Osprey National Championships at Weymouth Sailing Club - Day 2

by Iain Jones 22 Jul 2013 13:24 BST 20-23 July 2013

Adrian, our self-confessed wind god of a Race Officer, had kindly arranged for champagne conditions on day 2. Not a cloud in the sky and with a wind of F3-4 it promised to be a good day.

View from the front

Race 3

A trapezoid course was set and the fleet were keen at the first start. After a general recall and black flag the fleet were off. The race was won by Andy Barker and Peter Grieg in 1318. 2nd was Russ Wheeler and Chris Saunders in 1341, 3rd new to the fleet Dave Wade and Bernard Gooman in the borrowed 1350. The spray tanned sailing god was enjoying moderate success in the middle of the fleet until his helm Paul Heather in 1292 decided to hit the last mark and let 3 boats through while doing his turn.

Race 4

At the final leeward mark Paul Heather, having not learnt from Race 1, tried the same trick but this time was punished by capsizing (turtle) on the mark. By the time the boat was righted, the spinnaker untied and removed from round the centreboard, 1292 had gone from 16th to last.

Race 5

To cap the day off Paul Heather in 1292 provided the entertainment by falling out of the back of the boat when coming ashore. To add to his embarrassment he had tied his right foot in the boat with the main sheet. Fortunately there were plenty of people on hand to lift him out of the water.

View from the rear (all 3 races since I have no idea what happened)

Thank you Weymouth Sailing Club for the most amazing sail. Those lumps in the water took a little getting used to after Poole Harbour, but following yesterday's lesson by turning turtle, we approached the races as experts. At the first start we could not see either end so were not surprised to hear 3 beeps and a return. After this, the boys and girls behaved.

We had good starts and bad starts, good beats and bad beats and still ended up at the mark with exactly the same boats around us and a lot of boats ahead. On the second beat we lost 2 places as we watched the spectacle of the cries of "starboard" turning into "glug, glug, glug" closely followed by "you...!". Sadly someone was dreaming and rather than slice the offender in two, Adam decided to cool off with a refreshing swim. Very sporting of him.

Other than that, the legs merged into one glorious day as we thrashed upwind, flew on the three sail reaches and narrowly avoided gybing on the runs. Lots of people passed us and we passed a few ourselves. Richard Hattersley kept getting in the way. We have no idea what happened at the front, but at the back we had the best day's sailing of our lives.

View from the middle(ish)

As lightweight pond sailors, Viola and Francis Scott of 1314 are probably alone in hoping for a little less wind! However it couldn't be denied that the conditions offered superb sailing today on a well laid course entirely free of oversized shipping.

Getting a good start in an Osprey nationals is a tricky business and aggression seems to be needed in spades. Is it ok to be over as long as everyone else is? However, the black flag was quickly deployed and we eventually managed to end up the right side. We managed to get a bit of the hang of the waves and by the third race of the day we had improved enough to finish in exactly the same position as before. Having experimented with sailing huge angles downwind or heading straight for the mark we also concluded that it doesn't make a lot of difference.

For the rest of the week we will hope for calm, frustrating conditions where we can try to out-drift the competition and put a bit more pressure on the so far unshakable shoulders of our race officer.

Results after Day 2: (five races, 1 discard)

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	319	Thomas Too	Andy Barker	Peter Grieg	1	‑2	1	2	2	6
2	1290	Swiftwun	Martin Cooney	Peter Frith	5	1	‑8	1	1	8
3	1347	Torro Loco	Phil Meakins	Richard Anderton	2	3	4	5	‑6	14
4	1337		Tim Rush	Sam Pascoe	3	4	‑16	4	3	14
5	1350	Contains Nuts	David Wade	Bernard Gammon	‑10	5	3	7	4	19
6	1280	Obsession	Steve George	Mike Greig	‑13	6	10	6	5	27
7	1272	Yabba Dabba Doo	Phil Angrave	Pete Smith	4	11	6	‑13	8	29
8	1355	Chance	Richard Hartley	Mark Hartley	9	9	9	3	‑10	30
9	1311	Oh Spray	Chris Gould	Nick Broomhall	7	7	7	10	‑16	31
10	1348		Mike Pickering	Mike Priddle	6	10	‑11	8	11	35
11	1298	Barking Mad	Michael Atkinson	Stuart Maunder	11	‑17	5	9	14	39
12	1281	White Knuckles	Terry Curtis	Tim Bowden	8	8	‑13	11	12	39
13	1341	Stylo	Russell Wheeler	Chris Saunders	‑18	14	2	14	15	45
14	1331	Odeline	Gareth Caldwell	Jon Gibbons	12	‑15	12	15	7	46
15	1287	Excalibur	Rob Shaw	Ian Little	17	18	‑19	12	9	56
16	1343	Luv Bites	Richard Marshall	Piers Strong	‑22	12	18	20	13	63
17	1322	Peek‑a‑Boo	Mick Greenland	Lee Marriott	15	13	15	‑24	21	64
18	1296	White Star	Jock Fellows	Phil Male	16	23	14	16	‑29	69
19	1291	Waimanu	Alex Willis	Nick Willis	14	19	17	‑29	27	77
20	1295	Big Girls Blouse	Phil Greetham	Chris Greetham	25	16	‑26	18	19	78
21	1353	Callisto	John Shenton	Steve Offer	24	20	‑27	19	18	81
22	1314	Think Again	Viola Scott	Francis Scott	19	‑32	21	22	22	84
23	1316	Uzi Jane	Alan Henderson	Alastair Barrie	21	22	‑25	21	23	87
24	1247	Stringbag	Marcus Scrace	John Pym	20	24	22	23	‑34	89
25	1338	Curved Air	Ken Brown	Chris Butters	‑29	21	23	28	20	92
26	552	Brave New World	Oscar Chess	David Charles	‑33	26	24	17	31	98
27	1292	Light n' Bitter	Paul Heather	Jonathon Osgood	27	(RET)	20	36	17	100
28	1175	Able 2	Emma Stevenson	Nick Frampton	30	25	‑32	25	25	105
29	1267	Another Swift Half	David Best	Tony Pauffley	28	27	‑29	27	26	108
30	1195	Another One Bites the Dust	Pete Barnstaple	Richard Cumberbatch	23	31	‑36	30	28	112
31	1085	Infidel	George Odling	Harry Odling	(DNC)	28	28	35	24	115
32	1299	Georgia	Adam Ellery	Joanne Marie Ellery	26	RET	(DNS)	26	33	123
33	1289	Gnasher	Paul Blackburn	Phil Burchell	‑34	29	30	34	30	123
34	1250	Living Daylight	Richard Hattersley	Emma Hattersley	31	30	35	31	‑37	127
35	1319	Prey Encore	Chris Playfair	Alistair Watkins	32	‑33	31	32	32	127
36	1114	Just Pogo	Ros Downs	David Downs	(DNC)	DNC	33	33	35	140
37	119	Lettice	Ian Hart	Andrew Edmonds	35	34	37	37	‑38	143
38	529	Ripple	Mark Dowling	Andy Stratford	36	(DNC)	34	DNC	36	145