Elford NumBum Races 13 & 14 - 18/2/2024

 

Elford NumBum Races 13 & 14 -18/2/2024

 

Grey and overcast skies, a noticeable breeze and a bit damp on our journey to Piddinghoe. On arrival there was a bit of activity with boats getting rigged and afloat. As it turned out twelve boats went afloat for races 13 & 14 of the 2024 Elford NumBum series. Penny Springall was RO assisted by Penny Steel and with Eddie and Pete in the safety boat.

With the wind from the west (clubhouse direction) Penny set an ‘M’ shaped course, with no lack of gybes to keep the competitors on their toes, as shown below:-

Photos by Bett Simmons

At the gun Alan Simmons (Streaker) who had been a bit late getting afloat was just about back over the line and had to gybe in order to start. Zoe McCaig (Laser Radial) was first to cross the line at the south end with Todd Grady-Gales (Solo) and then Ed Thorburn (Finn) a tad later. 

Zoe was first to round the weather mark in the south west corner at the end of the first short beat with Todd next and Ed just outside him. Bill Wates (Laser Radial) was fourth to round followed by Dave Murley (Laser Radial) and then Chris Turner (Laser Radial). Mark Ramsay (Supernova)  was next to set off on the reach towards the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay followed by Rupert Smith (Streaker), Alan and then Andy Beck (Lightning) and Mike Rosier (Laser Radial) with lastly Darrel Topp (Laser Radial).

By the end of the leg to the mark at the Fisherman’s Bay Ed was in the lead, with Zoe behind him and Todd behind her. After turning the mark in the middle of the pond Chris was next off on the leg to the mark off the middle of the east bank with Bill behind him and a group led by Rupert, Dave, Alan and Mark with Mike and Andy and Darrel astern.

Following the leg along the east bank behind the Island there was a long beat up the south bank, with the start mark not being a mark of the course, Ed was first to cross the finish line with Zoe just 5 seconds behind him. Chris was third, Todd Fourth and Rupert fifth. Bill was sixth, Alan seventh, Mark eighth, Mike ninth, Dave tenth, Darrel eleventh and Andy last man home.

 

Lap 2 Ed led the fleet with Chris second, Rupert third having passed Todd who was then fourth. 

Zoe had had a capsize close to the middle of the south bank and had dropped back to fifth place. Bill was sixth still and Mike climbed up to seventh ahead of Mark. Alan dropped back to ninth in the increasingly breezy conditions of a mid force four. Dave remained in tenth place with Andy now ahead of Darrel.

 

Lap 3 saw no place changes in the leading five boats  as Mike and Mark went ahead of Bill. Alan, Dave Andy and Darrel retained the same placings as in lap 3.

 

Lap 4 Ed retained his lead with the next four boats in unchanged positions. Todd dropped back to sixth behind Zoe. with Bill, Alan, Dave, Andy and Darrel placed as in lap 3.

Lap 5 Ed was still in the lead ahead of Chris with Rupert third, Mike fourth and Zoe fifth. Mark went ahead of Todd to lie sixth with no place changes behind him.

 

Lap 6 Ed crossed the line 52 seconds ahead of Chris who was 27 seconds ahead of Rupert with Zoe catching and overtaking Mike to cross the line fourth. Mark was 6^th to finish with Todd 7^th and Alan 8thhaving passed Bill on the final beat up the south shore. Dave was last to finish in tenth place, Andy and Darrel having been finished at the end of lap 5.

 

With the calculations and handicaps applied the winner of the race was Chris, with Rupert second, Ed third Zoe fourth and Mike fifth.

Results:-

Race 13 - 18/2/2024

 

Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Elapsed	BCE	Points
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	158365	NSSC	Chris Turner		1150	39.03	0.00.00	1.0
Menagerie		STREAKER	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1128	39.30	0.01.12	2.0
Menagerie		FINN	595	NSSC	Ed Thorburn		1049	38.11	0.02.34	3.0
Laser Hull	Bruce	LASER RADIAL	46	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1150	42.17	0.03.14	4.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	61663	NSSC	Mike Rosier		1150	42.37	0.03.34	5.0
Menagerie		SOLO	4084	Lancing	Todd Grady-Gales		1142	43.39	0.04.52	6.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Wates		1150	44.25	0.05.22	7.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	142208	NSSC	Dave Murley		1150	44.28	0.05.25	8.0
Menagerie	TFB	STREAKER	1832	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1128	44.06	0.05.48	9.0
Menagerie		LIGHTNING 368	225	NSSC	Andy Beck		1160	38.43	0.05.54	10.0
Menagerie		SUPERNOVA	526	NSSC	Mark Ramsay		1077	43.12	0.06.38	11.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	217834	NSSC	Darrel Topp		1150	40.48	0.08.15	12.0
				NSSC	Penny Springall			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Pennie Steel			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Eddie			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Pete			OOD		37.0

Race 14 was held over the same course with the start at 11.40. The breeze had not abated and was still blowing in mid force 4.The writer is unable to detail the start of the race as Bett’s camera ran out of battery and then the spare battery also failed so a  standby camera had to be retrieved from the car. By the time she was back in operation the race was well underway.

Lap 1 by the end of the lap it was Rupert who was first across the finish line followed Zoe some 27 seconds later, Ed was third another 10 seconds astern of her. Chris crossed in fourth place with Todd fifth and Mike sixth 5 seconds ahead of Mark. Dave took eighth 4 seconds ahead of Bill. Andy was next in tenth place with Alan 11^th having firstly touched the mark off the Fisherman’s Bay as he attempted to round inside Mark. When he had completed his turn his mainsheet had hooked over the end of his boom. After a couple more gybes to try to free it everyone bar Darrel had passed him.

 

Lap 2 had Rupert still in the lead with Zoe still astern and Ed now just 4 seconds behind her. Chris was lying fourth ahead of Todd with Mark behind him, having gone ahead of Mike. Andy passed Bill and Mike to lie eighth with Alan still eleventh and Darrel twelfth.

 

Lap 3 had Rupert crossing the line 2 seconds ahead of Ed with Zoe 9 seconds astern and with Chris 55 seconds behind her. Behind them Todd still held fifth place with Mark astern by 2 seconds, and Dave next in seventh place. Bill was by then in eighth place having overtaken Andy and Mike who in turn went ahead of Andy. Alan continued to languish in eleventh place with only Darrel behind him having capsized.

 

Lap 4 saw Ed gain the lead passing Rupert and gaining a 24 second cushion over Zoe who also passed Rupert by 6 seconds. There were no place changes down the fleet except for Alan who went ahead of Andy to lie in 10th place.

Lap 5 saw Ed extend his lead ahead of Zoe to 50 seconds with Rupert a further 14 seconds astern. The rest of the fleet maintained their positions as in lap 4.

 

Lap 6, the final lap had Ed cross the line in first place with Zoe second place 52 seconds later and Rupert third 27 second later still. Chris was fourth and Mark fifth.

 

With handicaps applied and calculations made the winner of the race was Zoe

with Rupert second, Chris third, Ed fourth and Mark fifth.

Results:-

Race 14 - 18/2/2024

 

Fleet	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Elapsed	BCE	Points
Laser Hull	Bruce	LASER RADIAL	46	NSSC	Zoe McCaig		1150	41.22	0.00.00	1.0
Menagerie		STREAKER	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1128	41.49	0.01.14	2.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	158365	NSSC	Chris Turner		1150	43.25	0.02.03	3.0
Menagerie		FINN	595	NSSC	Ed Thorburn		1049	40.30	0.02.46	4.0
Menagerie		SOLO	4084	Lancing	Todd Grady-Gales		1142	45.05	0.04.00	5.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	142208	NSSC	Dave Murley		1150	46.28	0.05.06	6.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	26	NSSC	Bill Wates		1150	46.52	0.05.30	7.0
Menagerie	TFB	STREAKER	1832	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1128	46.33	0.05.58	8.5
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	61663	NSSC	Mike Rosier		1150	47.27	0.06.05	8.5
Menagerie		SUPERNOVA	526	NSSC	Mark Ramsay		1077	44.56	0.06.12	10.0
Menagerie		LIGHTNING 368	225	NSSC	Andy Beck		1160	48.25	0.06.41	11.0
Laser Hull		LASER RADIAL	217834	NSSC	Darrel Topp		1150	49.37	0.15.09	12.0
				NSSC	Penny Springall			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Pennie Steel			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Eddie			OOD		37.0
				NSSC	Pete			OOD		37.0

 

It had been two very hard races with lots of Thrills and Spills for some. There were several close battles and quite a few place changes. Most were happy with the event, on and off the water. The weather was not ideal with grey skies at one point coming down over the east bank and threatening to make the course invisible.

Next Sunday is the final race of the series, and the prizegiving, with the top placeings – according to the writer – quite close after the thirteen races sailed thus far. You will also be aware therefore that my Blog will post my last report – until at least 3 November 2024.

I have enjoyed writing and publishing Streaker Ramblings since I first started in early 2010 (as far as my records show). It was originally reports on Streaker Open meetings that I attended and then incorporated winter sailing at Piddinghoe and now that I have stopped travelling around the south of England is solely based on events at the pond. It is always hard work, taking the lap sheets and converting the times into Excel spread sheet, using Sailwave to get the results sorted, creating the reports from these and then copying them to the Blog site and adding photos from Bett’s camera action. It invariably takes the best part of two days computer work to get it all published on the web – anyone fancy taking over the job?

Finally my thanks go to all those who made the racing possible, as ROs and AROs setting the courses and recording the lap times and to the crews in the safety boats – not to mention the recorder who has tried to keep the results accurate for the Series and lastly to Bett for braving all weathers to take the photos from which I choose the ones that go into the reports.

Alan.S 1832