With eight races to get in over this weekend’s series, there was a definite need for races to be short, but with the races being so short, there was little room to recover from mistakes so the results did not always seem so sweet. Steve Hunt and Ruth Critchley tried to get all their mistakes over in one race by hitting a mark, and then later trawling their genniker (and for a change they didn’t recover from it!).
Although Saturday started off with the forecast 10mph NE wind, it rapidly faded as racing progressed, with many holes that caused large time differences between first and last boats, in some cases the first boat was finished after 15 mins, but it was a further 15 mins before the last boat completed the same course! It was these varying results that caused personal handicaps to vary so much over the course of the weekend.
Sunday’s forecast was 5mph SW wind, but we were blessed with bright sunshine, and a 10+mph SW, and with the wind strengthened by a sea breeze in the afternoon there was to be some thrills and spills. The first race started with a fly past by the Red Arrows on their way to the Whitehaven Maritime Festival.
Elaine Hunt, crewing for the first time this season with William, challenged husband Steve to make the lunch if he was first home – so when he retired (having trawled the genniker for the second time in a weekend) did he prepare the lunch – think not! He’s usually a good bet for tipping the boat in when the wind blows a bit, but not today – he left that to the Wright brothers in a GP, and Alan Nicholson in the RS Vario. To make sure the race length could be controlled, the courses tended to small with short legs (who does that remind you of?!), which meant the windward mark was busy as the fleet had yet to split up, and it seemed as if as soon as spinnakers were up and set, it was time to gybe at the next mark, or take them down! Andy and Bean Smith were again trying to master their 49er, and tended to surprise a few boats as they crossed on opposite tacks – not a lot of room for mistakes.
All in all a busy, hard and challenging day; so for someone not sailing well (as Steve put it) Steve and Ruth did well enough to win the series!
HANDICAP FLEET CHALLENGE B
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts
1 1210 S HUNT RS400 3 9 2 3 2 RTD 5 7 15
2 13118 V BELL GP 7 2 4 1 8 4 7 9 18
3 2324 R BLACKBURN LARK 8 1 8 DNS 3 DNS 6 2 20
4 937 W CARRUTHERS RS400 2 5 10 5 5 7 7 6 23
5 40894 S HALL LASER RADI 6 3 6 7 9 8 4 10 26
6 167828 I MACPHERSON LAS 9 4 7 4 7 6 10 5 26
7 562 A SMITH 49R 5 8 5 RTD RTD 1 11 10 29
8 13467 P MAYHEW GP DNS DNS DNS DNS 1 2 7 3 33
9 1072 R DAWSON RS400 4 7 3 2 DNS DNS DNS DNS 35
10 69960 M CHAPPEL MIR DNS DNS DNS DNS 6 3 3 7 38
11 3473 M MOORE FF 1 6 9 6 DNS DNS DNS DNS 42
12 400 T KNOWLES RS300 DNS RTD 1 RTD 10 RTD DNS DNS 42
13 338 R YARDLEY RS300 DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS 2 1 60
14 103 A NICHOLSON VARIO DNS DNS DNS DNS 4 5 RTD DNS 61
15 1148 N CURRIE RS400 DNS DNS DNS DNS OD OD DNS DNS 63
16 13161 S SPENCE RSFEVA DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS 1 4 65
17 1117 K JAMIESON FF OD OD DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS 66
18 13371 J RILEY GP DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS RTD DNS 94
Points for RTD = 10 10 11 10 12 11 14 12
Points for DSQ = 10 10 11 10 12 11 14 12
Points for DNS = 19
5 races to count