Spring Series Race 1 & 2 3rd April - Patrick Palmer

Published 18:36 on 7 Apr 2022

Race officer: John Cooper, Assistants: Paul Seggary, Richard Basehart: Jerry Robinson

Patrol Boat: Tim Rodemark & James Mahoney

4x4: Tom Rawlings

Wind: f1 N/E to f0 to f1 S/W

The Spring series kicked off with two rather baffling races with extremely fluky light winds and a fleet that made it into double-figures. At least the three different categories, D18, other cats (no less valid, apparently) and monos just about achieved official status.

Whilst race 1 did at least have wind that was discernible in terms of rough direction and strength, race 2 saw a very tricky and unpredictable gentle breeze.

R1 saw Paul Craft obediently re-crossing the start line after over-eagerness, and then a bit of a procession to the leeward mark, whereupon the fleet split between starboard inshore, and port Eastwards, courses, the former proving to be hugely advantageous. For some, those gains proved illusory as the lap2 beat saw them reversed, only for subsequent wind-shifts to cause the pack to shuffle further; in some cases boats (admittedly c.400 metres apart) were sailing in the same direction but on different tacks. There were some extremely localised wind patterns which allowed frustration/elation with near stationary boats having to bear the ignominy of others cruising past, a mere 40 metres apart. It was all too much for big Phil G., who abandoned, claiming his giant-like stature/Topaz16 combo simply too much to bear.

R2 began with a few boats getting extremely caught out by being too far up the line and sailing directly into a hole that saw one of them (me, impatient) get a DNF, and the other two, Gilbert (D18) and the Spitfire of Josh and Noah (the latter not getting a mention in the results but was definitely there, or someone was, even if he did spend most of the time asleep on the bow) just about avoid a similar fate. Rob/Fi, blithely unaware of difficulty or hindrance skilfully picked their way around the course and won both races. Paul (D15) and Caleb, in the rejuvenated Nacra, shared first places over the two races.

We welcomed back an old* member Simon Ash who previously was a jolly WSC matelot back when the Thatcher premiership was just starting to lay waste to Britain's industrial heartlands whilst inculcating an ethos of greed and selfishness/unshackling Britain from the dead hand of socialist bureaucracy and breathing fresh life into moribund institutions (delete which is inapplicable). Early eighties, in other words. Him and Archie Oakden had a bit of a battle in the lasers with each sharing the honours

This Sunday racing kicks off at 14:00, and we are hoping for an excellent turn-out with vast empty spaces in the compound and what could amount to congestion around the buoysall expertly shepherded by the multi-fleet of RIBs now that our excellent Bosuns (we have co-bosuns and whilst Niall did all the legwork, I bet Colin gave wise guidance) have provisioned us with a lovely tractorand we are hoping for this because we are being optimistic As ever, the forecast is very positive with conditions and some sort of movement of air in a particular direction (or directions) guaranteed.

*For clarification: in this context, 'old' merely means 'previous' or 'former' although it must be said Simon is no callow youth