2.4mR open meeting at Queen Mary Sailing Club
by Nev Millard 2 May 2019 14:34 BST
27-28 April 2019
The Queen Mary 2.4 Open brought a few surprises at the weekend. The first one was the water level which meant we could launch this year, but not until the Sunday due to storm Hannah.
Saturday we had winds in the mid 20's with gusts in the high 30's coming in from the SW. This meant it was precarious rigging on land and would have been nigh on impossible to launch and rig on the water. Although it was very picturesque watching the white horses racing across the 707 acres of water the race officer had a meeting with the sailors at 11.00am and it was agreed we would not join the horses.
This left us to fill some time before the curry. Some had homes to go to, some had other plans and some of us used the unexpected extra time to make ourselves look amazing for the evening. The curry was lovely, service was faultless and the company was great.
Sunday we finally managed to rig and launch with the wind coming in from the NW at high teens hitting gusts of mid 20's. The east jetty was nicely protected so rigging and setting up was quite pleasant. Six boats left the jetty and sailed out. We had four races to look forward to in good conditions. Winds were shifty, more noticeably at the windward mark, which made for very interesting mark approaches and roundings with places to be lost or won.
The usual battle up front between Megan and Bruce started early and this time Bruce managed to pull it out the bag and took first place with Megan second (I know this looks like a typing error). We have checked, double checked and we also have had independent adjudicators check and I can confirm with confidence Bruce H beat Megan.
Simon H had a good third but Jass had an amazing fourth after only being in a 2.4 for three or four months and sailing in her first 2.4 Regatta (not only that she also managed to bring the average age of the members down drastically). Millard was fifth, Kate sixth and Paul S seventh (although Paul didn't get on the water due to a family commitment).
Next up is Frensham.