Regatta, July 4th 2009

This year's Regatta retained the same format as last year, with 3 pairs of short (about 30 minute) back-to-back races. Although the wind backed a little, it stayed in the south west sector, and was brisk enough to ensure some good sailing. Races were either two or three laps long, using average lap times to try to mop up some of the slower boats.

The wind shifted sufficiently that we were able to set two different courses, with either 8 or 1 as the first mark. To make it a bit more interesting, 5 was included in the first two races (18526), but omitted from the next two (81726), when 7 was included. The last two races used the same course again, but with the insertion of 5 into the last race, 817256, in the hope that this might give the asymmetrics a bit of an advantage! It might have.

There were 32 competitors altogether, though the maximum number in any race was 29. Rather remarkably, 20 boats finished all 6 races, although they were allowed two discards for scoring.

Starts were reasonably orderly, although the PDO made a monumental cock-up at the start of race 4. One boat was OCS and due to some miscommunication between the committee boat and the RCB, two sound signals were made, indicating a general recall instead of an individual. Properly the clock starts ticking at that point for a restart, but things went a bit too far & the safety boat had to inform everyone & shepard them back to the start line. Fortunately no-one took offense & we got back & had a cleaner start. One of the morals is to have a horn on the committee boat. The only other observed OCS incident was on the last race when Sarah and Graeme had to be recalled. This was the only race that they didn't win, both on the water and on handicap.

Overall it was a bit of a Castle-fest. They started well, they sailed well, and they finished first, collecting the Regatta Trophy (again). Messrs Cornish & Rushton were in hot pursuit, and in fact finished equal on points, having to be separated by the fact that John had two seconds to Dave's one. And last year's Billy No Mates winner, Neil Kelsall might have been up there too, had he not snapped his tiller extension in the last race.

Rich Kelsall was the top placed Junior, winning the coveted Godber Trophy. Had he been using the full Laser rig rather than the radial, he might have been even higher placed, up with his Dad. Alice Gallimore continues to sail better each year and was the top placed female helm.

The total number of Junior sailors seemed lower than previous years. Perhaps the thrills and excitement of the Family Fun Day had exhausted them (or their parents). However Lucy and Hannah, together with George and Henry Mason provided a bit of youthful entertainment, and some much needed practice for the safety boat, who otherwise had a very dull day.

Apart from the two trophies, prizes are handed out pretty arbitrarily. The Duckhams for a major mistake or underperformance was awarded by the PDO to the PDO for his problem with race 4. Apart from the PDO the Duty Team worked very smoothly (thanks to Jane Hamer, Richard Clarke, Nicola Field and Sue Prue). The results appeared reasonably quickly (thanks to Sailwave & Sue Prue) and were published in the breaks between the pairs of races.

Prizes:

After the dust had settled, I realized that there should have been at least two more prizes: to Rod Bowes for a remarkably consistent set of results, and to Tony Archer, who revealed that the last time he had sailed a dinghy was in 1975, and on this very water. A real Get Back to Sailing entry!

Malcolm Clark

Graeme and Sarah sailing to victory

Rich

Helen and Alice battle it out

Chris Godber

Brenda (with Becky) and David

an orderly procession

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This page was updated on 13 July 2009