onto the
reach back to the mark off the clubhouse with Michael flying his Gennaker up
the last leg. At the end of the lap Duncan crossed the line 11 seconds ahead of
Rupert with Michael a further 11 seconds behind. Next up in fourth place was
Tiger with Dave 20 seconds behind him and Geoff over two minutes further back
in sixth place.
Lap
2 saw Duncan head towards the south bank whilst Rupert tacked off after
rounding the corner mark and began to catch up a bit, being just 4 seconds
adrift at the end of the lap.
Dave went for a swim on the windward leg and
Michael similarly capsized just before the end of the lap but recovered to keep
the order as in the first lap and the other three retained their relative
positions.
Lap
three was un-eventfull with regard to positioning at the front but Duncan
increased his lead over Rupert to 22 seconds and Michael had a further capsize
leaving him now nearly three minutes behind the leader. This gave Tiger the
chance to go into third place. Dave remained behind Michael some now eleven
seconds adrift with Geoff nearly four minutes behind
Lap
4 and no change of leadership with Duncan crossing the line 13 seconds ahead of
Rupert who had made up 10 seconds.Tiger in third
place a minute and Michael now a minute
and twenty seconds behind him. Dave was a further34 seconds astern of fourth
placed Michael.
Lap
5 Rupert dropped back to lie 22 seconds behind Duncan the leader with Tiger still
third, Michel fourth and Dave fifth, Geoff having been finished at the end of
the previous lap.
Lap
6, the final lap saw Duncan cross the line in top spot 19 seconds ahead of
Rupert. Tiger would have been third to cross had he , and Dave, not sailed the
wrong course and been disqualified, along with Dave who had followed him
likewise on the wrong course. Michael finished in third place some five minute
(nearly a lap) behind.
With
handicaps applied it was Duncan the winner with Rupert second, Michael third
and Geoff fourth.
Results:-
R15 - 25.02.2018
|
Rank
|
Class
|
SailNo
|
Club
|
HelmName
|
CrewName
|
PY
|
Elapsed
|
BCE
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Streaker
|
1934
|
NSSC
|
Duncan
McDonald
|
|
1132
|
32.56
|
0.00.00
|
1.0
|
|
2
|
Streaker
|
1681
|
NSSC
|
Rupert Smith
|
|
1132
|
33.15
|
0.00.19
|
2.0
|
|
3
|
Laser
|
133416
|
NSSC
|
Bill Wates
|
|
1097
|
OOD
|
|
3.0
|
|
3
|
RS200
|
582
|
NSSC
|
Michael Veale
|
Mike Rosier
|
1047
|
38.07
|
0.07.39
|
3.0
|
|
3
|
Streaker
|
1706
|
NSSC
|
Laurence Venus
|
|
1132
|
OOD
|
|
3.0
|
|
6
|
Byte (Orig
Rig)
|
672
|
NSSC
|
Geoff Sheridan
|
|
1190
|
36.38
|
0.13.33
|
4.0
|
|
7
|
Laser Radial
|
142208
|
NSSC
|
Dave Murley
|
|
1139
|
DSQ
|
|
7.0
|
|
7
|
Topper
|
41179
|
NSSC
|
Tim Cox
|
|
1347
|
DSQ
|
|
7.0
|
It had been a very hard race
with plenty of spills and thrills and very low temperatures with a large Wind
Chill Factor. So to the Prize Giving,. Duncan was the overall winner with Chris
Foster (Laser – Lancing ) – who did not sail in this last race - beating Rupert
into third place, by 0.5 points after thirteen races. It transpired that Duncan
had gained a full sweep of the pre Christmas Freeman Iceberg Series, the New
Year’s race and this the Elford Numbum Series, extremely well done.
The Numbum Series did lose
two early races to strong winds and was sailed mostly in stiff weather, it is usually
sailed in predominantly light breezes – more suited to this Octaganerian!
Alan.S 1700.
PS. For the full series results go to the NSSC web site
:- http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/images/nsscdocs/results/2018/2018elfnum13.htm
PPS. Thanks are due to NSSC for holding these Series of
races over the winter period and Particularly to Laurence Venus for his hard
work working out the results and keeping the overall points up to date.
