Streaker Ramblings - Streaker Open at Newhaven & Seaford SC - 23rd June 2018

A streaker open meeting was held at Newhaven and Seaford SC on Saturday 23rd June jointly with a Topper Open. The Streaker fleet was disappointing with only one visitor, yours truly, with four home club boats. The conditions were perfect with a force 4 breeze from the south west, directly onshore, with a warm an cloudless blue sky complete with low water for the start of the first of the three races sailed.
The RO, Ed Thorburn set a rather strange course with a rectangular shape, the Streakers sailing a series of sausages on the second leg after the initial beat finishing with a reach along the shore from the downwind mark.and the Toppers having their sausage on the initial upwind leg. The Toppers had their sausage on the initial windward leg followed by a reach, run and final reach. To complicate matters the fleets sailed a number of sausages as directed by a lapboard on the committee boat, the start and finish lines being at 90 degrees to each other - as shown below.

The report below was authored by the event overall winner Duncan McDonald who kindly

agreed to allowed me to reproduce it here.

A select group of mostly local and skilled competitors arrived at Seaford Sailing Club to be greeted by beautiful sunshine, breeze and minimal swell.

An interesting course was set up to allow for the concomitant Topper open meeting.

Race one was sailed in 10-14 knots of breeze with a clean start and excellent upwind speed by Rupert Smith to arrive first at the windward mark. He was chased hard by Duncan McDonald who just managed to overhaul him by the leeward mark but managed to reach off in the wrong direction until Rupert informed Lawrence and Duncan of their error. The race continued with Rupert leading at the windward mark and Duncan at the leeward mark for a number of laps until the final reach when Duncan was not quite sure where the finish line was and Rupert smoked through for a well deserved win. Laurence was third, Noel fourth and Alan fifth.

After a well needed break in the sunshine the Streakers returned for more sea racing with a reducing breeze and a change in tide. Race two had a clear start and most boats headed right with Rupert leading around the top mark closely followed by Duncan and Laurence. As the breeze abated Duncan and Laurence overtook Rupert to finish in that order.

Race three was commenced in less breeze; 8-5 knots and Alan got off to a cracking start heading to the right of the course. Duncan protected the right from Laurence as he was an increasing threat in the dying breeze. Alan lead for most of the race but was finally overhauled by Duncan with Laurence finishing third and Rupert fourth.

Overall, therefore, the win went to Duncan followed by Rupert second and Laurence third with the rapidly improving Alan fourth.  All agreed that it was a fantastic day of sailing on the sea with great weather, courses, shore teams and club support and of course a nice beer in the sun to finish!

Duncan McDonald

RESULTS :-

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	Chops	Streaker	1934	NSSC	Duncan McDonald	(2.0)	1.0	1.0	4.0	2.0
2nd	Scoundrel	Streaker	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith	1.0	3.0	(4.0)	8.0	4.0
3rd	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus	(3.0)	2.0	3.0	8.0	5.0
4th	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons	(5.0)	4.0	2.0	11.0	6.0
5th		Streaker	1620	NSSC	Neol West	4.0	(6.0 DNC)	6.0 DNC	16.0	10.0

It was a brilliant day for sailing, such a pity that there were no visitors - other than yours truly. I realise that the vast number of Streaker owners are pond sailors but there is little to fear by going on the 'Ocean', just the odd wave, with launching and recovery ably assisted with the club beach parties. Due to the poor showing it seems that there may not be an Open for Streakers at NSSC next year which is a venue the association can ill afford to lose in the south east.
.As Donald states above the breeze faded for the third race finally allowing 'Last Bash' to pick up her skirts and show the others that there is still a bit of life in her ancient helm and although he came last in the previous races he still enjoyed the event.
Alan.S 1700
PS. Sorry for the lack of photos, Bett declined to attend due to the forecast high temperatures and not a lot of shelter from it. As it happened the sea breeze kept it tolerable ashore.

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	Chops	Streaker	1934	NSSC	Duncan McDonald	(2.0)	1.0	1.0	4.0	2.0
2nd	Scoundrel	Streaker	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith	1.0	3.0	(4.0)	8.0	4.0
3rd	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus	(3.0)	2.0	3.0	8.0	5.0
4th	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons	(5.0)	4.0	2.0	11.0	6.0
5th		Streaker	1620	NSSC	Neol West	4.0	(6.0 DNC)	6.0 DNC	16.0	10.0