Streaker Ramblings - Streaker Open at Newhaven & Seaford SC - 23rd June 2018

A streaker open meeting was held at Newhaven and Seaford SC on Saturday 23rd June jointly with a Topper Open. The Streaker fleet was disappointing with only one visitor, yours truly, with four home club boats. The conditions were perfect with a force 4 breeze from the south west, directly onshore, with a warm an cloudless blue sky complete with low water for the start of the first of the three races sailed.
The RO, Ed Thorburn set a rather strange course with a rectangular shape, the Streakers sailing a series of sausages on the second leg after the initial beat finishing with a reach along the shore from the downwind mark.and the Toppers having their sausage on the initial upwind leg. The Toppers had their sausage on the initial windward leg followed by a reach, run and final reach. To complicate matters the fleets sailed a number of sausages as directed by a lapboard on the committee boat, the start and finish lines being at 90 degrees to each other - as shown below.

The report below was authored by the event overall winner Duncan McDonald who kindly

agreed to allowed me to reproduce it here.

A select group of mostly local and skilled competitors arrived at Seaford Sailing Club to be greeted by beautiful sunshine, breeze and minimal swell.

An interesting course was set up to allow for the concomitant Topper open meeting.

Race one was sailed in 10-14 knots of breeze with a clean start and excellent upwind speed by Rupert Smith to arrive first at the windward mark. He was chased hard by Duncan McDonald who just managed to overhaul him by the leeward mark but managed to reach off in the wrong direction until Rupert informed Lawrence and Duncan of their error. The race continued with Rupert leading at the windward mark and Duncan at the leeward mark for a number of laps until the final reach when Duncan was not quite sure where the finish line was and Rupert smoked through for a well deserved win. Laurence was third, Noel fourth and Alan fifth.

After a well needed break in the sunshine the Streakers returned for more sea racing with a reducing breeze and a change in tide. Race two had a clear start and most boats headed right with Rupert leading around the top mark closely followed by Duncan and Laurence. As the breeze abated Duncan and Laurence overtook Rupert to finish in that order.

Race three was commenced in less breeze; 8-5 knots and Alan got off to a cracking start heading to the right of the course. Duncan protected the right from Laurence as he was an increasing threat in the dying breeze. Alan lead for most of the race but was finally overhauled by Duncan with Laurence finishing third and Rupert fourth.

Overall, therefore, the win went to Duncan followed by Rupert second and Laurence third with the rapidly improving Alan fourth.  All agreed that it was a fantastic day of sailing on the sea with great weather, courses, shore teams and club support and of course a nice beer in the sun to finish!

Duncan McDonald

RESULTS :-

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	Chops	Streaker	1934	NSSC	Duncan McDonald	(2.0)	1.0	1.0	4.0	2.0
2nd	Scoundrel	Streaker	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith	1.0	3.0	(4.0)	8.0	4.0
3rd	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus	(3.0)	2.0	3.0	8.0	5.0
4th	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons	(5.0)	4.0	2.0	11.0	6.0
5th		Streaker	1620	NSSC	Neol West	4.0	(6.0 DNC)	6.0 DNC	16.0	10.0

It was a brilliant day for sailing, such a pity that there were no visitors - other than yours truly. I realise that the vast number of Streaker owners are pond sailors but there is little to fear by going on the 'Ocean', just the odd wave, with launching and recovery ably assisted with the club beach parties. Due to the poor showing it seems that there may not be an Open for Streakers at NSSC next year which is a venue the association can ill afford to lose in the south east.
.As Donald states above the breeze faded for the third race finally allowing 'Last Bash' to pick up her skirts and show the others that there is still a bit of life in her ancient helm and although he came last in the previous races he still enjoyed the event.
Alan.S 1700
PS. Sorry for the lack of photos, Bett declined to attend due to the forecast high temperatures and not a lot of shelter from it. As it happened the sea breeze kept it tolerable ashore.

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	Chops	Streaker	1934	NSSC	Duncan McDonald	(2.0)	1.0	1.0	4.0	2.0
2nd	Scoundrel	Streaker	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith	1.0	3.0	(4.0)	8.0	4.0
3rd	Mistyblue	Streaker	1706	NSSC	Laurence Venus	(3.0)	2.0	3.0	8.0	5.0
4th	Last Bash	Streaker	1700	Lancing S C	Alan Simmons	(5.0)	4.0	2.0	11.0	6.0
5th		Streaker	1620	NSSC	Neol West	4.0	(6.0 DNC)	6.0 DNC	16.0	10.0

Streaker Ramblings - Streaker Open at Burghfield - 21.04.2018

Saturday 21st April saw the Streaker Open meeting at Burghfield. The meeting was held jointly with Solos – 19 boats and Comets – 22 boats with 15 Streakers. It was a light wind day with warm sunshine in the morning giving way to more overcast conditions later.

Our journey to the lake was interesting to say the least. After leaving Hove we got onto the M25 at Pease Pottage only to be directed off at the next junction (for Crawley) as the motorway was closed for repairs to the north carriageway. After the diversion we carried on up the A25 to Redhill. I was sure that we could get back on the M25 from there but if there was a link then I missed it – should have gone to Reigate anyway. In the end we arrived in Coulsdon and had to take another route back south west to join the motorway.

The net result of the huge detours, and hold ups, was that we arrived and were half way through rigging when the fleets went afloat – they themselves were late in starting out due to lack of breeze.

When I finally got out to the starting area the Comets, last of the three fleet to start, were in their final minute before their off gun. I decided to start with them and endeavour to give them all plenty of space and generally keep out of their way whilst completing the course which I think I generally did.

Given the light breeze the RO did a good job in setting a course. The windward mark was hidden on the far, East, side of one of the larger Islands, generally as shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following report is provided by Veronia Falat who has kindly given me permission to use it in this blog – the photographs used are as usual courtesy of Bett Simmons.

 

In Race 1, Isaac Marsh was soon in the lead with Duncan McDonald close behind. The chasing pack of Kevin Druce, Chris Smith, Veronica Falat, and Mark Langston fought amongst themselves until Veronica pulled clear to take 3rd place and Mark was 4th. The wind had been very light and patchy and, as this was a joint event with Solos and Comets, we had to wait for the other boats to complete their races before we could go again – and the Comet fleet was stuck for quite a while in a flat calm.

 

So the OOD gave pity on us and sent everyone in for an early lunch. There were hopes of sailing 3 races in the afternoon but the wind conditions didn't improve so we only got 2 more.
 

 

The RO made a slight adjustment to the course for Race 2 again which saw Isaac out in front but he was given a good race by Veronica and Duncan, while James Dawes took 4th ahead of Kevin Druce and Brenda Hoult.

 

Duncan was the early leader of Race 3 but it was Veronica who managed to overtake and pull clear while Duncan held off Isaac to take 2nd place. Further back, James was 4th again with Doug Horner 5th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall Isaac was the winner but his results won't count for the Southern Paddle travellers series as he is experimenting with various things that are currently not class legal. Most noticeable is his sail which doesn't conform to the rule requiring Streaker sails to be white. He was also using a carbon boom and experimenting with means for easier adjustment of the aft mainsheet bridle. These are all matters that no doubt will be agenda items for the class AGM during the Nationals in late June.

 

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	I995	Isaac Marsh	Northampton SC	1	1	‑3	2
2	1972	Veronica Falat	Waveney & Oulton Broad YC	‑3	2	1	3
3	2102	Duncan McDonald	Newhaven & Seaford SC	2	‑3	2	4
4	1985	James Dawes	Redditch SC	‑13	4	4	8
5	1940	Doug Horner	Swanage SC	6	‑8	5	11
6	1971	Kevin Druce	Burghfield SC	‑7	5	6	11
7	1975	Brenda Hoult	Hayling Island SC	5	6	‑10	11
8	1920	Mark Langston	Beccles Amateur SC	4	‑9	9	13
9	1844	Chris Smith	Island Barn SC	8	‑11	7	15
10	1681	Rupert Smith	Newhaven & Seaford SC	(DNF)	7	8	15
11	1929	Peter Withrington	Burghfield SC	9	‑13	11	20
12	1568	Jon Blankley	Beccles Amateur SC	11	10	(DNF)	21
13	1983	Ken Hydon	Burghfield SC	10	‑14	13	23
14	1700	Alan Simmons	Lancing SC	‑14	12	12	24
15	1944	Peter Russell	Burghfield	12	‑15	14	26

I asked Veronica for permission to use her report, since I was so far back in each race, I could not even see who was leading who and we did not get sight of the lap sheets anyway. I will try to do better next time I go to an Open. I don’t think I will be going to Beccles or Downs so Newhaven and Seaford looks to be my next outing.

Alan.S 1700