Maylandsea Bay Sailing Club Winter Series - Day 2
by Alan Jackson 9 Nov 2009 21:23 GMT
8 November 2009
Maylandsea Bay Winter Series day 2 © Richard Lytheer
Winter sailing at its best
A late tide and a dying breeze set the set the pace as the wading birds lifted off the mud banks keeping the mystery and enchantment of a unique Essex sailing venue.
The gathering fleet quickly upped the tempo and busied themselves checking their sail setting and rig tensions. For the race box this was a stressed day with the sun already low in the sky and the wind due to drop as the day ended. The fleet was lucky enough to have Geoffrey Walkey, a Race Officer not to be messed with. With the wind in the east at 14 knots a course was posted this week only with seventeen marks to be rounded.
The start was a well-mannered affair with Malcolm and Tony ‘Fireball’ popping out in front, closely followed by Dave and Keith ‘Fireball’, Jacko and Lorna ‘Merlin’. The battle for lead Fireball was a twitchy affair with the wind shifts being slight but often.
Jacko and Lorna built a good lead worked their way around the macramé handbag of a course, round Mundon spit race mark and heading back up the creek for home, the course having been shortened, to win by a small margin from Martin Tarlin ‘Laser’ who had been sailing above his PY finishing in front of many faster boats, with Malcolm and Tony finishing 3rd.
Race 3 was quickly under way. But as the sunset and the wind started to drop to a drift the faster boats pulled away with Mark and Barry taking line honours finishing 3rd overall from Jacko and Lorna 1st, Malcolm and Tony 2nd.
Thanks to Richard Lytheer for the splendid photographs and a special thank you to Geoffrey and the support boat team who gave the fleet one of the best day racing on a day that could have easily gone very sad.
Next race Sunday 15th November, 9:45 start.
Results after Day 2:
1st Alan Jackson and Lorna Laval, Merlin, 2pts
2nd Malcolm Cross and Tony Everitt, Fireball, 6pts
3rd Mark Batt and Barry Sadler, 505, 9pts
Full results and more information at www.maylandseabay-sc.org.uk