Who was out this weekend?.....

Bough Beech Icicle concluded this weekend.  About 106 boats took part - thankfully not all at once - the highest turnout was 36.  Generally its been a windy series with only one Sunday being light and so the high performance boats have done well in spite of it being tight courses for them.

There's been some impressive sailing by the Musto Skiffs of Andy Peake, Alex Koukourakis and Neil Ashby.  And on the last day there was also a win by Richard Smith in a 700 and that couldn't have been easy.  Mike Whitmore and Sarah in a 800 should be mentioned too.  There was another 800 out at times too, but the shifty winds make life difficult for these boats and a measure of the compact courses is that the fast boats often did 5 or 6 laps in the 75 minutes allocated to each race.

It was bad enough in a 4000s.  I'm proud to say the other 4000s could not challenge me and I know I was their target.  But the boats that score well at BBSC are the boats that can keep going in the lulls and can tack on the shifts. 

So the winner was a 200 sailed really well by Mike Chapman and his crew Lynne followed by Michael Green crewed by his dad in a 400.  Andy Peake was next and in 4th place the redoubtable Dave Roberts and Mike in a Wayfarer followed by Matt French in a Laser and local tyro Ray Brown and wife Mary in another 400, in 6th.

A great series to enter and the refurbished interior to the clubhouse and the high standard of catering make life pleasant this time of year.  As always the standard of race management was high - so well worth the visit.

Bough Beech Icicle was excellent this weekend.  Only about 30 boats on the water, I guess this was because of the forecast 25 mph.  The forecast I saw was 17 - which is great for the 4000 but in fact it was less.

Great course with a long beat (for a lake) and a tight asymmetric reach and a long broad one.  We came 7th with a great battle against CarshaltonFC and BNS in the yellow 4000 until they rolled it in to windward (they were trying hard).  Try as we may we couldn't get past the leading RS400 but beat the others.

The afternoon brought a change of course since the wind had swung from SW to W and picked up a bit.  The course was a figure of eight with two beats - one in very disturbed wind and two reaches - one short and tight and one long and broad.  Terribly difficult to get off the shore.  Not a great start but a reasonable beat meant that we rounded the windward mark with all the other fast boats and a Laser, a Wayfarer and a 400.  Hoisting for the long reach something broke and we didn't have the kite properly deployed however we held our own.  That was the last time we were able to carry the kite and so we sailed the rest of the race without.  Never-the-less we managed to keep the other 4000s well behind us and the 400s (except the best one).

It was facinating sailing the long deep reach without the kite.  Not having the kite meant more concentration on catching the gusts and getting deep when we could.  This paid handsomely and on one leg we actually passed a very reasonable 400.  I now realise that normally I'm so keen to keep the crew on the wire I don't go deep enough in the gusts and so in future the crew may have to come in a bit as I dive off in the gusts and then go back out in the lulls as I head up for the next gust.  Sort of counter-intuative, but this is what is required to keep the boat in the gusts for long periods.

So now BNS and CarshaltonFC realise that we are not to be toyed with.  We are infact 12th overal out of 92 entries.  This is a new partnership in this boat and its a team which is improving weekly.  We look forward to next weekend and with a bit more wind a chance to beat even the fastest 400, and if its lighter no worries since then we can beat the skiffs and 800s.

Would that be Luke and BNS per chance?

Now I don't suppose anybody has a trailer that a Finn trolley can fit on so i can join in the fun at Bough Beech, preferably near south west london?

Also are any forumites doing the Southampton frostbite series? Apart from the hour postponement on Sunday it was good racing when the wind picked up.

Very light winds at Bough Beech this Sunday.  Paticularly patchy in the morning and so RS200s, Lasers and RS400s figure in the results.  The highest placed skiff type boat was Alex Koukourakis in a MPS.  We came 20th in our 4000 after a poor start and an abismal first beat and were soundly beaten by CarshaltonFC and BNS in thier 4000 who came 13th.

The afternoon was also light but a bit more consistent, again the skiff type boats were down but there was a good battle at the front by 3 RS400s.  I'm glad to say that we did better being the second of the bunch of skiff types and a couple of RS800s and a MPS between us and our rivals.

Luke (CarshaltonFC) and Isobell (BNS) you should PM me or speak to me next week - there is a little known rule at BBSC which will lift your overall series position from 27th to 11th.  This would put you in front of me (for the time being)!

Haven't been out for weeks   combination of broken sail and broken me!

(and it's not lookiing likely for quite a few weeks yet!)