Streaker Ramblings - Bosham SC -23/07/2011

Bosham is a ‘local’ club for us so we did not have to leave until 7.45am, with bright blue skies, a light breeze and no hint of rain on our journey down to Chichester Harbour. Having arrived and found no access to the ‘Green’ we drove to the dinghy park and rigged the boat, then drove back down to the quay, dropped it off and took the car to the car park on the other side of the village.

By the time the briefing took place at the club house there were nine Streakers present. The courses being well down the harbour all set off by about 10.30am on a pleasant and uneventfull ½ hour sail, down past Cobnor, then Itchenor and into the Thorney channel. The committee boat moored fairly close to the East Head buoy and the first chosen course was a triangle/sausage affair heading back the way we had come down from Bosham.

The first start, on a fairly short, heavily port biased line was almost chaos as some three Solent Sunbeams – rather large keel boats – decided to charge straight through our line seconds after our gun had ‘fired’.  As it happened there were no actual collisions but apart from it being appallingly bad manners on their behalf it rather up-set our start. Thereafter it was Paul Burgoyne (Tamworth SC), who had attempted a port hand start, who went into the lead. Close behind him was his father John (Tamworth SC) and then Dave Cockerill (Emsworth SC). Tucked in behind these three was Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) then Gary Hogan (Haversham SC), John Smith (Bosham SC), Michael Camps (Bosham SC) and bring up the tail end Richard Felstead (Lymington TSC). By the finish Paul.B had pulled out a fair lead over his dad John.B  but Dave.C was close behind.
Race two, over a similar type course – adjusted for a swing in the breeze further to the west and this time 2 courses long – went off without hitch this time. Dave.C was first away and although challenged by both the Burgoynes held his lead to the finish.
Alan.S was not far back on the leaders but was overtaken on the fourth beat by Michael.C and was unable to get fourth spot back. Behind Alan it was Gary.H, then John. Richard.F improved by one place on the previous race whilst Hugh.G took over the tail end spot. In second spot in this race it was Paul.B again ahead of John.B.

A break was then taken – afloat – for lunch before the final race. Yet again the course was swung to compensate for the wind directional change – much further west this time and over towards the Emsworth channel and again two long triangles and two long sausages. This time it was John Burgoyne who won the start and chose the correct way to go up the first beat, not far behind was Paul.B and mixing it with him was Alan.S. Richard.F had begun to get the hang of things, perhaps it was down to the slight increase in wind strength but for a while he was ahead of Alan. Behind this pair Dave.C was not – initially – making waves.

In the final windward beat, close to the top mark, Dave.C squeezed past Alan.S into third place. John.B held off a late challenge from Paul to take top spot in this race. Next home was Dave.C then Alan.S then Richard.F followed by Michael.C, Gary.H (who was disqualified for failing to go through the course gate at one point) John.S and finally Hugh.G.
At the end of the racing there was a zippy ½ hour sail back to Bosham – good job somebody knew the way as Alan would have sailed on up towards Dell Quay instead of turning left opposite Itchenor. A long, but very pleasant, day with some 6.1/2 hours on the water.
At the prizegiving it was Paul Burgoyne in first place ahead of dad John – who would have won had it not been that all races counted – with Dave Cockerill in third place.

Results (Unofficial):-

1^st Paul Burgoyne, 2^nd. John Burgoyne, 3^rd. Dave Cockerill, 4^th Alan Simmons, 5^th.Michael Camps, 6^th. Gary Hogan, 7^th. Richard Felstead, 8^th. John Smith, 9^th.Hugh Garety.

   

PS. Appologies for lack of photos – the sailing was way out of sight of the club and Bett declined to go afloat.

PPS. Whilst I did not in the end attend, I had intended to go to Deben, would have thus been able to get results and make a ‘blog’. However I am still awaiting info from the club – I do not even know who the prize winners were!

Streaker Ramblings - Stewartby WSC 2nd July 2011

Bright blue sunlit skies and no breeze as we set off at 7.30am on the 115 mile trip up the M23,M25 and M1 to Stewartby just south of Bedford. We arrived at 9.30am, quite good considering all the road works on the route with the usual 50 mph speed limits, luckily the variable speed limits around the M25 were not functioning.

Once rigged and after the shore-side briefing the 8 Streakers, in company with eleven Solos, took to the water. There was a bit of a delay before the Solos got away on their first start whilst the RO waited for what little breezethere was to materialise sufficiently for him to choose a direction in which to send them.

The Streakers started their sequence a minute or so after the Solos had left on the short leg to the first mark near the clubhouse and launching area. The first half of the fleet, Barney Proud (Stewartby WSP), Veronica Falat (Waveney & Oulton Broad SC), Bill Strange (Stewartby) and Nigel Denchfield (Stewartby) managed to round the widward mark before the breeze died completelty whilst the second half - David New (Paxton Lakes), Alan Simmons (Lancing SC), Ian Parish (Stewartby) and Peter Billington (Stewartby) – all clustered around the mark, Alan.S being rammed (gently) and then hitting the mark and requiring to re-round it. By the end of the first lap Barney.P led Bill.S and Veronica.F with Alan.S in 7^th position. In the second lap Veronica got ahead of Barney and Bill and Alan moved up one place. By the end of the third (and last) lap the lead had changed yet again with Barney in front of Veronica and then Nigel.D. Bill.S had lost out one place and Alan.S had pulled up another to fifth. Even at the back it was all change with David.N going from 5^th to 7^th then back to 6^th however Peter.B stayed firmly in last spot at the end of each lap.

After Lunch, with a similar course and just a tiny bit more breeze, the Streakers set off again. It was Barney who once again took the lead (and managed to hold it to the finish), whilst Ian.P was close behind him, then Veronica and Nigel in fourth. Alan.S who had yet to get a reasonable start had pulled through to 5^th by the end of the first lap with Peter .B just behind him. By the end of the second lap Veronica had passed Ian and Alan was ahead of Nigel. By the beginning of the third and last running leg Alan got into 3^rd spot only to lose out to Ian again by the end of the leg. So the finish order was Barney.P 1^st , Veronica.F 2^nd, Ian.P 3^rd and Alan.S 4^th.

Just prior to the final race the wind died almost completely but the RO persisted with a change of course – a little longer than before – and obligingly the wind began to fill in. Alan still failed to get a good start but Barney, Bill  and Veronica did and that was the order for those three with Alan second to last in 6^th. In lap 2 Veronica got in front of Barney and Alan had sneaked through to be in 3^rd place. In the final lap Veronica still held off Barney’s challenge and Alan could catch neither but held on in third. Peter.B had not sailed the last race but there was still a tussle between Bill, Ian, Nigel and David which was resolved in that order.

So three races planned and in spite of the lack of breeze three races completed. The low strength and shifts made for difficult sailing necessitating constant concentration with a good deal of luck to be in the right spot at the right time thrown in. Alan was delighted to find himself in 3^rd spot overall having had a 5^th, a 4^th and then finally a 3^rd place in the racing. A good day’s sport with very tricky conditions facing the RO with which he coped admirably.

Results :-

1^st Barney Proud, 2^nd Veronica Falat, 3^rd Alan Simmons, 4^th Ian Parish, 5^th Nigel Denchfield, 6^th  Bill Strange, 7^th David New, 8^th Peter Billington - fourth ,fifth and sixth positions were all on equal points with identical discards and required intricate settlement on count back.

Alan.S 1700
PS. For the official (SCOA) race report follow the link http://www.streaker-class.org.uk