A Class Catamaran TT during the Kielder Water Sailing Club May Open

Derek Gibb on his Schurer G6 during the Kielder Water Sailing Club May Open © Adrian Langford

Gordon Upton playing between the races during the Kielder Water Sailing Club May Open © Adrian Langford

Because the club was so welcoming and friendly last year, and the beer was so magnificently cheap, ten heroic 'A' cat sailors and the occasional accompanying WAG, ventured to the grim North on our pilgrimage to Kielder Water and the most remote sailing club in the UK, over the Mayday Bank Holiday.

Kielder Water SC organise an open every May, with round the cans racing for two days, and the epic Dam to Dam Challenge on the Monday. The British A Class Catamaran Association had designated it as a Ranking Event on the TT circuit this year, and it is only a couple of hours drive for the Hon Treasurer, Derek Gibb, so it was positively local for him.

The first day saw the beautiful remoteness of Kielder reflected in the mirror-like waters. It made for great pictures, but not much good for sailing. The postponement flag was hoisted just in case, but then, as Windguru predicted, the 6-8mph breeze filled in from the West. The 10 A Class sailors set off for the start line and to explore the wind patterns in the course area. The start sequence was 3, 2, 1, but poor Struan was caught out at the top mark in a hole, and, as the race officer wouldn't wait for him to get back in time, this caused signs of grief and distress from him as the other 9 boats passed him drifting back and they were already on the first beat. Lessons learned?

The top mark was set nearer to the left (Southern) side of the valley. As with most valleys, the wind will often favour one side rather than the middle of the course. Kielder looked like it did both. So in all the races, we usually saw a split at the top mark. With the light oscillating wind favouring one then the other.

Bob Fletcher and Phil Neal were usually the ones battling out and frequently swapping places throughout every race. The next bunch of Dave Lowe, Derek Gibb and Gordon Upton constantly switched places as, for example, the right downwind side sometimes gave you a massive lift, other times, the left was stronger. As we gradually learned the conditions, it became a matter of luck/skill to cross the 'dead zone' in the centre of the course. You could forget downwind covering unless you were very close, as someone, say, 30m away, frequently had totally different wind to you. Cerebral sailing at it's finest! Even the marks were at it! The top mark on the first race drifted about 50m downwind of the spreader meaning you had to overstand the mark by some margin in order to round both.

Remember the lessons learned bit? In the first race on day 2, Derek Gibb had a problem with his downhaul and left the shore a little late. Half way across to the start, he sailed bang into a big hole, and low and behold, the 3 minute sequence started at that point leaving him totally out of the race. A little unfair was the general consensus, but rules are rules.

The last race was the odd one as regards positioning for the top two. First time traveller Richard Bartholomew had declared the previous evening that if he was as bad the second day, he would be going home with his ball.

Race 6 start during the Kielder Water Sailing Club May Open - photo © Adrian Langford

A short line made for some bunching at the starts and Richard started back a bit, but on the committee boat end. Getting bad air, he tacked away to the right side of the course, where he found, a few minutes later, a massive lift that put him at least 100m ahead of Bob and Phil at the top mark. He stayed at that end of the fleet until Bob finally reeled him in to get the bullet but Richard got his second. This resulted in Phil getting 2nd overall on countback. He was consoled by his wife, who made him down a bottle of red, and this made it all better.

Overall, it was considered to be an 'interesting' ranking event, but the club and the scenery was what made the event worth the trip. The KWSC made us all feel very welcome again, and we shall certainly return again next year. Many thanks to the organisers Overheard in the clubhouse was a discussion about a committee meeting where they were to decide how much drink to get in for the weekend. So, apparently someone said at this meeting that as the A Cat sailors are coming, we had better just double it to be sure! Bless them!

Overall Results:

The Dam to Dam Challenge - The A Cat view

An annual event takes place on Mayday at Kielder Water SC. A race, of some 10 miles or so, in straight line terms. It is an open event and is well attended by the club members, and the visitors who have stopped over on the bank holiday Monday.

Again, the day dawned in a mirror calm. Jamie Walker declared he was going to put his boat away as it was obviously not going to happen. But, as with most of his threats, he gave it just another half an hour before actually deciding anything. At 10.30, the wind duly swapped ends and switched on to about 6mph again, just enough for us to race legally within the IACA rules, (which the BACCA adhere to strictly, obviously!)

The course was simply to round a can in the short leg to the southern end of the lake, then get to the very Northern end, round another can, then all the way back to a mark near the southern dam end and finally to the finish just off at the clubhouse. It is up to you what course you take to the top end. The lake is essentially Z shaped with the narrowing as you go North.

30 boats started, a melee of Ospreys, Flying Fifteens, Merlin Rocket, Flying Dutchmen, Cape Cutter 19 (whatever that is?), Toppers and a Miracle to name but a few. Plus six of the remaining A Class Cats.

The A cats all decided to hang back a little at the actual start, as they cannot manoeuvre as quickly in the light conditions as the monohulls, should an errant Wayfarer get in the way. But as soon as the line was cleared, most very quickly overhauled the other boats and the first mark was rounded by Derek Gibb on the Scheurer G6, with Gordon Upton in hot pursuit on his DNA. The others followed a couple of minutes later after sailing into various holes.

The lead pair then made for the peninsular and decided to round it reasonably closely as the wind shadow was not very pronounced at that area. In a remarkable spirit of sportsmanship, Derek and Gordon discussed their best route as they were only a few meters apart at that point and started to stretch a good few hundreds of meters lead from the following pack of Dave Lowe, Toby Winchester and Tony Lampitt (79). Then Derek got a gust and quickly pulled out a 50m lead.

This continued across to the next lake corner and up the Northeast leg. Nothing was taken for granted as regards leads though. They can evaporate in a matter of minutes here. Which is exactly what happened again.

Rounding the next corner into the Northern leg of the Z, Derek's now 200m lead was eaten up by Gordon who had arrived at a windier bit for some reason. It was then noticed that Dave and Tony (79) were also creeping up. Within a quarter of a mile, the leading three boats were in line abreast and gliding along serenely through the Alpine-looking scenery of the top leg.

Finally the top mark was reached first by Tony (79), who, to be fair, probably has a good 3 stone weight advantage over the other three bloaters so these were his perfect conditions. Gybing around the mark, the group set off back down again and started to encounter the other boats coming up. Mainly a reach/fetch the wind became a beat as we rounded the corner again, but it had now increased and we were all on the wire by now. Tacking about, Dave on his DNA and who had changed his sail to his 1000mm head Brewin, started to creep ahead and had got a good 100m lead by the second corner as we entered the larger lake body.

Then the wind dropped and we all caught him up again. Derek and Gordon continued along the centre of the lake towards the bottom mark set near the Dam. Dave and Tony gybed to cover the new threat, Toby, who was sneaking quietly up along the downwind shoreline. Derek then started to drift down towards them too. All 5 boats were then swapping the lead as gusts and lulls did their bit. As they neared the mark, Gordon was definitely the nearest but then Dave's slight downwind position started to pay off as he could now sail into more of a beat as the wind had again swung. He rounded the mark about 10 seconds ahead of the now frustrated Gordon.

The others followed suit after there was a slight disagreement over water at the mark as Toby had started to luff Tony up. Gordon decided the only way to get past Dave was to force him into a mistake and started to try to split by tacking. However Dave had seen the Americas Cup racing too and covered each time. This left the gate open a crack for Derek, who had spotted a dark patch towards the middle of the lake and headed straight for it. Dave saw him just in time and bolted for the line leaving Gordon in yet another hole with Derek heading fast on the wire on starboard crossing the line ahead by a mere 20 seconds. This made the BACCA Treasurer happy and was considered sweet revenge for what Gordon did to him in the last race of the previous day, by not covering him at the last mark, allowing Gordon to sneak a podium place from under his nose.

Also, in the run up to the line, Jamie Walker managed to snatch a place from poor old Tony, who was clearly still smarting from his luffing incident. It was remarkable though, that after racing all that way, in the most shiftiest and lightest of conditions, all 6 A Cats finished within 4 minutes of each other!

As the boats were being packed away onto their trailers, masts dropped, showered and changed, kit stowed for going home, the club horn sounded as one of the tail enders, a cutter, finished. A joke was made that he had probably beaten all of us even though he finished a full hour and twenty minutes later.

No joke. He had beaten us all and the curse of the A Cat's ferociously fast handicap rating returned to haunt us all yet again. Ho hum.

Congratulations to the winners, Viola and Michael Scott in their Osprey. A boat clearly designed and suited to the place and named for one of its summer residents!

We will all be back, but, alas, will we ever learn? Very few of us can beat a Cape Cutter 19 (whatever that is) sailed in light airs!