Tuesday 6 September 2011

Streaker Ramblings – Broxbourne 04/09/2011

With still no Towbar – it arrived Friday but Alan.S did not feel competent to fit it – it was a case of down to the club and put the boat up on the roof rack. With help from Steve Lynch that is what we did, including the two part Carbon mast (more of that later), on Saturday evening.
The first few miles of the drive up in the morning were horrendous with all sorts of strange’ creaking’ noise – not heard on the trip back home from the club the previous evening. It was not until we stopped at Clackett’s Lane Services that the cause was discovered to be the straps holding the boat to the roof rack flapping on the car roof. Using another short strap these were lifted clear of the roof and the noise was gone.
Apart from that the journey up was in bright, if not clear blue, skies with but a gentle force 2 breeze. On arrival at Nazeing the wind was similar and coming from the direction of the clubhouse – south westerly. With the help of Chris Seear (Royal Harwich SC) the boat was unloaded and rigged – the mast set up was a bit of a guess not having been used since last year.
The initial course was a bit of knitting, with two beats and a run in the main lake followed by a divertion into the small easterly section – with major areas of no wind in there – then returning to the main lake. It got a bit dizzying with all the tacks and gybes.

After the 17 Lasers started, in the joint meeting, the Streakers got away on a close Starboard direction – no room for Port tack starts on that line. Before the starts Alan.S (Lancing SC) had checked out the right hand side of the beat only to discover that the breeze vanished just short of the windward mark when tacking back across in front of the club. Consequently at the start he headed off left, just behind Steve Garrett (Bough Beech SC) and ahead of the rest of the fleet. In the fitfull and shifty breeze their lead vanished almost immediately with almost everybody else passing them by.
On the next leg, a run back to close to the starting pin, Alan.S pulled a few place back by sailing well left. Soon however Peter Selway (Broxbourne SC) and Veronica Falat (Waveney & Oulton Broad YC) pulled out in front until in the smaller section of the lake he fell foul of a substantial wind shift allowing Amy Robinson (Blakeney SC) to slip into second spot. Steve.G came home in 4th position, Martin Wayland (Broxbourne SC) was 5th whilst Alan.S dropped to 7th. There was a fair bit of position changing in the lower orders but in this race it was Chris.S who brought up the rear.
After lunch the RO reset the course, omitting the smaller section of the lake but with still plenty of knitting in the main part with a beat, then run, then a further beat, a reach and a another run finishing with another reach. The breeze had increased a trifle – to force 3 – but the skies opened.

Alan.S got another good start but within seconds had lost it all. Ian Mansfield (Alton Water)
got the flier and was first around the top mark ahead of Veronica.F with Steve.G in third place. Half way through the 2nd lap Alan.S managed to capsize at a gybe mark and stayed in 11th place until the final lap when he pulled one place back. Veronica pulled into the lead in lap 2 and stayed out in front of Steve.G and Amy.R both of whom passed Ian.M. In this race Peter.S stayed in 5th place throughout whilst Gary Hogan (Haversham SC) made the most progress from 11th at the end of lap one up to 7th at the finish. It was not Geoff Town’s (Broxbourne SC) day either when, laying ahead of Alan.S, he went round the windward mark on the wrong side, lost the wind and then had to unwind himself.
Going into the final race – back to back with race 2 – Veronica.F had already won the meeting with two gongs, next in line was Amy.R. From the start it was Peter.S however who was in control and Veronica had to make do with 2nd spot. Laying initially in third place Steve.G finally lost out to Amy.R with Ian.M taking 5th. Alan.S having reduced the purchase on his centre main system, to suit the again decreasing breeze, gradually dropped down the fleet from 6th to 7th and finally to 8th in the last lap when he saw the sheet running out of the last block on the final run and letting Gary.H pass him.
Ian Nash (Broxbourne SC) - in the oddly numbered 2030 – had a couple of 9th placings whilst Richard Dean (Broxbourne SC) stayed glued almost permanently at the tail end of the Streaker Fleet.

Results :- 1st Veronica Falat, 2nd. Peter Selway, 3rd. Amy Robinson, 4th Steve Garrett,
5th. Ian Mansfield, 6th Martin Wayland, 7th. Gary Hogan, 8th. Alan Simmons,
9th. Chris Seear, 10th Ian Nash, 11th. Geoff Town, 12th Richard Dean.

Everyone who entered the meeting sailed in all three races and Alan.S’s was the sole capsize. Veronica.F was, apart from overall winner, the 1st Lady helm, Steve.G was awarded a trophy for perseverance and Alan.S was, surprisingly, awarded 1st Master.
A word of thanks goes, not only to the club for a great meeting and an excellent (free) tea, but to Gary.H for helping to get Alan’s boat back onto the roof rack for the journey home.
Alan.S 1700.
PS. The Towbar was finally fitted by 7.15 pm on Monday