Broxbourne SC Streaker Open - 12th September 2010

A cloudless blue sky and a light breeze were present for our 7.00am start on our trip to Broxbourne Sailing Club near Nazeing in the Lea Valley. Two hours later, including our usual comfort stop, we were among the first to arrive for the joint Laser and Streaker Open event.

The breeze had risen to a reasonable force 4 for the first race for the 15 Lasers and 11 Streakers. The course, with a shore start, had been set to include two beats, two runs and a reach. Hot off the line and into an almost unassailable lead was Frank Catt (Downs SC) with Steve Garrett (Bough Beech SC) in hot pursuit and John Wolsoncroft (Broxbourne) also having a cracking start. Alan Simmons (Lancing SC) had been tipped over the line early and had to restart in next but last place. By the end of lap one Alan had pulled through to 3rd place and was joining Steve G in battle whilst the pair were both making ground on Frank.C. By the end of the second lap Martin Wayland (Broxbourne) appeared from lower down the fleet (having, he said later, not had a good start) to close up on this pair. At the finish it was Frank, then Alan followed by Martin and Steve in fourth place. Bill Steven (Broxbourne ) thought the wind too much for his liking so stayed ashore for this race. The breeze throughout had been  variable in strength and direction under the large black clouds that began to appear. Under the clouds there were quite a few hefty gusts. It was a condition that was to last for the rest of the day frequently dropping away to a force 3.

Race two, after lunch, saw Frank.C first off the line once more with John.W having yet another good start. Alan.S had a better placing over the line and Steve.G was nowhere to be seen. It transpired that in hoisting his sail he had damaged the gooseneck fitting and had had to stay ashore to fix it for the final race. Taking his place it was Martin.W who got engaged with Alan and later on Frank and came home in third place again. At one point Alan caught and passed Frank only to lose out again on the next beat in the prevailing shifty conditions but these three had some very close competition. Not far behind these three Gary Hogan (Haversham SC) came home in fourth place. John.W capsized during this race and got his mast head stuck in the mud. The rescue boat had to help him recover so that was the end of his race. Bill.S ventured out in this race, after a somewhat shaky launching, but gave it best half way through. At the finish it was Frank.C in first position, Alan.S second, Martin.W third and Gary.H fourth.

After another short break race 3 started on a new (figure of eight) course and with a fleet reduced to nine boats. Yet again it was Frank.C who had the best and lead start, hotly pursued by Steve.G - now back on the water again. Alan.S was nearly there but a little further down the line, however he set off to catch the other two. With the new course came new pitfalls, a short reach at the northen end of the water was in the wind shadow caused by the ‘forest’ at that point and the leading group eventually got caught up by Geoff Town (Broxbourne SC) and Gary.H. By the final lap these two passed both Alan and Steve but Frank managed to escape the carnage. It was only on the penultimate leg that first Alan and then Steve managed to salvage an inside berth on the gaggle of boats (including the leading Laser) at the final turning mark. Alan just pulled out ahead on the last stretch to the line but suffered a heading gust whilst Steve had a freeing one and just pipped him over the line by a second. This meant that Frank.C fished first, Steve.G second and Alan.S third with Geoff.T in fourth.

Overall results:-

1st. Frank Catt, 2nd. Alan Simmons, 3rd. Steve Garrett, 4th.Martin Wayland, 5th.Geoff Town, 6th. Gary Hogan, 7th. Ian Nash (Broxbourne), 8th. Nick Hayes (Broxbourne) 9th. John Wolsoncroft, 10th. Reg Mulley (Broxbourne), 11th Bill Steven.

My most successful results (excluding Weston) this year and as an added bonus to the second place I also was awarded the Masters Trophy for the meeting plus two lovely bottles of wine. Congratulations are due to Frank Catt on a clean sweep with the unusailable three first places and to Steve Garrett for a fine recovery from his fittings problem. I will unfortunately miss the last Open of the season at Alton Water due to other engagements.

Our journey home was however a nightmare, having left Broxbourne at about 5.15pm, when we came back across the Thames at Dartford on the M25 and the turned off onto the M23. Apparently there had been a serious accident, at 4.00pm,  between junction 11 and Junction 9. The Motorway was closed and as we approached junction 11 we ran into the first of the major traffic jams the closure had ensured. We had little choice but to crawl along at never more than 8mph until finally all the traffic was diverted off at Crawley (junction 10). We got through the town OK but once back on the A23 out the town there was yet another hold up stretching all the way up the hill to Pease Pottage and that was moving at about 1mph! We finally got home at about 9.15pm.

Alan.S 1700

Deben YC - August 29th 2010

It was not a very 'august' start to the day, arrising at 5am for a 6am get away I checked with theDeben site to discover that the first race was not scheduled until 12.30pm. The site link to the weather Guru showed at least a middle force five was due by that start time and increasing later.
It was a bright enough day although heavy black clouds hovered overhead and we had a good swift journey up – just over three hours to Deben YC , just south of Woodbridge and north east of Ipswich, including a leisurely coffee break. We were first at the club, which was not yet open when we arrived.
One has to park some distance away from the club area then go across a manually controlled (Bett) railway level crossing before traversing a foot path to the rigging area adjacent to the club house. What we did not know was that the local council had introduced parking fees but we paid up in the end – hitherto parking had been free on Sundays so we were nearly caught out.
We rigged the boat in excessively boisterous conditions above the launching ramps and I was in two minds whether or not to bother to sail. In the end I decided to give it a go and come back from the sailing area, some half a mile from the club, if I was unhappy.

The meeting was held jointly with some Enterprises, eight of them and six Streakers. Once at the starting area things began to go wrong. I along with a couple of Ents got stuck in the riverside mud. Fortunately for me I was able to turn the boat and sail out of the pudding. The Ents were not so lucky with at least one breaking his rudder in the process. It was certainly windy with extremely vicious gusts seemingly from all directions.
Eventually race one got underway, heading back up river in the direction of the club, and whilst I was close to the line I was about fourth to the windward mark with one boat behind me and, so I subsequently discovered, at least two of the three behind me inverted. Mike Hanes (Deben) was first to round the mark followed by Pierre Naude (Deben) and David Shuster (Deben). Gary Hogan (Haversham) even passed me up that first leg and the lot stretched away on the reach across the river.
Near the far bank it was a case of either a gybe or up the cut to wear round onto the third leg which was almost a run, certainly it was tippy enough. I think it was down this leg that David S took his first (of many) dips. I made it in one piece and then had to fight up the next beat slowly closing in on Gary. H. Half way up the next running leg my boat came out from beneath me and came over the top of me as I tried to right it and I reluctantly called for the rescue boat to use my rigging to get it vertical again whilst scooping me up inside in the process. I then high tailed it back up the cut to the club having decided to call it a day. When I got back to the recovery ramp there were at least two Ents there already so I did not feel quite so bad about my decision to quit.
As a consequence of my retirement from the fray I have to rely on third person reports (none of which have surfaced so far) of the rest of the racing, all of which was curtailed in some way. I believe the second race lasted only one lap and the final race saw all but one competitor taking a dip in reported forty mph gusts. Even the committee boat had to leave station to assist the boat recovery. I believe it was about this time that Dave Shuster suffered a halyard breakage, one way or another he ended up being towed home to the club. As the fleet returned none were sure whether they had finished or not or if the last race had been abandoned – it had not.
A disappointingly small entry, probably due to the forecast but the conditions at Deben, over the past few years, have been generally blustery to say the least – not something that the club can do much about except perhaps to choose a different month for the meeting and then hope!

Results:-

1st Mike Hanes, 2 points. 2nd Pierre Naude, 4 points. 3rd Peter Cogill (Rotherham SC), 6 points. 4th David Shuster, 7 points. 5th Gary Hogan, 8 points. 6th Alan Simmons (Lancing SC), 14 points.



Alan.S 1700

PS. If I do get some more detail I will edit this blog later on.

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