Bembridge Sailing Club September Keelboat Racing
by Mike Samuelson 4 Sep 2017 07:52 BST
2-3 September 2017
What a difference 24 hours makes. Saturday was almost perfect, Sunday was damp and pretty miserable. However, it was really nice to be able to welcome members of the Poole Redwing fleet to come and race in our waters over the weekend.
With a F3 Southerly breeze and three races for the six Redwings and the five One-Designs to try to get completed on Saturday, a start line based on Fitzwilliam was the obvious choice. The first course for both classes had Tara as the windward mark, Moreton as the wing mark and Ruthven as the leeward mark. Joe Robertson helming Plover for the first time with Dorian Campbell crewing, lead almost from the start despite mutterings of "I can't work out where some of rig controls are!"; the beat back from Ruthven was a bit of a procession although Angela Bentley in Toucan with Colin Samuelson crewing did try an early tack which sadly did not work for them. Avocet helmed by Alastair Speare-Cole with Jessica S-C and Nick Parker crewing was second; Quintessence with Robin Culpan helming and Robin Ebsworth and Heather Culpan crewing was third.
The course for the second race was a simple windward/leeward using Tara and Ruthven. The start was not quite as good as the first one and after split tacks, it was again Plover in the lead, albeit only just as Malcolm Bentley helming Red Gauntlet II with Annie Robertson showing him the ropes narrowed their lead on the run to Ruthven. However on the beat back to Fitzwilliam, it was Toucan who took up the chase with Avocet in third.
Although not a prefect beat, the final race took the Redwings to Cochrane and then back to Janson with the finish at Under Tyne. After a clean start, the fleet again split tacks with Quintessence heading inshore early - a tactic that paid handsomely and put them into first place for the rest of the race. Red Gauntlet II, having also gone inshore early was second and Avocet and Plover finished inches apart in third and fourth places.
The five One-Designs had the same courses as the Redwings for their first two races. In the first, Anna Row in No 8 with husband James crewing took an early lead and never looked like relinquishing it. On the run to Moreton and Ruthven Mark Grzegorczyk in No 9 with Peter Truman crewing and Xander Shaw in No 10 were close however Xander got it wrong on the final beat and finished at the back. William Bland and D Orange in No 12 were third. Xander got his own back in the second race and finished ahead of No 6, being helmed by James Row. D Orange in No 12 and Peter Truman in No 9 finished very close together in third and fourth.
In the final race of the day, the One-Designs had Tara rather Cochrane as their initial windward mark. As in the previous race Xander in No 10 picked the best way to go and pulled out a considerable lead ahead of No 8 and No 9.
All in all an excellent day's racing.
Start of the First Redwing Race:
Start of the Second One-Design Race:
Start of the Third Redwing Race:
More photos can be found on flickr here.
Damp and with a Southerly F4 gusting F5, the One-Designs decided to stay ashore on Sunday and leave four of the Redwings to have their two races as planned. With conditions at Fitzwilliam pretty unpleasant, the start was based on Britten with Footprint as the initial windward mark and Derrick the leeward one. Set for two rounds the first race took around 41 minutes; it was won by Joe Robertson back helming his own boat, Red Gauntlet II with his Mum, Annie and Rod Thorpe crewing. Colin Samuelson in Toucan with Malcolm Bentley crewing finished second ahead of Jonathan Nainby-Luxmore with Angela Bentley in Snow Goose.
As the wind had not veered nor backed the race committee decided to keep the same course for the second race. Robin Ebsworth and Nick Parker in Quintessence was the first to cross the start line and get to the first mark but he was overtaken on the run to Derrick by Joe Robertson in Red Gauntlet II who went on to secure their second win of the day. A battle developed for second place between Quintessence and Toucan, helmed for this race by Malcolm Bentley. It came down to the final beat when the latter read the finishing line bias correctly and pipped Quintessence on the line. Fourth was Snow Goose and fifth was Avocet helmed by George Greenwood with Alastair Speare-Cole crewing.