Monday 26 February 2018

Streaker Ramblings - Elford Numbum Race 15 - 25.02.2018


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.