Numbum Race 2 - 09/01/2011

A beautiful clear blue sky, lots of sunshine and no breeze at the start of the drive to Piddinghoe. A bank of greyish cloud began to drift off to the south as the boats began to rig and a faint breeze began to blow from the north, just to compliment the near zero temperature which had added a goodly frost to the boat covers.

Kay was able to set a new style of course – from the previous session of north easterlies experienced in the Freeman Iceberg Series. The start was just below the sailing school berths on the south side of the pond up to the twin buoy mark adjacent to the clubhouse. From there it was a very broad reach to the north east corner, right turn to a mark in the middle of the pond and then a close reach back towards the south side before setting off on a run to the gybe mark north of the island. A short close reach behind the island led to a long beat from that southern corner right up the southern side of the pond to the finish mark keeping all the marks on the way up to starboard – lots of tacking.

Some eleven boats took to the water and on the start line there was a bit of bunching. Matt Springhall (Laser full rig – NSSC) was first to start although unfortunately for him just a bit too early and he had to extricate himself from the rest of the hoard to get back behind the line and start properly. Darren Field (Laser Radial – NSSC) and then Steve Duncan (Laser full rig- NSSC) were effectively next across the line and just inside Darren was Alan Simmons (Streaker – Lancing SC). Having the inside berth at the pin end allowed Alan to also take the lead position at the twin buoy mark and then begin to establish a reasonable lead over the rest of the fleet which he retained until the last few moments of the race.
By the end of the second lap Matt had recovered from his ‘too early’ start and was scrapping it out with Steve. These two continued to pass and re-pass one another until in lap 4 Steve suffered a failure of the flexible joint in his tiller extension and subsequently retired. It was unfortunate in so far as he was on the point of catching and overtaking Alan. On this occasion Matt had dropped back a bit behind Steve leaving Alan still in front.

Tom Taylor (Megabyte – NSSC) had not come out of the start too well although being near the front row, he got a bit boxed in at the start and had to work hard – very difficult in the early light breeze – to get back in the race and in the early laps had to do a ‘few’ turns for both other boats and marks (so it was subsequently learned). During this early part of the race Darren Field (Laser Radial – NSSC) was giving him a good run for his money. Darren also managed to pass Roger McAll (Laser full rig) in lap 2 whilst slipping into 4th spot which he held to the finish.

At one point, in mid race, one capsize occurred when Bill Waites (Laser radial – NSSC) caught a hefty gust along the north side of the pond but it was a dry capsize so he reports.

Michael Veale(NSSC) crewed by Mike Rosier in their RS 200 although able to fly their spinnaker led 5th place on the water in the first couple of laps but then dropped back to 7th until Steve retired and were then 6th to the end of the race.
Callum Johnson (Laser Radial – NSSC) fought out 8th place with Jesica Cox (Topper – NSSC) until she too retired but it was Gary Johnson (Topper – NSSC) right at the rear until he too retired in lap 5.
In the penultimate lap (lap 8) the breeze began to build, towards the top end of force 3, and Tom in his Megabytye began to catch up with Alan having already passed Matt – who decided, whilst on the run across the pond, to do a ‘Captain Cook’ and go exploring on the island with a spectacular roll to starboard. He had, as Steve earlier, been on the point of passing Alan but none the less managed to stay in 3rd spot on the water after his recovery and re-launch.
In the final seconds of the last lap Tom finally got past Alan to cross the line 5 seconds ahead, nowhere near enough to beat him on handicap however.

Results:-

1st. Alan.S, 2nd Darren.F, 3rd. Matt.s, 4th. Tom.T, 5th. Roger.Mc, 6th. Michael.V, 7th. Bill.W, 8th. Callum.J – Steve.D, Jessica.C and Gary.J retired.

Paul Ryan (Hardway SC) did an excellent duty – if a trifle noisy – as safety boat helm, whilst young James Veale gave Kay support in acting as AOD.

Alan.S 1700