Pwllheli Christmas Special Series 2021
by Sammo Jones 29 Dec 2021 18:37 GMT
27 December 2021
The Harrolds on Finally during the Pwllheli Christmas Special Series 2021 © P Kitteringham
Last Monday saw some great weather which attracted a large fleet for an ad-hoc Christmas Special race at Pwllheli. The race followed the Commodore's Challenge course, from the Pwllheli Sailing Club start line, around St Tudwals Islands and back, roughly a 12 Nautical mile race in a straight line.
The forecast for the day was 10-15 knots from the East, which brought some choppy seas with it, all boats crossed the start line, where both Nigel Ingram's Farr 30 - Wild Haggis and Peter Dunlop's J109 - Mojito immediately went for launching their kites and sailing high with hopes of bearing down as the islands became closer. Paul Sutton's J109 - Jaydreamer sailed lower on white sails before launching their kite around 10-15 minutes into the race.
Both Mark Rosenthal's Elan 40 - Flair IV and Wil Partington's Hunter 31 - Honey Bee followed the fleet on white sails, with Flair IV following suite and launching their kite about half way to the Islands.
The wind backed to a NE-ENE wind, leaving both Wild Haggis and Mojito shocked to see Jaydreamer steaming in towards them the closer to the Islands they came. Entering the St Tudwal's sound first was Wild Haggis closely followed by Jaydreamer, and Mojito shortly after.
With the Wind direction it meant St Tudwals sound was in the lee, leaving the boats having to sail on constantly changing light winds and momentum. Coming out on the South Side of the Sound, both Wild Haggis and Jaydreamer sailed out on port tack, whereas Mojito tacked in.
Sailing from the St Tudwals Islands West saw some choppy seas and after the entertainment of the ever changing and light winds in the sound, left the leaders shocked to see Flair IV steaming out of the sound and having made up a lot of ground on the leaders.
From the Carreg y Trai buoy, commonly known as Bell Buoy, to the finish, the fleet had a 5 mile one sided beat, which was a slight disappointment to some of the boats due to the wind shifting more Northerly.
With one tack needed to cross the finish line close off the beach, saw Wild Haggis crossing first, followed by Jaydreamer, Mojito, Flair IV and Wil Partington's Hunter 31 - Honey Bee. Leaving Jaydreamer wining the race on corrected time, with Mojito in second, Wild Haggis in third and Honey Bee fourth.
A similar New Year Special is now being considered if forecasts allow, before boats are laid up for winter.
Scheduled racing resumes the first weekend of April 2022, with some light-hearted racing to test boat tuning after their relaunch.
For results and more information visit the Pwllheli Sailing Club website racing section.