The Laurence Venus Trophy - New Year's day 2023 - 01/01/2023

Laurence Venus Trophy – New Year’s Day 2023

The day dawned  grey and overcast, after the previous day’ downpours, with just a light breeze at Hangleton. It was dry with a light southerly breeze on arrival at Piddinghoe for the 2.00pm start of the New Year’s Day race. Laurence Venus was RO for his named Trophy race, assisted by Phil Clare with Zoe McCaig in the safety boat, and he set a multi mark course as shown below:-

        Photographs by Bett Simmons    

            It was a quite short start line, from the pier to the west of the clubhouse, and as a result it got very congested close to the west bank. Thomas Harland-Smith (Laser Radial) was first away, mid line with Rupert Smith (OK) close to the shore and Lewis Johns (Laser full rig) third to set off.

Ed Rollestone (Laser Radial) was fourth off the line at the shore end, followed by Jazz Tuner (Hansa 300 and then Alan Simmons (Streaker) just ahead of Bill Waites (Laser Radial).

Start positions of the rest of the 12 strong fleet were rather hidden but it was Ed.R who rounded the windward mark first followed by Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200) with Ed Thorburn (Finn) then Lewis with Alan astern. Rupert was somewhat behind – not sure if the thought that he was over the line at the gun along with Thomas. The former was seen going in the wrong direction shortly after the stating signal.

The short close reach along the southern bank was followed by a run across to the mark to the west of the Island. The ensuing beat to the mark in the south east corner was very tight and in several cases led to a tack to the south west in order to clear it plus a few place changes as a result. There followed a broad reach/run and then a tight reach to the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay.. It was on this last beat that Ed.R who had been leading had a gear problem, his Cunningham control line jammed into his mainsheet block, rather slowing him as he tried to clear it up such that even Alan went ahead of him.

The order at the end of the first lap was Ed.T 1^st, Thomas.H-S 2^nd seven seconds behind, Lewis 3^rd another seven seconds astern, Rupert 4^th, Alan 5^th, Ed.R 6^th,Michael 7^th, Bill 8^th, Jazz 9^th, Elena Beck (Topper) 10^th, Darrel Topp (Laser Radial) 11^th and Jo Bruggenwith (Laser Radial) 12^th.

Lap 2 was led by Ed.T with Thomas behind him as Ed.R made a comeback, sprinting through to lie 3^rd ahead of Lewis but with no further place changes in the rest of the fleet.

Lap 3 saw no change by the front pair but Ed/R dropped back to lie 5^th as Lewis and Rupert went ahead of him. Elana went ahead of Jazz to lie 9^th.

Lap 4 had Ed.T continuing to open up his lead from Thomas but the order stayed exactly as in lap 3 with the bottom four boats finishing their race at this point.

Lap 5 Again there were no place changes in this lap but with Michael and Bill given the finish signal.

Lap 6 the order remained the same as in the two previous laps with Ed.T crossing the line a minute and forty two seconds ahead of Thomas with Lewis another 14 seconds behind. Rupert was fourth in front of Ed.R with Alan 6^th. With the calcs made the winner of the Laurence Venus trophy was Thomas Harland-Smith, with Jazz Turner 2^nd, Ed Rollestone 3^rd. Lewis Johns 4th and Ed Thorburn 5^th.

 

NYD Race  - 01/01/2023

 

Rank	Fleet	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	Laser Hull	LASER RADIAL	72341	NSSC	Thomas Harland-Smith		1147		45.54	0.00.00	1.0
2	Menagerie	Hansa 303	1287	NSSC	Jazz Turner		1580		42.15	0.00.06	2.0
3	Laser Hull	LASER RADIAL	207462	NSSC	Ed Rollestone		1147		47.11	0.01.17	3.0
4	Laser Hull	LASER	179808	NSSC	Lewis Johns		1100		46.08	0.02.07	4.0
5	Menagerie	FINN	595	NSSC	Ed Thorburn		1049		44.12	0.02.13	5.0
6	Menagerie	OK	2239	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1104		46.46	0.02.35	6.0
7	Menagerie	STREAKER	1832	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1128		48.51	0.03.43	7.0
8	Laser Hull	LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Waits		1147		43.02	0.04.47	8.0
9	Menagerie	TOPPER	46699	NSSC	Elena Beck		1358		41.15	0.05.01	9.0
10	Menagerie	RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1046		41.20	0.06.27	10.0
11	Laser Hull	LASER RADIAL	217834	NSSC	Darrel Topp		1147		47.01	0.16.25	11.0
12	Laser Hull	LASER RADIAL	164421	NSSC	Jo Bruggenwirth		1147		49.09	0.18.33	12.0

 Considering the dark grey, coolish weather this was a good turn-out with a nice breeze generally below force 4 but with the occasional gust. No capsizes were spotted and the day was finished off with mulled wine – curtesy Michelle Smith and helpers. Just so that nobody was disappointed it began to drizzle in the last lap or so of the race.

Just as a reminder the Elford Numbum Series starts next Sunday – 8^th Jan 2023. Here is hoping that all my readers have a Happy and Prosperous New Year and plenty of good sailing.

Alan.S 1832