Elford Numbum Races 5 & 6 - 16.01.2022

Rather grey and cloudy but no rain and more importantly no breeze upon leaving Hove for Piddinghoe this morning. As we drove down there seemed to be some breaks in the cloud forming and by the time the boats were on the water there was a good deal of blue sky although there was still a bit of cloud about.

Ed Rollestone was RO with John Cornish as ARO and Will Murphy on the safety boat. Ed set a similar course to that sailed last week – as shown below – basically rectangular with a sausage on the third and fourth legs. With the start line half way along the south shore fourteen boats came to the start area. 

At the gun Duncan McDonald (Streaker) was first to cross the line with Thomas Harland-Smith (Laser Radial) next but to windward and then Lewis Johns (Laser full rig). 

                                    Photos by Bett Simmons

Alan Simmons (D Zero) was fourth away with Geoff Sheridan (Byte CII) a little behind but to windward. A second signal indicated that at least one boat was over the line at the gun, but the photo shows two at least and calls were heard suggesting that there was a general recall.

Alan by then over half way to the top mark heard the confusion behind and turned back – needlessly as it happens – and collided with Thomas H-S. By the time he got back to the line everybody had continued and were off on the first reaching leg and he was last to (re) start.

Geoff was first to round the windward mark followed by Julian Dobson (Laser full rig) with Duncan behind and David Hitchens (Laser full rig) 4^th behind him. With a run and a beat, twice, to follow the order began to sort it-self out and by the finish line it was Duncan leading the fleet with Julian second 24 seconds behind and David Hitchens (Laser full rig) third. Toby Rollestone (Laser Radial) held 5^th place, Sean Beevers (Laser full Rig) 6^th, Andy Beck (Laser Radial) 7^th, Lewis 8^th,  Thomas H-S 9^th, Bill Wates (Laser Radial) 10^th, Alan 11^th, Lorien McDonald (Oppy) 12^th, Thomas Beck (Topper)  13^th and Darrel Topp 14^th. The breeze was very light, fickle and shifty in this first lap with only the very skilful and lucky able to get their expected positions.

Lap 2 whilst Duncan and Julian held on at the front Sean moved up from 6^th to lie 3^rd with Geoff dropping back a place to 4^th and Lewis climbing from 8^th to hold 5^th place. David dropped from 4^th to 6^th and Alan went up to lie 8^th. Thomas.B went up from 13^th to 11^th as Bill remained in 10^th place. The biggest change was in Toby’s position dropping from 5^th to14th. Darrel however went up to 12^th position. The vagaries in the strength and direction of the breeze was largely the cause of all the place changes in this lap.

Lap 3 saw the top five retain their relative posltions as in the previous lap as Alan pulled back two more places to hold 6^th place ahead of David and Thomas H-S went ahead of Andy to lie 8^th. Bill held on to 10^th and Darrel gained a place to lie 11^th as Thomas.B dropped down a place as Darrel passed him. Toby crossed the line ahead of Lorien.

Lap 4 saw Duncan take line honours three minutes ahead of Julian with Sean a minute behind him. Lewis went ahead of Geoff to cross 4^th and Alan could not better his 6^th place from the previous lap.

With the results calculated the winner of the race was Duncan McDonald with Julian 2^nd, Sean 3^rd, Geoff 4^th and Lewis 5^th.

Results:-                                          Race 5 - 16/01/2022 at 10.30

 

Rank	Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	Laps	Corrected	BCE	Points
1	Menagerie	Chops	STREAKER	2102	NSSC	Duncan McDonald		1128		43.59	4	0.39.00	0.00.00	1.0
2	Laser Hull		LASER	7	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1100		47.04	4	0.42.47	0.04.11	2.0
3	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	207462	NSSC	Ed Rollestone		1147		OOD				2.5
4	Laser Hull	Icteros	LASER	46237	NSSC	Sean Beevers		1100		48.10	4	0.43.47	0.05.17	3.0
5	Menagerie		BYTE CII	2623	NSSC	Geoff Sheridan		1144		51.30	4	0.45.01	0.06.54	4.0
6	Laser Hull		LASER	179808	NSSC	Lewis Johns		1100		49.54	4	0.45.22	0.07.01	5.0
7	Laser Hull	Yellow Tak	LASER	85185	NSSC	Alisdair Fortune		1100		OOD				6.0
7	Menagerie		OPTIMIST	6497	NSSC	Lorien McDonald		1642		56.04	3	0.45.32	0.08.03	6.0
9	Laser Hull	Calimity	LASER RADIAL	72341	NSSC	Thomas Harland-Smith		1147		54.29	4	0.47.30	0.09.46	7.0
10	Laser Hull		LASER	122461	NSSC	David Hitchens		1100		52.35	4	0.47.48	0.09.42	8.0
11	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Waites		1147		56.10	4	0.48.58	0.11.27	9.0
12	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	176742	NSSC	Andy Beck		1147		57.30	4	0.50.08	0.12.47	10.0
13	Menagerie		DEVOTI D-ZERO	224	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1029		52.12	4	0.50.44	0.12.05	11.0
14	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	201962	NSSC	Toby Rollestone		1147		52.20	3	1.00.50	0.18.47	12.0
15	Menagerie		TOPPER	47124	NSSC	Thomas Beck		1365		62.20	3	1.00.53	0.22.25	13.0
16	Laser Hull		LASER	217834	NSSC	Darrel Topp		1100		51.38	3	1.02.35	0.19.28	14.0
17					NSSC	Will Murphy				OOD				41.0
17					NSSC	John Cornish				OOD				41.0

Race 6 , after a shore break for Coffee etc, was held over the same course albiet that the wind/breeze had swung more to the north, making the first leg up to the mark in the south was corner, off the clubhouse.  Duncan and Lorien did not sail in this race.

At the Gun both Sean and Alan – so he thought – were over the line and had to head down to the shore end to get  on the correct side. As a result they were last to start with Lewis the first away legally with  Darrel second off and Andy third. There was a bit of a bunch of boats trying to get to the favoured end of the line by the pin mark which slowed the action down somewhat in the still light breeze.

Alan rounded the windward mark with six boats ahead, Darrel, Thomas H-S, Lewis, Julian and David – in that order. He then proceeded to hunt them down by the end of the lap he was in the lead form Lewis by 1 second and these two tussled for the rest of the race. Thomas H-S was in 3^rd place 21 second further back with Julian 4^th, Geoff 5^th and David 6^th. Sean, the other returnee, was lying 7^th, Darrel 8^th, Bill 9^th,  Andy 10^th, Toby 11^th and Thomas.B 12^th.

Lap 2 saw Alan and Lewis continue to battle for top spot with Lewis making the grade to cross 6 seconds ahead. Thomas H-S held on to 3^rd place as Sean moved up from 7^th to lie 4^th ahead of Geoff, David and Darrel. Julian had a dramatic down turn, dropping to 8^th from 4^th place. Bill, Andy, Toby and Thomas retained their places as in the previous lap.

Lap 4 saw Lewis cross the line in top spot with Sean 33 seconds behind him having overtaken Alan on the first running leg and then begun to pull away. Julian held on to4th place with Geoff 5^th having overtaken Thomas H-S. Bill crossed the line 7^th and Andy in 8^th place. The breeze, what little there was, began to die in the final two legs of this race and David, Darrel, Toby and Thomas.B all retired or did not finish. 

With the calculations made the winner of the race was Lewis, with Sean 2^nd, Julian 3^rd,Geoff 4^th and Thomas H-S 5^th.

Results:-                                          Race 6 - 016/01/2022 at 12.00

 

Rank	Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	Laps	Corrected	BCE	Points
1	Laser Hull		LASER	179808	NSSC	Lewis Johns		1100		43.01	4	0.39.06	0.00.00	1.0
2	Laser Hull	Icteros	LASER	46237	NSSC	Sean Beevers		1100		43.40	4	0.39.42	0.00.39	2.0
3	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	207462	NSSC	Ed Rollestone		1147		OOD				2.5
4	Laser Hull		LASER	7	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1100		44.38	4	0.40.35	0.01.37	3.0
5	Menagerie		BYTE CII	2623	NSSC	Geoff Sheridan		1144		47.19	4	0.41.22	0.02.35	4.0
6	Laser Hull	Calimity	LASER RADIAL	72341	NSSC	Thomas Harland-Smith		1147		48.45	4	0.42.30	0.03.54	5.0
7	Menagerie		DEVOTI D-ZERO	224	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1029		44.19	4	0.43.04	0.04.05	6.0
8	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Waites		1147		62.38	4	0.54.36	0.17.47	7.0
9	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	176742	NSSC	Andy Beck		1147		67.51	4	0.59.09	0.23.00	8.0
10	Menagerie		TOPPER	47124	NSSC	Thomas Beck		1365		DNF				41.0
10	Laser Hull		LASER	122461	NSSC	David Hitchens		1100		DNF				41.0
10	Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	201962	NSSC	Toby Rollestone		1147		DNF				41.0
10	Laser Hull		LASER	217834	NSSC	Darrel Topp		1100		DNF				41.0
10					NSSC	Will Murphy				OOD				41.0
10					NSSC	John Cornish				OOD				41.0

 The clouds continued to come and go – as you will see from the contrasts of the photos – but it remained sunny and rain free all morning. As said above the breeze was not exactly co-operative and rarely got above force 2 for the two races. Testing conditions , concentration more than strength being required, not to mention  good bit of luck finding the odd puffs.  A pleasant  warmish sail, given the time of year, the current forecast for next Sunday is for much of the same – light winds, Sunny but a bit cooler.

Alan.S DZ 224