Oscar Mead wins Royal Southampton Yacht Club 2-handed Series
by Team Oscar Mead 3 Nov 2008 09:02 GMT
Having decided at an early age that he wanted to be a shorthanded offshore racer, 18 year old Cowes based sailor Oscar Mead achieved another step down that road recently when he was confirmed as the winner of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club’s, season long, 2-Handed Series earlier this month.
With the last race being called off due to a complete lack of wind in the Solent, Team Oscar Mead counted 5 firsts and a 10th to totally dominate the fleet of over 40 yachts in Class 1. The 8 race series was made up of 4 inshore races (including the RSYC’s legendary 2 handed Round the Island Race with over 150 competing boats) and 4 offshore races.
Team Oscar Mead won 3 of the 4 offshore races, (overnight to Weymouth, overnight round the channel and overnight to Honfleur.) Inshore, Team Oscar Mead won the Nab Tower race and a windy “Spring Double” in the Solent which was the first race of the season back in April.
Commenting on his success Oscar said; “It's been a fantastic season for me and when I look back and remember taking delivery of Juneau 3 days before the first race weekend, it seemed inconceivable that we would have done this well, but things have really clicked for me this year. I have really enjoyed every race we did, especially the overnights.”
Commenting on the racing Oscar said; “RSYC have run a great series of races and I really thank them for putting on the best attended 2 handed racing in the UK. I had done the 2 handed Round the Island a few times before, but never entered the series as a whole, but the club have laid on great racing, adapting to the French fisherman’s blockade of Cherbourg (the weekend we were supposed to race there) with a race round the channel, despite a forecast of 35 knots of wind, and also for putting on overnight races which have been such fun. I would like to thank Kathy Smalley and her team at RSYC as well as McGuigan Wines who sponsored the series, even if I did give my winnings to my Dad as he likes wine more than I do!”
Commenting on the series Kathy Smalley, Captain of Racing at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club said; “Overall in the series, Class 1 was dominated by “Juneau”, a new J105 to the fleet, but exceptionally well-sailed by Oscar and Laurence Mead. With five firsts to count, they were unbeatable in the main series”
Wrapping up Oscar said; “Juneau” has been a great little boat and I hope she will look after me as well when we head across the Atlantic in the OSTAR next year! She’s in the shed from this weekend for me to get her ready for the 3,500 miles to Newport, more boat building (and my first year at University!) for me before I get to race her again!”
Race Summary
Race 1
Windy and cold in the Solent for a round the cans race of 25 miles. Winds up to 31 knots from the north in early April….chilly! We were slow up the first beat after a nice start at the pin end, but really flew down the long spinnaker reaching legs to get back in the hunt. Three J105’s were all within a few boat lengths of each other on the beat back to the finish but we managed to tack inside one at the last mark and then get the layline to the finish bang on, to sneak it on corrected time by 22 seconds from another J105, sailed by Paul and Mark Griffiths.
Race 2
Overnight to Weymouth over the May Bank holiday. Another slow first beat, this time in very light westerly winds against the tide. We tacked up the mainland shore out of the Solent but weren’t in great shape until we were the first boat to hoist a spinnaker as we rounded the mid Solent windward mark. We hoisted our small, flat, A5 chute, which we carried very close to the wind for about 40 minutes before anybody else had a spinnaker up, and this got us back into the race by the time we reached Yarmouth.
As night fell we got the last part of the exit from the Solent right as well, but were still behind the Beneteau 31.7 “No Doubt” when we headed down channel. We peeled to the biggest chute we had and held it all night, staying out in the channel for better tidal effect. We called an earlier gybe than most of the fleet, and with a good layline into Weymouth Bay we finished 20 minutes behind Ding Dong (a Stewart 37) on the water to win on corrected time. “No Doubt” had gone inshore and lost a fair bit on the run to Weymouth.
Race 3
A day race back from Weymouth. A 10th in what became an upwind battle that didn’t suit Juneau, and we sailed badly that day as well! We got too far inshore in the easterly breeze and when it died and came back in as a sea breeze we were rather dumped out the back. A win for “No Doubt” and a good result from “Ding Dong”, both really fast upwind boats, kept the series very open.
Race 4
Cherbourg overnight, (except we didn’t go to Cherbourg!) The French fisherman’s blockade made that impossible so RSYC laid on a channel course at short notice. We had a beat and fetch out of the Solent to Marine Safety (mid Channel) and then a tight spinnaker reach back in a building North Easterly that was forecast to be 35 knots by the morning. We got a bit dumped on the way out of the Solent in a light air beat (“Malice” sailed by Mike Moxley and Huw Evans flying away and more of them later!) but we managed to stay low and fast as the wind built, and we were also working hard to stay down tide as the tide was building quickly as we sailed out into the Channel. By the turning mark we were back in it.
At about midnight we tacked inside the aforementioned “Malice” as they struggled to get back down tide to the mark in a now sluicing east going tide. We did a quick spinnaker hoist and then we really hit the speed button!!! With our trusty little North Sails A5 chute up we flew down the reach. We carried the kite all the way back past the Forts and into the Solent “undertaking” several bigger boats who were jib reaching without chutes. We finished at 0419 hours, 2nd boat home and only 12 minutes behind “Ding Dong” on the water. I think we were the only boat to carry the chute all the way home.
Race 5
The Island Double. My favourite race of the season but I couldn’t do it as I was delivering an X41 to Denmark for the X Yachts Gold Cup and that took a lot longer than we had planned! My dad skippered the boat in my absence and although he got a “2nd” on corrected time in the race to “No Doubt”, this became 40 points once he had “retired after finishing” (RAF) as it was pointed out to him that he had rounded the Cowes harbour entrance marks 80 metres from the finish on the WRONG side… oops!
That blew the Inshore Trophy as that would be awarded for all four races without a discard, and it was a set back for the season title as it meant we would have to count our 10th in the main series. The Beneteau 31.7 “No Doubt “ (Chris and Hannah Neve) took over the series lead with another bullet and “Ding Dong” was solid in second overall, without any race wins but without any bad scores either.
Race 6
The Nab Tower Race. We had a lovely windward end start lined up on a pretty heavily biased line, only to find a number of bargers reaching down and messing up everybody on the layline. I missed hitting anybody but am not sure how we missed the 44 footer that bore away over our bow without warning! The wind was 12 to 15 knots and South easterly, the good news about that being that we would not have to beat back from the Nab Tower, the one point of sailing that we hadn’t been fast on all season. We did a couple of clearing tacks and then jib reached all the way to the Nab with both jib sheet and mainsheet in hand, constantly adjusting to the gusts and headers from the Island shore.
We worked really hard down this leg, which was just as well as we got to the Nab Tower well after the big boats, who were streaming away on a tide that was turning against the smaller boats. We tacked inside Malice (again!) and set the A2 chute. Off we went, pumping the chute on every wave all the way back to the finish. We overtook a lot of bigger boats and didn’t rest until the finish, which was just as well, as we won, but only by 12 seconds ahead of a slew of big boats that had beaten the tide change around the Nab.
Race 7
The longest race of the season, a 110 miler to Honfleur in France. Another 7pm Friday night start and again no wind out of the Solent, a beat eastwards. I got the start timing wrong going for the pin end and I was too early so had to gybe round. This put us in dirty air, and with a few too many tacks as well on the beat out we were a long way behind “Malice” as we left the Solent. The breeze filled in a bit though and that suited “Juneau” better. Despite the fact that it was basically on the wind there weren’t any tacks necessary at the outset and with two cross-tides to navigate during the passage across to France there was a divergence in the “sail high” or “sail low” tactics.
We choose to sail as fast as we could, even if that meant going lower and we had an all night battle with Katie Miller who did the same in her Figaro 2. We overtook her at about 2am but at dawn, with the wind lightening we were still behind Ding Dong, Malice and OOjah, the latter of which was in view to windward and just ahead of the beam. They were all close under the headland however (along with the Prima 38 “Baradal” who we could see with binoculars), and, as the breeze slowly lightened inshore, we made up more and more ground until we were able to sail past them to leeward. After tacking and sailing for 2O minutes on starboard we got a great 2nd on the water and a win on corrected time behind “Ding Dong”. This was all about holding our nerve, well to leeward of the fleet while sailing fast all night.
Race 8
Solent Autumn Double. No wind! Bright sunshine and almost summer like in October on the Solent! Our good friend’s on “Ding Dong” threw some drinks and sandwiches over as we hadn’t taken any lunch with us (thanks guys!) and with the race abandoned that marked the end of a great season of 2-handed racing.