Blackwater Icicle 2019

by Paul Gray 2 Jan 2020 15:05 GMT 29 December 2019

Forty boats assembled for a committee boat start in Lawling Creek for the 2019 Blackwater Icicle, this year hosted by Maylandsea Bay Sailing Club.

Race Officer Bill Wright gave warning that the fleet would experience a strong flood tide which would be pushing them over the line and would not hesitate to use the 'U' flag to discourage early starters in the event of a general recall. Competitors either turned a deaf ear, or didn't recognise a 'U' flag, or didn't know what it meant, as three starts were needed to get the race under way.

A few boats struggled to find the first windward 'X' mark, but the fleet soon settled into the usual pecking order for the runs and reaches out of the creek into the River Blackwater. Most notable was Rob Laurie in his Solo who cunningly avoided the crowd on the west shore to arrive at the North Shore mark in the leading pack with the quicker boats.

One of the safety boats led the fleet around the course so that any visitors didn't get lost. That didn't prevent local hot shot Mark Batt in his Fireball from leading several of the fleet to the wrong green conical in the main river. The main beneficiary was Malcolm Hutchings in his Blaze, who took a more direct line.

The course was set to include some short laps near the Club, so that the race could be finished after a reasonable elapsed time, but before the light faded and the tide disappeared out of the creek. Only one of those laps was deemed necessary before the Shortened Course flag was raised. By that time boats were crossing and re-crossing the finish line in both directions, and the wind direction was such that sail numbers could not easily be seen from the race box. As a result, Bill had real difficulties in recording correct finishing times for each boat.

Before the prize-giving, talk around the bar had Malcolm Hutchings as favourite, but as he said it is very difficult to be sure when boats have such a wide range of handicap numbers. So it was not a total surprise when the winner was announced as Rob Laurie in his Solo, two minutes ahead of Malcolm on corrected time.

Once the dust had settled, and everyone had gone home, an eagle-eyed competitor spotted that the results showed some anomalies in that a few slower boats, including some prize-winners, had been wrongly recorded as finishing at around the same times as some faster boats. The finishing times were then verified using the Club CCTV recording and corrected as appropriate, and Malcolm Hutchings declared as the winner, with Rob Laurie second.

So well done Malcolm, hard luck Rob. All competitors had a great time and are looking forward to trying to beat Malcolm next year.

Overall Results:

Pos	Class	Sail No	Helm	Crew	R1	Pts
1st	BLAZE	836	Malcolm Hutchins		1	1
2nd	Solo	5134	Robert Laurie		2	2
3rd	RS 600	898	Dylan		3	3
4th	LASER	166544	Micky Wright		4	4
5th	Phantom	1395	Chris Roberts		5	5
6th	LASER	183410	Bryan Sargeant		6	6
7th	Kestrel	1600	Paul Gray	Sally Gray	7	7
8th	Phantom	1430	Matthew House		8	8
9th	Kestrel	1587	Glenn Enkel	Lauren Grice	9	9
10th	Phantom	1443	Phil Longley		10	10
11th	LASER	146446	Keith Gilmore		11	11
12th	Phantom	1431	Graham		12	12
13th	Fireball	15102	Martin Scarth	Dave Ryder	13	13
14th	LASER	215990	Matthew Pickret		14	14
15th	Solo	5406	Jarvis Simpson		15	15
16th	LASER	146904	Martin Tarling		16	16
17th	Phantom	1233	Pete Sarbutt		17.5	17.5
17th	STREAKER	1826	Marcus Ingram		17.5	17.5
19th	Kestrel	1605	Paul Wilkinson	Gary VB	19	19
20th	GP14	13763	Vicky	Richard	20	20
21st	Fireball	14955	Mark Batt	Tony Everitt	21	21
22nd	Hornet	2181	Dean Saxton	Adam Saxton	22	22
23rd	LASER	140116	Sam Tarling		23	23
24th	LASER	186079	Clive Tarling		24	24
25th	Fireball	14682	Mike Bryant	Keith Taft	25	25
26th	LIGHTNING 368	294	Jamie		26	26
27th	Solo	3981	Dave Chamberlain		27	27
28th	Solo	4810	David Islin		28	28
29th	Solo	4645	Phil Spillane		29	29
30th	COMET	433	Andy Dale		30	30
31st	LASER RADIAL	212109	Jack Tucker		31	31
32nd	RS 200	1302	Gareth Davies	Ben Fullalove	32	32
33rd	RS 600	702	Luke Lazell		33	33
34th	LASER	100367	Lee Garton		34	34
35th	LASER RADIAL	44	Charlie Tucker		35	35
36th	Kestrel	1408	Barry Knights	Bob Parsons	36	36
37th	2000	21898	Andrew Lager	Christine Hitchins	RET	41
37th	LASER RADIAL	178730	Anne Dyson		RET	41
37th	FINN	596	John Giles		RET	41
37th	LASER RADIAL	165230	Stephen Curty		RET	41