Tasar and D-Zero Open at Porthpean Sailing Club

Tasars at Porthpean © Stacey Bray

Tasars at Porthpean © Stacey Bray

Tasars whizzing around St Austell Bay has been a common sight in the area for over 30 years, it is where the current National Champions, Jeremy & Suzanne Hawkins call home and is the playground for a resident seal and on a special kind of day, a pod of dolphins.

Porthpean SC were, as usual, pleased to lay on a SW Tasar Open meeting in the bay this weekend, with a D-Zero open joining in on the Sunday, offering competitors fairly light conditions but a generous dose of sunshine and some very close racing.

As forecast, the wind had swung round to SSE on Saturday bringing along with it a rather unwelcome swell and a boat bashing surf to challenge the sailors' departure from the beach. The Tasar turnout were eager to race however and Race Officer, Stacey Bray, laid a perfect P course - a beat out toward Gribben Head, 2 lovely reaches across the bay rounding into a deathly dead run, in loppy waves, back toward the beach.

Race 1 got away cleanly, the resident champs stormed off up the beat chased down by locals Rigby/Fobbester and visitors Team Taylor. Combo Seyler/Desjonqueres were second round the windward mark but as the weight distribution discussion raged on in their boat, both Rigby and Taylor piled past them on the top reach taking them from 2nd to 4th in a matter of seconds. The main battleground for place switching soon moved on to the run, engendering a real gybe fest and giving the crews plenty of whisker pole practice and a good lesson in the art of balancing whilst standing up in a rolling boat. Rounding the mark quickly became a manic moment of pole down, sliders back, spanner repositioned, fairleads in, outhaul tightened, plate down, jib tightened - not necessarily in that order but definitely needing to be done in 5 seconds flat both to keep the speed and avoid hitting someone. Such fun, such bruised hands.... Luckily for all concerned there was enough puff in the wind to get in 2 good races and race 2 played out in pretty much the same way as race 1, giving 2 wins to Team Hawkins, 2 runners up places to Team Rigby/Fobbester and 2 third position gongs to Team Taylor.

Day 2 was a lesson in patience. Sunday dawned cloudless and pretty windless, but with 3 visiting D-Zeros and one resident joining the start line all parties were keen to get out and see what the bay had to offer.

Tasars at Porthpean - photo © Stacey Bray

Race 3 got underway, albeit with a squeakily tight start line and with just enough wind and witnessed the unusual sight of Team Hawkins getting in a muddle/clash with a D-Zero and in a new experience for them, found themselves last to the windward mark. Making the most of this were Rigby/Fobbester and Seyler/Desjonqueres who by the second round were well on the next beat while the other Tasars were struggling up the painfully slow run on the P-course set by Race Officers Andrew and Jenny Kendall. As the sea turned glassy the shout went up 'What's that?!' and lo and behold a pod of dolphins swam by either to alleviate frustration of the world's slowest run or to distract the crews... Either way, a beautiful sight and a special kind of day. In the end the bullet went to Rigby/Fobbester, followed in by Seyler/Desjonqueres and visitors Yates/Maggs who took 3rd. Break for lunch and wait for the wind seemed the only option from here.

Tasars at Porthpean - photo © Stacey Bray

After pasties and tea, teams Armstrong/Philipps, Taylor and Phyall/Daza decided to call it day, but good things come to those who wait and after patiently hanging around, races 4 & 5 delivered in spades. In a complete reverse from the day before a NW was now in charge and it filled the bay with flat water and a perfect F3 ideal for a that Tasar speciality, marginal planing. Team Hawkins had shaken off the night before and were promptly back in charge taking the win in both races. Race 4 was the scene for a 3 way battle between Yates/Maggs, Rigby/Fobbester and Seyler/Desjonqueres with the latter slowly creeping up the fleet and into second position only to be undone on the last leg of the shortened course by the crew's love/hate relationship with the bleeping whisker pole and which saw them pipped to the post by Rigby in a drag race across the line losing out by a nanosecond. The day ended with race 5 belonging to Hawkins, followed in by Rigby and then Yates and it was many happy sailors who floated back to base to enjoy a well earned sundowner on the terrace.

Thank you to Porthpean SC for hosting another wonderful weekend of sailing and for the hard working galley and OOD team, Jenny March and Colin Wainright and the to the race officers Stacey Bray & Jenny & Andrew Kendall. Roll on next time.

Overall Results:

Tasars

D-Zeros