Tuesday 28 February 2012

Streaker Ramblings – Elford Numbum Race 8 -26.02.2012

Yet again a nice clear blue sky – well just a tiny few wispy white bits – bright sunshine and warm with it, breeze however there was none, on the way to Piddinghoe this Sunday morning.
Shortly after arrival a very light breeze started, blowing from the north east. As a consequence Kay, the R.O., set the course with an itnitial beat to the north corner followed by a jybe and run/reach back towards the middle of the south side. After another gybe there was another beat to a mark just north of the island, behind the island and then off up the south side to the start mark off the clubhouse.
In all twelve boats went afloat and were all moving reasonably well until the start sequence began. What little breeze there was (perhaps force 1) then evaporated and whilst all managed to start they then almost all stopped, any zyphyr very difficult to discover.
At the gun the lead boat was Laurence Venus (Streaker, NSSC) close to the pin end with Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS200, NSSC) next then Paul Ryan (Laser full rig, Hardway) inshore of these two. Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing SC) was stuck behind several others in about 7th place across the line.
That first leg was exceedingly long, in terms of time, as all searched for enough breeze to carry them forward. Laurence.V was first to get to the mark and tack onto Port but Paul.R came in on Starboard with more momentum, touched boats and then led off on the next leg leaving Laurence to do his 720° turn. Jonty Freeman (Laser Radial, NSSC) and Matt Springhall (Laser full rig, NSSC) were both up in the leading pack and Alan.S eventually found a bit of puff to pull up to 5th on the water by the end of the first lap.

Laurence having done his turns proceeded to find a bit of puff to round the mark to the south of the island and leave every one else in the lurch although it did take him nearly 22 minutes to complete that first lap.
By the end of lap two Alan.S had managed to pass both Matt.S and Jonty.F to move into third spot on the water whilst Laurence had disappeared over the horizon in front of second place Paul.R. Next up, in 6th place was Michael.V with Julian Dobson (Laser full rig, NSSC) some 10 minutes behind and just behind Jack Turner and girl friend (Laser II, NSSC) then came a gaggle of Lasers – Roger McALL (Pevensey Bay SC), Bill Wates (NSSC) and Andrew (NSSC) with Dan Ford (NSSC) gallantly sailing single hand in the Magno bringing up the rear.
In lap three there was little change except that Roger.Mc overtook Julian.D and Andrew came home a good bit ahead of Bill.W There was no place changing in the leading five boat although there was a brief increase in the wind strength – up to force 3 even and warranting sitting out – it did not last more than a minute or two.

In the final lap, and the later stages therof, Alan.S passed Paul.R to take second spot and closed up a fair bit on Laurence.V whilst Michael.V just got past Jonty.F but was unable to catch Matt.S.
With the handicaps worked out Laurence.V was the winner of the race and the series too, with four wins, having just pipped Alan.S - second in this race and in the series. Whilst only 6th in this last race Michael. V held on to take third overall in the series.

Results Race 8 (unchecked, unapproved) :-
1st. Laurence Venus, 2nd. Alan Simmons, 3rd. Paul Ryan, 4th.Matt Springhall, 5th.Jonty Freeman, 6th. Michael Veale, 7th. Roger McAll, 8th. Julian Dobson, 9th. Andrew, 10th. Jack Turner, 11th. Bill Wates, 12th. Dan Ford.
Series Results – Elfords Numbum 2012 - (unchecked, unapproved) :-
1st. Laurence Venus, 2nd. Alan Simmons, 3rd Michael Veale, 4th. Paul Ryan, 5th. Roger McAll, 6th. Jack Turner, 7th. Bill Wates, 8th. Chas Humphries, 9th. Matt Springhall, 10th. Dan Ford, 11th. Julian Dobson, 12th.Darren Field, 13th Steve Duncan.
For full results go to:-http://www.nssc.org.uk/results/2012/elfordnumbumseries2012.htm

Contrary to remarks overheard earlier in the year about strong winds this series was held in predominantly light airs – Laurence.V missed out only two of the possible six races one of which was won by Alex Mills Barton and the other by Alan.S – when all the top boys retired or were disqualified. Alan sailed in all six races and apart from the race specified above took second place in all the remaining five.
Alan.S 1700

Monday 20 February 2012

Streaker Ramblings - Elford Num Bum Race 7 - 19th Feb 2012

Bright blue sky and sun and a little breeze from the north west greeted our journey to Piddinghoe. On arrival there was real water to see instead of solid ice – actually we had been to Piddinghoe on Wednesday and all the ice had gone by then.
It was a tricky wind direction in which to set a course but Kay laid the start from near the clubhouse leading northwards towards the Fisherman’s Bay with a gybe onto a run back across the pond to a buoy about mid way down the south side. Tacking round that it was off to a mark midway along the eastern side. Off along the east side, rounding a mark just short of the Island, with yet another gybe, then rounding one right up near the bank before a close reach up the south side to the start/finish mark at the clubhouse.
Eight boats took to the water in what turned out to be a very gusty force 4 to 5 wind and at the start gun it was Michael Veale and Mike Rosier in the RS 200(NSSC), closest to the bank, who led off the line on Port tack. Just behind, but on Starboard, was Laurence Venus (Streaker, NSSC) with Louis Gorringe (Topper, NSSC) just to leeward. Roger McAll (Laser full rig, Pevensey Bay) crossed just behind this pair whilst Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing SC) had tacked off near the pin end and was in front of the lot but somewhat low for the next mark.
Somewhere behind the leading group were Jack Turner and James Bovington (Laser II, NSSC) then Dan Ford and Becca Gibson (Magno, NSSC) and bringing up the rear Steve and Penelope Duncan (Fireball, NSSC).
Michael.V was first to round the’windward’ mark closely followed by Laurence.V then Roger Mcall with Alan.S at the rear of the leading group. Michael. V flew his Black spinnaker up the following run but Laurence stayed in close touch. Roger.Mc had not gybed until the end of this leg and proceded to fall in – the first of his four capsizes in the race.
By the end of the first lap the order was Michael.V in front with Laurence.V next up then Steve.D, having pulled back from a very late start, and Alan.S in fourth spot.
In lap 2 Michael.V lost his lead to both Steve.D and Laurence.V when he hit a mark and had to do a 360° turn. By the end of lap 3 Laurence.V was leading the fleet – Steve and Penelope had their jib sheet come detached and had to go into the landing stage in front of the clubhouse to refit it.
Lap 3 also saw Jack.T and James.B have a sucession of capsizes on the eastern side of the Island ending up on the shore there and, after a loss of a lot of time trying to recover, decided to call it a day and to retire. Lap 3 was very eventfull as it saw also Dan.F retire having been struck on the head by his boom whilst gybing. He did not feel too well and decided to head for shore to recover his senses.
It was lap 6 before Steve.D, having fixed the jib, got past Alan.S who was then lying third behind Laurence and Michael.V. By lap 7 Steve was up to second and Alan back to third when Michael.V had a massive capsize on the windward leg across to the east side. That order – Laurence, Steve then Alan – held to the finish with Michael unable to overtake Alan but very close on his heels. Alan just managed to lap Louis.G in the closing stages of the race whilst Roger.Mc pulled up to fifth on the water – in spite of his capsizes.
When the Handicaps had been applied Laurence. V was the clear winner with Alan.S second but just four seconds ahead of Loius.G in third spot.
Results (Unofficial/Unapproved):-
1st. Laurence Venus, 2nd. Alan Simmons, 3rd. Louis Gorringe, 4th. Michael Veale, 5th. Roger McAll, 6th. Steve Duncan. Dan Ford and Jack Turner retired.
Alan.S 1700
Next week sees the final race in the Series and although Alan.S is currently leading and if light weather prevails it looks as is Laurence, with a first or second place result, will come from behind to take the trophy ahead of him and Michael.v who is currently lying second.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Streaker Ramblings - Elford Numbum - Race 6 - 12th Feb 2012

An e-mail late Saturday from Kay Young, the RO for the Numbum series, set the scene telling us that she had visited Piddinghoe during the day and it was frozen solid. We forwarded the message to a few others only to hear later that there was a video on the NSSC Face book page by Michael Veale suggesting that there was a fair bit of melting and that racing might be possible. I cannot verify what was shown as I am not a Facebook member and was therefore unable to view it myself.
Just to be sure we set off at 9.00 this morning under grey skies – just the tiniest hint of a bit of blue – with barely a breath of wind and the odd spot of rain. By the time we got to Piddinghoe it was snowing, even laying in the lane leading to the village which was hardly surprising as the temperature (outside) recorded by the car’s instruments was minus 2 degrees C. As soon as I entered the pond berthing area it was plain to see that the ice was giving the water 100% cover and after a stab or two, with a fence post adjacent to the main Jetty, a bit of ice was removed. The attached photo, with £1 coin adjacent for scale, shows that it was a good 2 inches thick and that Ice Breaking with the safety boat would have been impossible.


A week of constantly low temperature during the day time and severely low ones at night ensured last weekend’s freeze was even more pronounced this week. Rain is forecast in the coming week and a slow rise in temperature so with luck we will be able to go afloat next Sunday 19th Feb.
Alan.S 1700

Sunday 5 February 2012

Streaker Ramblings - Elford Numbum Race 5 - 5th Feb 2012

Where we live, at the top of Hangleton, Hove there was a snow fall over night. Fortunately for us it only amounted to about an inch deep layer and almost clear roads – the buses were running this morning! Over the downs to the north it looked clearly very white and we decided that the best route to take would be along the coast road (A259) through Brighton, Rottingdean, Peacehaven and Newhaven. Over the hill from Peacehaven and down to Newhaven there was a fair bit of snow/slush between the vehicle tracks and as we turned north to Piddinghoe it was very slightly worse but easily negotiable at reasonable speed.
The lane to the pond appeared to have been gritted – the people at the stables no doubt – and was also quite passable. The Pond itself however was almost entirely coated with Ice and a layer of slushy snow on top of that. There was a small area apparently free of ice over near the east side – well there were quite a few Gulls who seemed to be swimming. The main Ice sheet, near the shores was between ½” and 1” thick – a bit too much for the safety boat to break up. Added to the ice there was a distinct lack of breeze – even ice yachts would have had a problem to get moving.

So it was case of no sailing and ‘Hey Ho’ and off we go – home – via a crispy Bacon Buttie at Weatherspoons in Brighton Marina. Hopefully the current cold spell will clear up early in the week to come and we will be able to sail/race next Sunday.
PS. All along the south side of the pond, on the ice at the edge, was a series of foot prints in the slushy snow covering. I think this may have been from the local, resident, varmint – the Mink – out looking for breakfast.

Alan.S 1700