It was a calm day with a breeze occasionally getting up to 10 kn and all the Division 1 Lasers went for the big rig save for Dave and Peter C. Big rigs were sailed by John W, Manfred, Peter E and visitor David May. Mike W made up the fleet in his OK Dinghy. Division 2 had Sabres sailed by your scribe, Ollie and Andrew D with Rico W on the Laser 4.7. Division 3 had Opti’s sailed by Harry and Robbie.

The first race started with most boats, but not your scribe who had slowed to avoid the problem, seemingly fail to allow for the down course tide. As you scribe was next to the start boat, he was able to see many boats in front cross the line before the start and to hear the race committee call for a general recall as he crossed the line. Unfortunately the race committee appeared to have lost the general recall flag and many boats were not sure what was going on despite Peter’s forlorn cry of ‘COME BACK’. Nobody is sure of the standing of this under the RRS. Ultimately the flag was found and all returned after notification. At this point your scribe lost his head and decided to do the restart on port at the boat end. It didn’t work as he was too far from the start. The second race started fairly normally.

In Division 1 race 1 John W had to retire with a broken wind indicator leaving Mike Williams to romp in nearly three minutes ahead of Manfred with Peter E a minute further back. Visitor David May was a second behind Peter with Peter C half a minute back with Dave two minutes behind him. In the second race Mike W again led, but only half a minute ahead of Peter E who again headed David May be a second. John W, Manfred and Peter C finished in the next minute with Dave a couple of minutes back.

In Race 1 Div 2Ollie was a minute up on Andrew with your scribe seven minutes back and Rico a minute further back. Rico didn’t do the second race and your scribe was a lot closer and able to watch Ollie and Andrew who had a great race with many lead changes. Andrew seemed a bit quicker up wind but Ollie was clearly quicker downwind. At the last mark, Ollie rounded to head to the finish while Andrew tacked out to sea a bit to, maybe, get a better angle to the finish. As I found out later, this was not the case and Andrew got ahead of Ollie when they forgot the ID mark, but Andrew remembered it quicker and made it to the finish 20 seconds ahead. Your scribe trailed Ollie by a minute and a half.

In Division 3 Harry was home first in both races with Bobbie trailing by 5 minutes in race 1 but only by two and half minutes in race 2.

Thanks to the race officers Peter Viney and David Monk who ran the race and to Molly and Angelique who followed the younger sailors on Dennis Jones. Alex was on duty in the tower.

Coming up:

Saturday 21 December 2024.
1400 Lady Nelson series continues

Saturday 28 December 2024.
1400 Lady Nelson series continues

And in a new and occasional bit:
Your Scribe has decided that he often gets things wrong and he would be wise to write down any hints and learnings soon after a race for review, this is a progression to a ‘professional attitude’ to sailing; and he is prepared to share them with you as a learning experience:
Learning 22 Always allow for the down course tide when starting.
Learning 23 Don’t go too far from the start line when not much breeze.
Learning 24 Don’t try to be too clever unless you are really sure.