Streaker Ramblings - Freeman Iceberg Race 17 - 26.12.2018

 

Boxing Day started cold and grey without a breath of wind. On the way to Piddinghoe there was a rim of brightness on the horizon to the south but it failed to develop.

Laurence Venus was RO for this the last race of the Freeman Iceberg 2018 series, assisted by Sarah Harrison and with Noel West and Toby Rollestone in the safety boat. With initially not enough wind movement to even disturb the reed tops Laurence had a problem setting a course but he finally came up with an ‘M’ shape, as shown below with a short first leg to the mark in the south west corner of the pond.

 

 

Eventually a tiny zyphr began to fill in from the general direction of the south bank and then to die just again as the 17 strong fleet arrived near the start area. As a result when the gun went at 11.00 am half the boats were pointing or travelling, just, in the wrong direction.

First away near the west bank end of the line was Jonty Freeman (Radial, NSSC), with Rupert Smith (Streaker, NSSC)  just to windward of him. In mid line Alan Simmons (Streaker, Lancing) managed to find enough air movement to cross the line in the direction of the corner mark on a broad reach and end up at the mark with the inside berth.

Next to round the corner mark was Penelope Duncan (Radial, NSSC)  followed by the rest of the ‘Horde’ with plenty of calls for water. The following  leg was a beat  towards a mark in the middle of the pond and although Alan led most of the way Jonty managed to get an inside berth just before the mark and to head for the mark in the southeast corner. Rupert also went ahead of Alan as did Ed Thorburn (Finn, NSSC) and also Roger McCall (Laser full rig, Pevensey).

 

The leg behind the island was dead downwind but nobody managed to catch up with the five leaders, nor did they in the next reach or in the final beat/fetch along the west bank. The positions at the end of the first lap were Roger leading Ed.T with Rupert third, Jonty 4^th and Alan fifth. Alice Smith (Laser full rig, NSSC) was lying sixth, Ed Rollestone (Laser 4.7,NSSC) seventh, Chris Turner (Radial, NSSC) eighth, Tim Cox (Radial,NSSC) ninth. Richard Beal (Radial, NSSC) was in tenth place with Matt Springall (Laser full rig, NSSC) eleventh, Julian Dobson (Laser full rig, NSSC) twelfth, Penelope thirteenth, Dave Murley (Radial, NSSC) fourteenth, Jazz Turner (Hansa, NSSC) fifteenth, Ewan Hamilton (Oppy, NSSC) sixteenth and Thomas Beck (Oppy, NSSC) seventeenth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 2 saw Ed.T take the lead from Roger with no change of place fro Rupert, Jonty and Alan. Matt passed Alice to lie 6thas Tim dropped well back in 12^th as Chris retained 8^th, both he and Julian having gone ahead of Ed.R.  Richard  in 13^th had lost a place to Ed.R and Penelope was still 13^th.but with no place changes behind her.

Lap 3 and Ed.T continued to pull ahead of Roger, a minute and 21 seconds, with Rupert another 21 seconds astern. Alan went ahead of Jonty to lie 4^th with Matt also passing Jonty to lie just 20 seconds behind Alan. Alice was in 7^th place with Julian close behind her and Ed.R still in 10^th place. There were no place changes below Ed.R.

Lap 4 Ed.T still led Roger with a slight increase in the margin between them but with Rupert closing the gap from Roger to 6 seconds and Alan remaining in 4^th place. Matt was some 18 seconds behind Alan having failed to gain an inside berth at the relevant mark. There were no changes in the rest of the fleet, Jazz, Ewan and Thomas B having been finished at the end of the previous lap.

Lap 5 saw nine boats still racing with Ed.T crossing the ‘Finish’ line nearly 2 minutes ahead of Rupert who had eased his way ahead of Roger, crossing 26 seconds in front. Alan finished in 4^th place 2 minutes behind Roger but still ahead of Matt albeit by just 11 seconds. Jonty was next with Alice behind but ahead of Chris who led Julian across the line.

With handicaps applied the race winner was Rupert with Ed.T second, Roger third and Alan fourth.

R17

Rank	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	PY	Elapsed	BCE	Points
1	STREAKER	1681	NSSC	Rupert Smith		1128	46.26	0.00.00	1.0
2	FINN	595	NSSC	Ed Thorburn		1051	44.29	0.01.13	2.0
3	LASER	191067	Pevensey Bay	Roger McCall		1098	46.52	0.01.40	3.0
4	STREAKER	1700	Lancing	Alan Simmons		1128	48.55	0.02.29	4.0
5	LASER RADIAL	192842	NSSC	Jonty Freeman		1142	50.23	0.03.22	5.0
6	LASER	158670	NSSC	Matt Springall		1098	49.06	0.03.54	6.0
7	LASER RADIAL	158365	NSSC	Chris Turner		1142	51.07	0.04.06	7.0
8	LASER 4.7`	4.7	NSSC	Ed Rollestone (C)		1207	44.02	0.04.17	8.0
9	LASER	52309	NSSC	Alice Smith		1098	50.39	0.05.27	9.0
10	LASER	7	NSSC	Julian Dobson		1098	51.26	0.06.14	10.0
11	HANSA	5	NSSC	Jazz Turner		1600	45.12	0.05.41	11.0
12	LASER RADIAL	8	NSSC	Tim Cox		1142	44.36	0.07.00	12.0
13	LASER RADIAL	43382	NSSC	Richard Beal		1142	45.17	0.07.41	13.0
14	LASER RADIAL	81	NSSC	Penelope Duncan		1142	45.29	0.07.53	14.0
15	OPTIMIST	4064	NSSC	Ewan Hamilton (C)		1655	51.05	0.10.12	15.0
16	LASER RADIAL	142208	NSSC	Dave Murley		1142	48.47	0.11.11	16.0
17	OPTIMIST	5642	NSSC	Thomas Beck (C)		1655	54.23	0.13.30	17.0

 

This being the last race of the series the prize giving followed for the leaders in the entire series. Jonty Freeman won the Freeman Iceberg 2018 winter series with Rupert Smith second, Tim Cox third, Ed Thorburn fourth and Alan Simmons fifth.
 

 

The Cadet series- relative positions extracted from the general results – was won by Thomas Harland-Smith (Radial) with Thomas Beck (Oppy)second,  Ed Rollestone (Laser 4.7) third, Ewan Hamilton (Oppy) fourth and Ed Rollestone - again - in his Topper, fifth.

The wind this year has been rather stronger than in previous years although it has to be said that no races have been lost – at either end of the strength range. However the number of Competitors has been quite high over the series.

 

Alan.S 1700

 

Thanks go to Andy Beck for taking the photos used in this report (and lots of others) using my camera.

 PS. Don’t forget the New Year’s Day race – with the start at 2.00 pm -  to allow for clearing hangovers!