Last Two Races of the Winter Series

A gentle easterly blowing over the dam, 17°C and sun greeted the 20 sailors who turned up for the last races in the winter series.

The wind freshened by the start of the first race, to the extent that the Fevas were fully powered up, Merlins planing with both helm and crew hiking out, and Chris Martin almost went swimming on his way to the start.

While the Fevas, GP and Solo battled it out at the windward mark, the Merlins were getting very competitive in their pre-start manoeuvres.  The race team had set a temptingly port-biased line, and both Mike Anslow & John Hackett and Julian & Helen Harms aimed for a port tack flyer across the front of the fleet.  Mike made it, but dire threats emanating from 3447 convinced Julian that tacking and lee bowing the fleet was the safer option.

A special course using all the marks and giving two beats and three gybes gave every class the opportunity to achieve their best boat speed, with planing reaches at different angles.

Paul Leavers and Keith Bundy in the O'Connell's Fireball benefited from the relatively steady F3.  With Keith out on the wire a remarkably high proportion of the time, they looked like reeling in the Merlins, until Steve Watson & Rob Kennaugh managed to get in their way long enough for the wind to ease which halted the Fireball's progress through the fleet.

Chris Martin & Chris Gould tangled their spinnaker and nearly parked in the Rowing Club compound [note to next week's race team: move Butlin/No. 4 further from the shore] before retiring, leaving Mike and John to take the win, followed closely by Julian & Helen and Steve and Rob.  Seriously slowed by the dying wind, Laura Barrance in a cat-rigged Feva showed great determination to finish, but scored DNF as she failed to cross the line within 30 minutes of the winner.

Race two saw two distinct races within a race.  The Fevas initially pointed higher and went faster up the first beat than the GP and Solo, and comprised the leading bunch for some time into the race.  The Merlin start was even closer than in the first race, with Chris Martin leading the charge and no one chancing a port-end flyer this time.  Amazingly, a one-in-a-million-year event occurred - Chris Gould, Chris Martin and most of their boat were over the line at their start, leaving an incredulous Martin to bear away and gybe round the safety boat to recross the line behind the rest of the Merlins.  Red mist then descended on 3442, and by half way round the lap, they were back in front of the rest of the Merlins.  Can't we find any way of slowing these guys down?  Only alternative is probably for everyone else to learn how to go faster!

The change of course to D reverse for race 2 raised some concerns about having two runs and no beat.  In reality the two beats - 5 to 2 and 6 to 1 - provided at least as many challenges as in the first race, and the long, deep reach from 1 to 5 rewarded those who could read the angles and maximise VMG downwind - sorry Mike, there just wasn't enough wind for the Feva spinnaker to hold it's own against the symmetrical spinnaker boats.

Line honours went to Chris Martin & Chris Gould this time, with Mike Anslow & John Hackett taking second and Julian & Helen Harms coming in third, while the happy boat prize for the biggest grins across the finishing line went to Eddie Saunders and Catherine Heyward in Merlin 3399.

Thanks to Terry Gray for driving the safety boat and demonstrating its new periscope.

The new series starts next Saturday, and the Wednesday evening series starts on 6th April - warning signal @ 6.30pm.