Contender European Championship at Highcliffe Sailing Club - Day 3

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 3 © Sarah Desjonqueres

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 3 © Sarah Desjonqueres

We waited, we tried, we were beaten by the wind

Highcliffe SC's roving reporter woke this morning to reports of perfect sunshine and a good steady wind which after yesterday's rather pedestrian racing, was received with great excitement.

This information unfortunately turned out to be over-exaggerated/over-enthusiastic/over-optimistic – take your pick. The sun was indeed shining but the wind had shifted east and was barely strong enough to blow out a candle.

Still, the race team, on the (unfounded) expectation of the arrival of a sea breeze, ventured out to lay a course. With the mark laying RIBS in position and all the boats released from the beach, we all waited patiently for 3 knots to turn into 10.

And then we waited and we waited...

Seconds before a general sense of humour failure kicked in, the burgees began to flutter triggering a frenzy of wind speed checks and radio chit-chat. The general feeling amongst the fleet however indicated a lack of enthusiasm to race in such marginal wind conditions and so it was that the marks were quickly laid and the countdown sequence started.

Race 5 managed a clean, if not a little congested start and the beat out to the windward mark saw the fleet split so wide that the boats stretched from Highcliffe all the way to Barton on Sea. It even looked from a distance that Simon Mussell was off to Poole. And like the day before, there also seemed to be a miscellaneous yacht that had decided to pootle slowly right through the middle of the fleet on port. Why?

With such a wide spread, some sailors ended up over standing the mark, some just chose to go the wrong way and a few lucky ones, who sailed right up the middle managed find themselves benefiting from the land breeze arriving at the mark ahead the rest.

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 3 - photo © Sarah Desjonqueres

But by this point, the race officer was receiving reports of seriously dwindling winds around the gybe mark which were consistently measuring only 3knots on the anemometer. The writing was on the wall for the race and after ¾ of the boats had floated round the wing mark, 3 hoots were sounded and the blue and white flag went up.

From the front of the fleet were howls of disappointment, from the back were whoops of delight, quite where the dividing line between disappointment and delight lay is anyone's guess.

Not wanting to jinx anything, there will be no mention of the forecast for tomorrow. Hope it delivers, there are 3 races to run now...

In the meantime, Langdown gets another day sitting at the top of the leader board.

Results after Day 3:

For further information please see www.highcliffesailing.co.uk