Wanderer Travellers Trophy Racing Series at Papercourt Sailing Club

Wanderers at Papercourt © Saffron Gallagher

Wanderers at Papercourt © Saffron Gallagher

A good fleet of 10 boats turned out for the second of 8 events in the 2013 WCOA Travellers Trophy Racing Series at Papercourt SC on Sunday the 21st April, including four local boats and 6 travellers from as far afield as Blakeney in Norfolk and Swanage in Dorset.

The weather forecast suggested gentle winds with some lairy gusts and a dry day of high cloud... what we got was a morning of very variable and extremely light winds with welcome sunshine and an afternoon of greyer skies and a slightly more enthusiastic and reliable light breeze.

Papercourt SC is a gravel pit club near Wisley RHS gardens on the A3 just off junction 10 of the M25. They have loads of rigging and parking space, a newly extended club house and a roughly rectangular lake of about 44 acres. The club was very welcoming to the class and we shared the day with 10 friendly GP14s sailing their own open event.

The format for the day after our welcome and briefing at 10:30 was two short races back to back in the morning and two more in the afternoon. The race officer set a course covering most of the lake and hoped that the 'beat' would turn out to be upwind when he sounded his starting hooter... Getting the GP14s away first (some under spinnakers!) the Wanderers used their start as our 5 minute signal, however at our start the GPs were only halfway up the beat, the winds being so light. The light winds also caught out some of both fleets, leaving the pontoon too late to be able to make the start line for the gun.

Watching the GP14 start persuaded me to leave the melee at the committee boat end of the line and try to lay a course reaching up the port side of the lake from the pin end in clear air, where some GP14s seemed to have benefitted from being as far away from the windward trees as possible. The tactic appeared to work for about half the trip up the lake until the light zephyr I had ridden that far died and started to blow instead from my side of the lake to the benefit of the fleet over the other side... not for the first time that morning the lead boats had that horrible feeling of being becalmed and watching and hearing the whole fleet hustle past not 50 yards away! The arrival at the windward mark was exciting with lots of traffic to avoid with barely enough speed to steer to avoid boats or marks, but not half so exciting as the bunching down at the leeward mark some time later where the GP14 and Wanderer fleets combined to produce 15 odd boats line abreast drifting down on the mark, outside boats luffing like fury to try and hold an advantage at the mark and inside boats desperately holding on to try and keep an overlap at the 3 boatlength circle....the result was lots of shouting and bumping of fendering. Those who sailed low and went round the long way did well, those squashed on the mark didn't. Once the fleet got spaced out a bit things calmed down and settled into something of a rhythm with local boat Mooshka Babe 1407 and my daughter and I in Joshua Slocum 1038 vying for the win. Final top three were settled as 1038, 1407 and another local boat Y Knot 1416 coming in third.

The second race start found Niamh and I hovering beautifully on starboard on the lay line 50 yards off the committee boat with 60 seconds to go and a nice breeze favouring a starboard start and promising we could zip past the committee boat on the gun with clear air, no one close under us and lay the windward mark all the way up the lake... however an impromptu intervention from a Wanderer charging in late, fast and low on starboard, ignoring calls of 'up' to keep clear of us prevented us from powering up, instead we had to drop under him to avoid a collision, into his dirty air and arrive late, slow and fed up on the line, grrrr. Until the starting signal sounds windward boats can't call for water under the committee boat as an obstruction, they have no rights and I should have been able to luff this boat off the course so they would have to tack round and gybe in behind us or risk hitting the committee boat...however caution was the better side of valour and we avoided a collision. Nothing for it then but a smart tack round the committee boat into clean air on the right before tacking back onto starboard now very much in last place and hardly moving... how quickly things go wrong in this game! Niamh and I must practise some roll tacks as in light airs like this a couple of tacks in quick succession takes away all your momentum and you end up wallowing watching others sail away.

Luckily the flakey winds on the beat favoured those tacking on the (substantial) shifts and by sitting forward, heeling the boat to leeward, watching the top tell-tale like a hawk, only sheeting loosely to keep the boat moving rather than pointing we were able to claw back some places by the windward mark and then pop the spinnaker for the first time that day as the breeze was now just about strong enough to fill it. Sailing high and keeping all three sails drawing served us well on the runs, as did watching the surface of the water for wind holes to avoid, so we were able to squeak a second win again just ahead of 1407 and 1416. These conditions were favourable to us as Niamh is a very light crew and results with the 180 degree shifts all morning had been something of a lottery. Honourable mentions for 668 Lily and 1674 Skylark with their crew sailing their first events in the morning and mixing it with a decent sized fleet in some very close racing.

During a good lunch of baked spuds and salad with beer from the well-stocked bar, the wind freshened a little more, so after Terry Pullen had been awarded his Honorary Membership of the association for valuable service over many years in many roles, we went back on the water with rig tension back to normal and a little more speed on the cards. In the third race Tom Key and Peter Howe got their Hartley Wanderer from the club training fleet going, only losing out to us at the last gasp as they didn't have a spinnaker to fend us off or come back at us downwind, and the reigning National Champion 1541 Black Mischief broke into the top three for the first time with local boats 1407 Mooshka Babe and Y Knot 1416 falling back into the fleet after strong results in the morning racing. Orinoco 992 was right in the mix on the first beat until he missed a mark (the course was changed at lunchtime) and had to retrace his steps, finishing 5th.

With the breeze a little stronger now and some almost enthusiastic gusts on occasion, boat balance began to pay off on the beats, keeping the hull completely flat, boom on the centreline with a neutral helm and playing the kicker to keep the top telltale on the main flicking. The stronger breeze also meant that the spinnaker paid on tighter reaches and by holding it for an extra leg to the leeward mark (approaching a beam reach) big gains were there to be made over boats that dropped at the preceding mark. Raising the pole height helped us point higher and hold the kite for longer. In race four we were able to sail clear and pull a decent gap on the field, pursued by 992 Orinoco finding their form in the better air and a revived Mooshka Babe 1407. Our friend from the start of race 2 charging in on starboard tried it again in race four but this time got pinned against the committee boat by another boat asserting their luffing rights more vigorously than I had and he ended up losing out badly this time...

In summary a great day on the water with a good sized fleet, some very close boat on boat action (sometime a little too close – but at least everyone was moving slowly so no harm done!) and a very hospitable club that was easy to find and well placed in the centre of the south with excellent road links. It was really heartening to see some new faces on the Wanderer racing circuit and also to see the relaxed and sociable spirit in which Wanderers go about their racing business carrying on into this new season. My thanks to Mike and Lesley Bennett for being our local Wanderer contact at the club and for marketing the event so well.

Overall Results: