Freeman Iceberg Races 5 & 6 - 19/11/2023

 FREEMAN ICEBERG RACES 5 & 6 – 19.11.2023

 

A blue sky with mounting grey clouds and a fresh breeze as we left 160, Poplar for Piddinghoe. On arrival at the pond the breeze felt much as the forecast had said 24 to 28 knots and there was whistling in the rigging (a sure sign of force 6) and thus the author determined not to go afloat. A small group of intrepid sailors did none-the-less decide to rig with an on the water fleet of 7 boats for the first race of the day and subsequently 9 for the second.

Laurence Venus was RO with Jo Bruggenworth as ARO and Bill Wates and James George in the safety boat. With the wind from the WSW (and with frequent heavy gusts) Laurence arranged a course, much like last week, in an ‘X’ shape with the start adjacent to the west slipway on the south shore as below.

Photos by Bett Simmons

At the gun there was chaos as the two Hansas were early and very close to the shore end of the line. They had to tack in front of the rest of the fleet and return to the correct  side but still managed to be first away with Rupert Smith (having been ‘recruited’ into a  Hansa) ahead of Jazz Turner in the other Hansa. Third away, having been tangled with  these two were Michael Veale and Mike Rosier in the RS200. Fourth to start was Andy Beck in his Lightning albeit with a cut down sail - no 87. Next to go was Tim Cox (Topper) and lastly Sam Beevers  also in a Topper. 

Michael was first around the windward mark after the short beat and passing the finish mark was off across the pond on the downwind leg. Andy had pulled up ahead of the Hansa and Tim was catching them down this leg.

At the end of lap 1 Michael was in the lead from Sam with Andy third and Tim fourth, some capsizes already having occurred. Andy also had problems with a near capsize just before the finish line.

Lap 2 started innocuously with Michael leading the fleet and Andy second. Next to round the mark off the clubhouse was Tim who as he came level with the finish mark managed to wrap his mainsheet around it and tow it off about twenty yards towards the north end of the pond before finally unwrapping it and doing his turns. It was to cause some confusion to those behind.

Lap 3 Michal was well ahead of Andy – 2 minutes - who in turn was two and a half minutes ahead of Tim. Jazz was ahead of Rupert who was suffering from excess water on board, and had to come to the clubhouse pontoon to acquire a doggy bowl to help with bailing out. Michael had a spectacular capsize, onto the south west pontoon, very adjacent to a pair of Paddle Boarders but having recovered still crossed the line in the lead.

Lap 4 Michael crossed the line some four minutes ahead of Andy  with Tim another two minutes astern, the rest of the fleet having already been finished. The ‘excitement’ however continued with further capsizes for Michael and for Sam after they had both finished.

With Calculations made and handicaps applied the result was a win for Tim, with Jazz second, Michael third, Andy fourth and Rupert fifth.

Results:-

Race 5 - 19/11/2023

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	Laps	Corrected	BCE	Points
Menagerie		TOPPER	44941	NSSC	Tim Cox		1369		30.10	4	0.22.02	0.00.00	1.0
Menagerie		HANSA	Blue Hull	NSSC	Jazz Turner		1358		23.10	3	0.22.45	0.00.43	2.0
Menagerie	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1046		24.06	4	0.23.02	0.01.03	3.0
Menagerie		LIGHTNING 368	225	NSSC	Andy Beck		1160		28.11	4	0.24.18	0.02.37	4.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Wates		1150		OOD				5.0
Menagerie		HANSA	2277	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1358		25.55	3	0.25.27	0.03.28	5.0
Menagerie		TOPPER	49097	NSSC	Sam Beavers		1369		29.5	2	0.42.29	0.14.00	6.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	46237	NSSC	Sean Beavers		1150		24.57	2	0.43.23	0.12.17	7.0
				NSSC	James George				OOD				25.0

Race 6 was to be held over the same course – and in much the same wind conditions of strength and direction. 

For a second time the Hansa’s tried to start at the shore end with Jazz closest in and Tim just to weather. Michael however started near to the pin end of the line

and Sean somewhere in the middle.

By the time the leader, Sean, was on the leg to the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay the order behind was Michael, Tim, Sam, Jazz, Andy, Rupert, Alisdair Fortune (Laser Radial) and Will Apps (Quba).

At the end of the lap the order was Sean in first place, Michael second (19 seconds behind), Tim third. Sam fourth, Andy fifth, Jazz sixth, Rupert 7^th, Alisdair eighth and Will nineth. Will was rather far back and having had the odd capsize or so and was thus finished here.

Lap 2 saw exactly the same order as in lap 1 with Sean now 48 seconds ahead of Michael and Tim just 43 seconds further back. Alisdair did not finish this lap, must have been enjoying the swimming too much.

Lap 3 was contested by just five boats , the Hansas having completed their race at the end of lap 2. Sean was first to finish and the Michael over two minutes behind – having, one assumes, had some further bottom survey activities. Sam pulled out a good win to take 3^rd place ahead of Tim (by 4 seconds) who had also been swimming and Andy brought up the rear in fifth place across the line.

 With Handicaps applied and calcs done the result of race 6 was a win for Sean, with Sam second, Tim third, Michael fourth and Andy fifth.

Results:-

Race 6 - 19/11/2023

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Place

Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Finish	Elapsed	Laps	Corrected	BCE	Points
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	46237	NSSC	Sean Beavers		1150		17.10	3	0.14.56	0.00.00	1.0
Menagerie		TOPPER	49097	NSSC	Sam Beavers		1369		21.17	3	0.15.33	0.00.51	2.0
Menagerie		TOPPER	44941	NSSC	Tim Cox		1369		21.21	3	0.15.36	0.00.55	3.0
Menagerie	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Michael Veale	Mike Rosier	1046		18.39	3	0.17.50	0.03.02	4.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Wates		1150		OOD				5.0
Menagerie		LIGHTNING 368	225	NSSC	Andy Beck		1160		21.56	3	0.18.54	0.04.37	5.0
Menagerie		HANSA	Blue Hull	NSSC	Jazz Turner		1358		18.03	2	0.19.56	0.04.32	6.0
Menagerie		HANSA	2277	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1358		18.28	2	0.20.24	0.04.57	7.0
Menagerie		RS QUBA	No No	NSSC	Will Apps		1260		26.16	1	1.02.32	0.20.00	8.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	166421	NSSC	Jom Bruggenworth		1150		OOD				10.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	85185	NSSC	Alasdair Fortune		1150		DNF				25.0

It had been two very frisky races with lots of swimming but there were some very happy sailors after the racing. The author however was more than happy to have stayed firmly ashore.

 XC Weather is showing quite a bit less breeze for Race 7 & 8  on 26^th Nov with very low temperature and plenty (if not 100%) cloud cover and dry. It will doubtless change before then however – just go down and see!

Alan Simmons

PS. Appologies if your name is spelt incorrectly, it is taken from the sign on form which request that you print it but not all are written clearly.