Streaker Ramblings - NumBum Race 15 - 24.02.2019

 

Clear blue skies and a waft of breeze as we left Hove for Piddinghoe which had increased a little as we arrived. 19 boats went onto the water and there was just about enough breeze to get across the line at the Gun. Michael Veale (RS 200, NSSC) was RO assisted by Emma Briggs with Michael’s crew Mike Rosier and Julian Dobson on the safety boat. Michael set a course around the outside of the pond but avoiding the mark normally just off the Clubhouse in the south west corner, as indicated below.

 At the gun there was a large huddle of boats attempting to start at the ODM (mark 5) end of the line and as a result it was impossible to determine who was actually first across the line. There was a good deal of bumping and loud calls going on plus a few boats nearer inshore who were, or thought they were, over the line and returned to start correctly.

 

 

 

The first to clear the first real mark mark (mark 1) was Chris Foster (Laser full rig, Lancing) closely followed by Duncan McDonald (Streaker, NSSC) then Thomas Harland-Smith (Radial, NSSC) with Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing) fourth around, he having started away from the ODM and finding some clear air.

 

Duncan quickly tacked to the southeast, what little breeze there was shifting to make the next leg a beat to mark 3. Duncan was first to round, followed by Chris and then Alan. Along the leg to mark 4, behind the Island Laurence Venus (Streaker, NSSC and Rupert Smith (Streaker, NSSC) having recovered from appalling starts tucked in behind Alan with Thomas behind them.

 

On the leg up from mark 4 to mark 5 (the start mark) it was a dead downwind leg, the breeze having shifted even more and Chris and Laurence gybed onto starboard with Chris staying just ahead of Alan but astern of Duncan. Rupert was by then just astern of Alan as they hardened up to go for the finish line and crossed just ahead of Laurence.

 

Thomas was in sixth place at the line with Sean Beevers (Laser full rig, NSSC) seventh, Roger McCall (Laser full rig, Pevensey) eighth, Ed Rollestone (Laser 4.7) ninth and Zoe McCaig tenth. Phil Clare (Radial, NSSC) crossed the line at the end of the first lap in eleventh place, Maja Detholfe (Topper, NSSC) was lying twelfth, Bill Wates (Radial, NSSC) thirteenth, Brendon Rudd and Lewis Johns (Laser II, NSSC) fourteenth, Penelope Duncan (Radial, NSSC) fifteenth, Bea West, sailing mum’s Radial (NSSC) was sixteenth, Terry Jones (Comet, NSSC) seventeenth, Richard Beal (Radial, NSSC) eighteenth and Jo west, in Bea’s Oppy (NSSC) was in nineteenth place.

 

Lap 2 saw Duncan extend his lead, now nearly a minute ahead of Chris with Laurence now ahead of Alan by 5 seconds and having overtaken Rupert too. Thomas dropped back to lie eighth behind Sean and Roger and Ed.R fell back to lie fourteenth as Zoe, Phil, Bill, Brendon and Penelope moved ahead of him. Bea moved up the fleet behind Ed.R to lie 15^th and Terry gained a place as Maja fell back to lie seventeenth. Richard and Jo remained eighteenth and Nineteenth respectively.

Lap 3 and Duncan continued to forge ahead of Chris, to cross the line66 seconds ahead and Laurence pulled away from Alan to lead him over the line by nearly a minute, but nearly 3 minutes astern of Duncan. Sean went ahead of Rupert to lie fifth. Roger was next and then Zoe who went ahead of Thomas. Terry shot up the fleet to lie twelfth in front of Phil, Bill and Brendon as Penelope dropped back behind Ed.R and Bea passed Ed.R. to lie astern of Brendon. Richard overtook Maja and Jo brought up the rear of the fleet.

 

Lap 4 saw no change in the order of the leading four boats although Alan and Rupert, who had passed Sean, had a good battle with Rupert passing him briefly. Zoe and Roger remained 7^th and 8^th whilst Phil went ahead of Thomas – now down to 10^th place – with Bill behind. Ed.R climbed back up the fleet to lie 12^th  as did Richard with Terry falling back  behind him. Brendon went the other way falling to 16^th behind Bea. Penelope dropped a place to lie 17^th with Maja and Jo behind her.

 

Lap 5 there were no place changes among the top eleven boats but with Alan and Rupert still close together at the line, just a 7 second gap in Alan’s favour. Terry gained two places to lie behind Bill having gone ahead of Ed.R and Richard, the latter dropping to 15^th. Penelope went back ahead of Brendon with Maja and Jo in unchanged positions.

 

Lap 6 The top four places remained unchanged with Duncan now approximately three and a half minutes ahead of second placed Laurence. Behind fourth placed Alan, Roger edged ahead of Rupert to lie 5^th as Sean lost out in a major way dropping from 6^th to 13^th and was then finished.  Behind Rupert, Zoe led Phill and Thomas as in lap 5 as Terry moved up to 10^th ahead of Bill with Ed.R finishing in 12^th place. Richard gained a place to finish in 14^th place ahead of Brendon , Bea and Penelope who also finished, Maja and Jo having already finished at the end of Lap 5.

Lap 7 was contested by 11 boats with Duncan still leading but no other place changes as all but the top three were finished at the end of the lap.

Lap 8 sailed by just Duncan, Laurence and Chris had Laurence crossing the line, having closed the gap somewhat  to about 90 seconds with Chris just over a minute further astern.

With Handicaps applied the results calculated that the finishing order was unchanged with Duncan top gun, Laurence second, Chris third, Alan fourth and Rupert fifth.

R15

Rank	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	STREAKER	2102	NSSC	Duncan McDonald		1128	62.27	0.00.00	1.0
2	STREAKER	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		1128	64.00	0.01.33	2.0
3	LASER	171864	Lancing	Chris Foster		1098	65.11	0.04.24	3.0
3	LASER	7	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1098	OOD		3.0
5	STREAKER	1700	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1128	60.50	0.06.11	4.0
6	STREAKER	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1128	61.02	0.06.23	5.0
7	COMET	473	NSSC	Terry Jones		1205	66.32	0.08.10	6.0
8	LASER RADIAL	64200	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1142	63.15	0.07.56	7.0
9	LASER	191067	Pevensey Bay	Roger McCall		1098	60.55	0.07.44	8.0
10	LASER RADIAL	120481	NSSC	Phil Clare		1142	64.12	0.08.53	9.0
11	OPTIMIST	62	NSSC	Jo West		1655	68.02	0.10.46	10.0
12	LASER RADIAL	72341	NSSC	Thomas Harland Smith (C)		1142	66.07	0.10.48	11.0
13	LASER 4.7`	207462	NSSC	Ed Rollestone (C)		1207	60.45	0.10.38	12.0
14	LASER RADIAL	133416	NSSC	Bill Wates		1142	67.08	0.11.49	13.0
15	LASER RADIAL	43382	NSSC	Richard Beal		1142	62.02	0.14.37	14.0
16	TOPPER	1	NSSC	Maja Dethlofe		1358	62.25	0.15.26	15.0
17	LASER RADIAL	122345	NSSC	Bea West (C)		1142	63.13	0.15.48	16.0
18	LASER RADIAL	81	NSSC	Penelope Duncan		1142	63.21	0.15.56	17.0
19	LASER	46237	NSSC	Sean Bevan		1098	61.19	0.15.43	18.0
20	LASER II	10098	NSSC	Brandon Rudd	Lewis Johns	1075	62.55	0.18.17	19.0

 

The prize giving saw the Elford  NumBum Trophy going to Laurence – whose results were almost all top spot scores, the worst being a third place.

 

Chris took second place overall with Rupert third, Ed Thorburn (Finn, NSSC) fourth and Alan fifth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cadet winter series trophy went to Thomas and Zoe won the Radial fleet title.

 

I must mirror Chris’s words when presented with his bottle of beer - thanks go to all who carried out a duty either setting the courses, taking the lap times, crewing the safety boat or working out the results – and for the tea and coffee facilities – plus taking the photos, when Bett was not present at Piddinghoe – that I have been able to select from to use on my weekly reports/blogs.

The series had some excellent  turnouts – quite a few 19 to 20 boats – with just one quite windy Sunday  with only seven helms venturing out on one of the few extra breezy days. There were also a few days when actually crossing the line to start was nearly impossible.

Alan.S 1700

PS. For the full (Official) overall series results go to the NSSC Racing Results page(s) :- http://www.nssc.org.uk/cms/index.php/club-series-results