Hurricane 5.9 SX Open at Datchet Water Sailing Club

Saturday morning, as promised by the weather man, turned out to be very windy and wet. Gusts up to 35 knots were felt as the sailors readied their boats for the opening race of the season.

Dark clouds and rain fronts moved across the lake at breakneck speeds – it was going to be a hard day on the water! Oh and cold 5°C, not a day to fall in or fall over.

However the weatherman also predicted it to drop off, and bang on cue at 12 noon the wind abated to a manageable 15-19 knots and the rain stopped. As John Ready says, if you wait for perfect sailing weather, you will probably never sail at all.

Six Hurricanes made their way out to the start, including 2 virgin SX'ers; Nathan Jones on 102 and Ben Peter on 044, who have upgraded their boats over the winter.

The plan for each day was 4 races back to back, 3 laps windward / leeward courses - fast paced crash and burn sailing, each race lasting around 25 minutes.

Race officer Barry likes to reward those that can see an opportunity, and he set a pin end biased line that also enticed port-end flyers if you were brave enough.

Sure enough John Ready, guest helming for local Andy Bedford, grabbed the chance and blasted away on port on the B of bang in race one, chased hard by Greg and Tom on 137 and Paul and Sam on 118. The wind was behaving, not shifting as it can do, everyone looking for clean air and working the gusts.

Reed and Ready crossed tacks at the top with Ready driving over the top and leading into the top mark. A quick reach to the next mark and kites up, and the pair split tacks to go downwind. Ready won the leg to the bottom mark but there was still nothing in it. This time Reed got the better beat and lead at the top to move away and hold on to win race 1.

In race 2 there were similar pre-race maneuvers, but this time Reed & Loosemore joined the brave at the pin end! Ready & Bedford got the pole again, however Reed ^ Loosemore have the better boat speed upwind or possibly had better gusts that drove the boat forward (you do have to love the new SQ top sails for good gust response!) and take pole at the first mark. McKay & Nicholls were fighting hard with Ready & Bedford, covering each other up and down for the next 2 laps. This allowing Reed to win race 2, with Ready 2nd & McKay 3rd.

Race 3 was a race of gear failure and downwind capsizes. Reed & Loosemore led out McKay & Nicholls.

Race 4 saw only 3 boats start (cold sailors and boat fixing) however racing was still very tight between Reed, Ready and McKay. Some close crossing of tacks made for good combative racing, all looking for the extra shaft of wind (gust) that would propel them ahead of the other 2. Reed & Loosemore finally took the lead on the blast downwind. They then held on to win as Ready held off McKay for 2nd.

Saturday night will be remembered for a lacklustre performance by England Rugby vs Wales and brave Scotland keeping the French within sight to relegate the French to the Wooden Spoon (England losing a potential Grand Slam and triple crown feels bad, but the knowledge that the French came last more than makes up for it).

Sunday morning's forecast was light wind and more rain, however, sitting on the start line a brisk 12-16 knots is way more than the what WindGuru had lead us to believe. Again the John Ready quote rings true.

Race 5, was the closest start, as a 7th hurricane joined us on the line (John Tuckwell and his daughter). 4 boats swapping tacks on the first beat made for some close racing. Reed/Loosemore rounded first and raised the kite to find it was way too hot to lay the spreader, and fought to get it down again. This gave Ready/Bedford the chance to drive over the top, but a killer gust had their name on it and they got knocked over! The gusts were severe, and also accounted for Peter/Glover downwind. Reed went on to post another first with Tuckwell 2nd on the water, McKay 3rd (awarded 2nd for the event, and Jones 3rd).

Race 6 had the wind remaining higher than expected, and another close start with all the SX lined up along the line. The first to tack off and break for clean air were Jones & Smith banging the right hand side of the course. Reed & Loosemore were first to the top again, this time with a small, tight fleet nipping at his transoms. Everyone stayed upright as the wind started to drop down to the forecasted 8-10 knots. It all felt a bit slow after the excitement of the first race. It finished Reed from Ready from McKay.

Race 7 saw all the boats on the line again, good and clean. But the same pattern as the previous races, with the exception that Mckay had handed over the stick to his crew Nicholls to helm the last 2 races. Sam is off to Windwind in a few weeks time to teach sailing on a fleet of new Hobie Tigers! He match raced Ready & Bedford around the course and worked very hard for his 2nd place.

With the regatta in the Bag, Reed/Loosemore sailed in early, leaving Ready vs. Nicholls match race part 2 to finish off the eighth race of the regatta. Nicholls & McKay won the final race of the day from Ready, to give them 2nd place overall and push Ready/Bedford down to 3rd.

So the cobwebs have well and truly been brushed off with a very well run regatta, and excellent time management from Barry the PRO. He turned the races around extremely quickly in order that nobody got too cold.

Thank you to Datchet Water for hosting, when we come back in October please can we have some sunshine and warmer breezes. Looking forward to see the revamped changing rooms also!