Mirror class at the Waldringfield Cartoon Trophy
by Mark Hodge 10 Sep 2013 08:18 BST
7-8 September 2013
Mirrors at the Waldringfield Cartoon Trophy © Alexis Smith
A small but select group of Mirrors entered the annual Waldringfield Sailing Club Cartoon trophy this weekend. The strong blustery conditions on Saturday's three races led to some hair raising moments; but essentially showed what a great boat the Mirror is in a strong blow compared to all the other classes in the open meeting that took to resting on their sides from time to time.
The exact details of Saturday's races escape me mainly due to the adrenaline rush! Mark Hodge and his daughter Rebecca took the strong winds in their stride, with some close racing against Jules & Becky Rains, and eventually went on to claim all three races on Saturday.
Neil Fletcher and young son Ed battled through the strong winds to lie in 2nd place overall after Saturday. Jamie Whittle and young son Tristan chose a great day for their first Mirror outing in the recently acquired Waldringfield Club mirror.
By Sunday the conditions had calmed down but still the odd gust caused a few interesting moments. The first race on Sunday turned out to be all about who could round the windward mark the first - with the buoy having been placed on the far edge of the tidal channel in little wind with an unfavourable flooding tide. The Whittles came so very close to rounding it first, the Hodges thought they had gone up-tide enough but also failed to make it round first. The Fletchers who must have sailed almost 200m past the buoy were first round to claim victory in what turned out to be a short race.
The second race on Sunday saw some more close racing up the first beat with the Fletcher pairing spotting the windward mark hidden near the moorings first with everybody else over standing it.
Overall honours for the weekend were still undecided going into the final race. A tidal miscalculation up the first beat by the Hodges provided the Fletchers with a big lead. After two long off-wind legs against the tide the Hodges had narrowed the deficit to 50m, rounding the leeward mark after the Fletchers the Hodges found themselves in a squall - pointing much higher and gaining on the Fletchers. With the race being shortened at the windward mark the other side of the river in what was now a strong ebbing tide the Hodges were well placed to continue to gain but only managed to get within a boat length at the line to see the Fletcher's take the final race and become overall winners of the Mirror Class at the Cartoon Trophy.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 32179 | N Fletcher | Edward Fletcher | 2 | ‑3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2nd | 67499 | Mark Hodge | Rebecca Hodge | 1 | 1 | 1 | ‑2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3rd | 7015 | Jamie Whittle | Tristan Whittle | 3 | 4 | (DNF) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 16 |