Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 7 & 8 - 25/11/2012

It had rained in the night and the wind was still whistling around our ‘Penthouse’  bedroom in Hangleton and Windguru was forecasting force 6 to 7 for the day. The journey to Piddinghoe was therefore more in hope than anger. On arrival, although there were streaks of wind across the Pond, it did not seem to be too bad so rigging commenced.

Chris Turner, Ro for the morning, had set up a figure of eight course. Starting from a ‘Committee Boat' line - and mark mid way up the eastern side - there was a beat to the twin buoys just off the clubhouse. The next leg was a very broad reach/run down the southern side to a mark south west of the Island. It was then back northwards to the top corner on a close reach followed by a very short run to the start mark.

Just before the start, with most of the boats already on the water it began to rain, gradually getting heavier and heavier until it was tipping it down. Very quickly the rain turned to Hail and visibility went to near zero. The committee boat was quickly up anchored to deal with several capsizes – some five boats were on their side at one point. Once all had been ‘safely gathered in’ the C/B re anchored and the start sequence began.

 

Of the original seventeen boats on the water twelve began the race with Paul Ryan(Full rig Laser - Hardway SC) first off the mark with Jonty Freeman (Radial Laser – NSSC)  almost alongside and Alan Simmons (Streaker- Lancing SC) a little behind. It was blowing a good force 4 to 5 with frequent heavy and shifty gusts and by the end of the first lap Paul.R was ahead of Jonty.F by some 39 seconds with Alan.S a minute or so behind Paul.R but 20 seconds ahead of Michal Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200- NSSC). The Toppers of Louis Gorringe and Tim Cox (both NSSC) were uncomfortably close behind. Ellie Wilding (Laser 4.7 – NSSC) was struggling after a capsize which left her mast head in the pond mud (for all to see).

Mid way through lap two Paul.R managed to capsize at the gybe mark by the Island – he reckoned the water was ‘blooming cold’-  thus letting Jonty.F and Alan.S by. Jonty.F was far enough away that Paul.R was unable to catch him before the end of the race. Ian Lambert (Laser Radial- NSSC) also capsized during this lap and although assisted by the safety boat ended up on the eastern shore in the reeds and when finally recovered decided to head back ashore without any further racing in this or the subsequent race.

Tim.C passed Louis G as did Darren Field (Topper – NSSC) in lap two – about the busiest lap – with a further capsize by Dan Ford and Declan Davies (Magno – NSSC) ending their race by retiring in lap 3. John Smith (Pico – NSSC) stayed in eigth position on the water until Ellie.W overtook him in lap 4 whilst QuentinThorp (Miiror – NSSC) who had originally intended to have his son Jasper crewing gamefully battled round, single handed, in last place. At the finish the top four faster boats were, in order,  Jonty.F, Paul.R, Alan.S  and Michael.V but after the handicaps were worked out Tim.C was 1^st, Jonty.F 2^nd, Darren.F 3^rd and Louis. G was 4^th

For race two the course was held the same with another Committee boat start and in similar gusty, variable direction breezes.. This time there were ten starters, Ian.L and Dan.F having retired ashore. Yet again it was the same three first off the blocks, Paul.R then Jonty.F and Alan.S. By the end of the first beat the order was as at the  start and by the end of the lap Paul.R was leading Jonty.F with Alan.S next and Michael V in 4^th spot .Tim.C led the next group ahead of Ellie.W, Loius.G and Darren.F. Bringing up the rear were John.S ahead of QuentinT.

 

The order at the end of the second lap remained the same for the everyone but in lap three there was a change at the front when Jonty.F overtook Paul.R – it was about this time that Paul.R went flat at the gybe again. Further down the field Ellie.W passed Tim.C thus taking 5^th spot on the water and Darren.F overtook Louis.G. John.S and Quentin.T stayed relative to one another throughout  the race. In lap 5 Paul got back past Jonty.F (with no room at the mark) at the windward mark. Apart from that there was no change of position for the rest of the fleet. In the final lap Jonty.F had re-passed Paul.R and held the lead to the finish with Alan.S just remaining ahead of Michael.V. Once more the Handicaps, when worked out, gave overall 1^st place to Tim.C with Darren.F 2^nd, Jonty.F 3^rd and Louis.G  at 4^th.

Alan S did not exactly cover himself in glory with two 5^th places but he did stay upright - unlike Paul.R whom he beat in both races. For the full results – of these races and the series – click the following link:- http://www.nssc.org.uk/results/2012/freemaniceberg.htm

Alan.S 1700

Streakerramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 5 & 6 18/11/2012

As Bett and I were up in Stratford upon Avon - after seeing the Spanish Riding School Lipizzana Horses at the Birmingham NIA on the previous day - I did not sail in either race on Sunday. However so that my readers do not go 'hungry' I have pinched (with his permission) the report drawn up by Laurence Venus - the other Streaker sailor, and my rival, competing in the Iceberg Series and publish it here below. Regretably there are also no pictures available to hand to insert. The only other camera buff, Anna Freeman, having been invegled into acting as ARO taking down the results.

"Winter Series 2012 Races 5 & 6

On arrival at Pidinghoe it was sunny but a little chilly with a light F2 northerly breeze. Rupert Smith was race officer and set a similar course to the previous week but with the start line further out from the bank with a committee boat. The course was the same for both races, a beat to the north end of lake then a run/broad reach, followed by an almost beat which turned into more of a beat later in the race as the wind gradually veered, a run pass the island to the next mark followed by a fetch along the south side back to the finish mark off the clubhouse. The start line was a little short for the large number of boats sailing, 23 boats, so it was very congested.

Paul Ryan, Steve Duncan and Jonty Freeman had a good start at the pin end of the line on starboard. It was a tricky beat with shifting winds. Laurence Venus managed to tack behind the leading batch of boats into clear air and stayed out of the conflict ensuing amongst the Lasers. He tacked across to just make the mark on starboard and was pleasantly surprised to find himself in second place just behind the lead boat Paul Ryan’s Laser. Paul R and the Streaker managed to find clearer air than the other boats on the run and then on the beat, a wind shift enabled the Streaker to make the next mark without tacking which enabled him to pass Paul R who had to put a tack to get to the next mark. Having clear air from then on was a great advantage with Steve Duncan, Julian Dobson Lasers and Tom Taylor’s Megabyte fighting it out behind Paul R with the following bunch of Chris Turner and Jonty F sailing Radials and battling it out with Darren Field and Nathan Bloss in their Vago. Gradually Jonty F and the Vago pulled away from Chris T. On the 3rd lap the Streaker put his daggerboard back down a little too early as he was passing the island, struck mud and stopped which allowed Paul Ryan to catch up. Paul remained on the Streaker's tail and overtook on the run as the Streaker tried to clean some of the mud from the bottom of his daggerboard. On the beat out to the next mark with the help of some wind shifts the Streaker again caught up with the Laser. Paul R couldn’t make the mark and almost headed up into wind trying and in the process hit the mark, as the Streaker passed Paul R he heeled his boat to windward causing his sail to touch the Streakers sail and demanded a penalty from the Streaker. The Streaker reluctantly did the 720 deg penalty while Paul did his 360 deg penalty and in the process passed the Streaker again and managed to stay ahead on the next leg to finish 3 seconds in front of the Streaker. Meanwhile Steve D took advantage of the incidents ahead of him and manages to gain on both the leading boats to finish just 13 seconds behind Laurence V, following Steve was Tom T and Julian D. Out of the slower boats (mostly Picos and Toppers) Louis Gorringe lead the way in his Topper and did very well in such light conditions, he eventually finished a credible 7th on handicap and was the leading cadet. The final positions on handicap were: - 1st Streaker - Laurence V, 2nd Laser - Paul R, 3rd Laser - Steve D, 4th Megabyte – Tom T.
Second Race.
It was basically the same course but the start line was re-set for the veering wind and made a bit longer to accommodate the number of boats. The third leg was now much more of a beat. The Streaker tried to start on port at the committee boat end but was too late and was caught out by most of the fleet bearing down on starboard so ended up taking action to try and avoid the other boats. Paul R again soon took the lead and he and most of the fleet headed to the left hand side of the beat while the Streaker was forced to go to the right where he found the wind and a good couple shifts to find he was leading at the windward mark with Paul R just behind followed by Tom T sailing his Megabyte and then Steve D in his Laser. The order stayed much the same throughout the race but with a dropping wind the slower boats were struggling. After the second lap Chris T (Radial), David Hitchins (Laser) and Darren F (Vago) all retired. By the time the Streaker finished the wind dropped still further so the gap between the finishing boats increased, therefore, the finishing order tended to be the same as the final positions on handicap. Considering the very light winds the two radials of Jonty F and Ian Lambert did very with a 5th and 6th and also Louis G did very well again in his Topper to come 7th overall and was 1st cadet. We should also admire the determination of David Murley and Aidan Murley who struggled on in their Pico in virtually no wind during their second lap to finish in 1 hour 12 min and 4 secs about ½ hour after the first boat had finished.
The final positions on handicap were: - 1st Streaker - Laurence V, 2nd Laser - Paul R, 3rd Megabyte – Tom T, 4th Laser - Steve D.

Laurence Venus S 1706 "
If the forcast strong wind do not materalise this coming Sunday I will be back on the water once more
and hopefully report the events myself
Alan.S 1700

Streakerramblings - Freeman Iceberg Races 3 & 4

Appologies for the delay in publishing this report - a new computer requiring data to be transferred from the original is the excuse.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny with just a tickle of breeze and on arrival at Piddinghoe the car park was half fully already. It transpired that this was mostly fishermen, 'encamped' especially along the eastern bank.

 

A goodly fleet did however appear with some seventeen boats on the water. Laurence Venus was RO for the day and set a course starting with a beat to the east along the western Clubhouse - shore to the bay area. The following leg was a run/very broad reach back to the twin buoys just off the clubhouse and then a single sided beat to the eastern bank. Thereafter there was a run across behind the island and then a close reach back to the starting area.
 

There was a slight problem with the start to Race 3 when the four minute signal was missed and after a general recall the start commenced again.

 First away was Paul Ryan (full rig Laser -  Hardway SC) with Alan Simmons (Streaker - Lancing SC) close behind but slightly upwind. Just below Alan were Michael Veale and Mike Rosier (RS 200 -NSSC). Below that pair and close to the pin was Jonty Freeman (Laser Radial - NSSC).

Paul.R pulled out a short lead ahead of Alan.S who in turn got away from the two Mikes in the RS200. By the end of the first lap the order was Paul.R with Alan.S 11 seconds behind and the RS 30 seconds behind him. Next up was Jonty.F and then the full rig Lasers of Steve Duncan (NSSC) and Graham Hardy (NSSC) with Tom Taylor in his Megabyte behind them.

In lap 2 Jonty.F and then Steve.D both passed Michael. V but the rest of the changes were in the lower end of the fleet with Zoe McCaig (Gull - NSSC) climbing from 16th to 13th passing Mel (Pico- NSSC), Colin Pryer (Slipper - NSSC) Giles Colyer (Mirror - NSSC0 an Alex (Pico - NSCC) on the way. . In mid fleet Graham.H stayed ahead of Tom. T and Ellie Wilding (Laser 4.7 - NSSC) then Louis Gorringe (Topper - NSSC) also managing to stay ahead of Terry Jones (NSSC) sailing single handed in a Wayfarer. The slower boats did not fare too well in the predominantly faint breezes experienced during this race. After three laps, for the faster boats, the order on the water was Paul.R, Alan.S, Jonty.F, Steve.D, Michael.V and Graham.H. On handicap it was Alan.S who came out on top ahead of Paul.R and Jonty.F.

This year, for the first time in the history of the winter series racing at Piddinghoe, it had been decided to try two races back to back. This meant that the first race, for the first finisher, was a tad under 33 minutes duration.

 

Thus, after the delayed start of the first of the days races, the second - Race 4 - got underway at 12.15pm with Paul.R again first away, on the same course as the first race of the day it was Steve.D however, who although starting second, kept close to the west bank and rounded the windward mark in the lead. Jonty F was third across the start line but quickly lost the breeze whilst Alan.S was closer to the pin and fourth away. It was not far into the first offwind leg however before Paul.R and then Alan.S got ahead of Steve.D. By the end of the next windward leg Alan passed Paul and then led for the rest of the race, finishing some 33 seconds in front. Steve.D managed to hold off challenges by Tom.T and Jonty.F but in the second lap Jonty edged ahead of Tom as did Michael.V - coming back from 6th at the end of the first lap. This race was only two laps in length and in yet more fitfull breeze and as a consequence the slower boats had little chance to lose or gain places.

As he had been ahead of some faster 'rated' boats on the water Alan.S - and having been suffering from a  nose bleed throughout - was again the winner once the handicaps had been calculated  but with Jonty.F ahead of Paul.R and Steve.D with another fourth place.

Was the two race format a sucess? - the jury is still out - but the writer's personal view is that the races were too short, even with the lack of wind. With more breeze I am not sure that over such a short time space the handicapping may be somewhat distorted.

Alan.S 1700

 

Results

Winter Series Freeman Iceberg 2012

Overall

Sailed:2, Discards:0, To count:2, Entries:32, Scoring system:Appendix A

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	R3	R4	Total	Nett
1st	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing SC	Alan Simmons		1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0
2nd		Laser Radial	192842	NSSC	Jonty Freeman		3.0	2.0	5.0	5.0
3rd		Laser	156163	Hardway SC	Paul Ryan		2.0	3.0	5.0	5.0
4th	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus		3.0 OOD	3.0 OOD	6.0	6.0
5th	Frayed Knot	Laser	81	NSSC	Steve Duncan		4.0	4.0	8.0	8.0
6th		Topper	16013		Louis Gorringe		6.0	5.0	11.0	11.0
7th	Congaheelin	Megabyte	202	NSSC	Tom Taylor		5.0	6.0	11.0	11.0
8th	Hot Toddy	RS 200	582	NSSC	Micheal Veale	Mike Rosier	8.0	7.0	15.0	15.0
9th		Laser 4.7	179733		Ellie Wilding		9.0	8.0	17.0	17.0
10th	Jo-Jo	Wayfarer	2820	NSSC	Terry Jones		10.0	9.0	19.0	19.0
11th		Pico 2	2072		Dale Murley	Aidan Murley	12.0	10.0	22.0	22.0
12th		Mirror	19474		Giles Colyer		15.0	11.0	26.0	26.0
13th		Mirror	69544		Quentin Thorp	Jasper Thorp	11.0	15.0	26.0	26.0
14th	Cilin Cryer	Slipper	57				14.0	12.0	26.0	26.0
15th		Gul	No No		Zoe McCaig	Lucy McCaig	13.0	13.0	26.0	26.0
16th		Pico	Blue		Alex		17.0	14.0	31.0	31.0
17th		Pico	Purple Sail		Mel		16.0	16.0	32.0	32.0
18th		Laser	163443	NSSC	Graham Hardy		7.0	33.0 DNC	40.0	40.0

Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg 2012 - Day 1

The first day of the 2012 Freeman Iceberg series did not start auspiciously, following heavy overnight rain and strong winds. We set off for Piddinhoe in one of the brief lulls between downpours and just after the Traffic Island at Kingston we encountered the first flooded road. It was the worst of those experienced on the way to the Pond although the lane from the village was also bad.

The overnight Windguru forecast had indicated up to 39knots mid morning but the Sunday morning version was down to 29 knots. On arrival on site however it was blowing hard, my guess at force 6 plus a bit. The Boat was rigged, with a little help in stepping the mast, and then ‘put to bed’ – Streaker 1700 was staying firmly ashore.
A few ‘brave’ souls rigged their boats, Michael Veale and Mike Rosier went afloat in their RS 200 and were on, or in, the water for about 15 minutes. There were waves on the pond and they were breaking (white water) on the far eastern bank. Huge gusts were hitting the water from the southern bank and charging across the water. After several capsizes, and black/brown sail tops from the mud at the bottom of the pond, they came ashore – to wash down – before any racing had actually commenced.
Jonty Freeman had readied his Laser Radial but did not need to go afloat – a Pico had ventured out  (reefed down) but he fell in and then, after help from the safety boat, headed back ashore. The only other aspirant was a Mirror with (I believe) two adult but inexperienced sailors. They were on the water for less than two minutes and although they did manage to survive the really vicious gusts – just – one final one snapped their boom close to the gooseneck.
Rupert Smith, the R.O for the day, had been intending to send the fleet round the pond in a triangle starting from a ‘Committee Boat’ but finally decided to call all racing off – there was really none left to try anyway.
By Mid afternoon the wind had gone and the sun came out to play but for the sailors this was far too late. Lancing SC had had the added problem of huge breaking waves in the morning but by evening the Fireworks and Bonfire went off in ideal, calm, conditions.

Alan. S 1700