Sunday 2 April 2017

Fluffy

Not a bad little race this morning. The wind started out at a healthy 2-3 and died away over the course of the morning until there was virtually sod all by the end. But with random lumps in it, to keep us on our toes. At the start, I thought the beat was going to evaporate, but it stayed true-ish, albeit with plenty of shifts to keep us amused.

The rule of thumb seemed to be dont-go-right, even though the first beat initially looked like a one-leg port tack affair. Paul & Ian were a bit previous on the start line, and there's another rule of thumb that says you can't sail straight along the line and expect it to end well. We sidled up to it and got a great start by the pin, went left, and had a decent lead over the entire fleet by the windward mark.

There followed a 3-sail reach to Y, another to X, and a dead run to J, where the entire fleet closed up on us. Then a fetch to OL and start again. If the beats worked well for us, the off wind legs were decidedly trickier, and a variety of boats caught us on these. Colin & Karen steamed past us on the leg from Y to X when the 3-sail reach with crew out on the wire became a head to wind affair. But that next run was a killer for them, and it was Pete & Richard who took up the chase, nearly getting us on a windless fetch to OL. Peter & Paul had been looking dangerous too (as usual), but sailed into a massive hole on the 2nd (?) beat which must have cost them 5 minutes. Bob & Ellie were also out there somewhere, but never really recovered from going right on the 1st beat.

Eventually we lapped both the Contenders, which were apparently not quite as fast as Malcolm would have us believe, and sailed across the finish line to a stony silence. Had we been over at the start perhaps, or am I just going deaf? Anyhow, one race in the failing wind was quite enough for me, so I went home to cut the grass.

(Footnote - we were apparently over the line at the start. Aagh!)

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