Noble Marine Solo Winter Championship Postponed
by Will Loy 17 Feb 2022 10:21 GMT
Championship Organiser Steve Ede writes:
Due to the storms and forecasts for Saturday 19 February the Noble Marine Solo Winter Champs have been postponed until 5 March. All those who have pre-entered will be contacted directly by the club, but please share this message with anyone you know who was planning to turn up on Saturday.
Class self-appointed historian Will Loy writes:
I am not really surprised at the decision, with two prominent storm systems and all the wind predictions promising boat breaking, body aching, soul destroying conditions, the only real victim is myself who would have been filming it. While the attendance would have been low, there is always someone mad enough to prove common sense is wrong and I would have happily positioned my waterproof cameras to capture the sailors' god given skills. I was especially keen to focus one camera directly at the helm to catch the moment of panic as the first gust of 40 knots exploded on his rig.
There will be some who, having gained a few kilos specifically for the forecast may want some form of compensation to cover the food bill, fortunately though, the event has already been re-scheduled for March 5 and there is every chance it will still be blowing dogs off chains.
I thought I would take a moment to reflect on some of the windiest events I have covered over the last 43 years and there have been a few.
My initial virgin ending experience of sailing my first Solo was at Reading Sailing Club in 1979 and it was pretty windy. I believe I capsized 6 times, not helped by the glass fibre Seamark Nunn's ability to take on water and swoosh it fore and aft inside the buoyancy tanks as I moved in the opposite direction. I do recall pulling my sodden ship up the slipway at the end of the day and acknowledging that 'Dipper' was indeed an accurate name for the boat.
History relies on accurate records and the Solo class has always been fortunate to have a strong association and with it, a magazine to keep members in touch with events. It was then, always exciting to hear the sound of the quarterly mag drop through the letterbox, I would devour the news and interesting articles like a digestive absorbs tea.
One such article in the 1982 edition still lives strong in my memory and recounted the National Championship which had been held at Llandudno. The title was won by Geoff Carveth and from my understanding and stories which may have been embellished and exaggerated over time, was settled by the slimmest of margins and in marginal conditions. Craig Moffett, Geoff Carveth and Paul Hemsley all won a race each but 3 of the six races were un-sailable. What won it for Geoff was the gybe he completed in-front of the clubhouse while his closest competitors either capsized or wore around. Spectators apparently recounted that know mortal could have pulled that move off...then again Geoff is no mortal.
Moving forward to the 1985 Nationals at Pevensey Bay and anyone who was there will testify it was bloody windy and all week too. One of my friends and fierce competitors was Tony Cook, a man mountain with a natural thermal layer and scary face. I recall the final race and everyone was pretty much hanging on for dear life, rig controls pulled through the floor trying to de-power, Carveth, Falcon, Batt and Payne, the exceptions. Half way up the first frightening beat Tony's kicker breaks and I looked over, part of me gutted for him, the other half burning with jealousy at his easy excuse to leave the course. Unbelievably he continued and bore off down the first reach, boom cocked in the air and boat rocking like a metronome. More than 2 thirds of the fleet retired, many not able to bare off down the faces of the huge wave patterns but Cooky continued and finished in the top ten and cemented him into Solo folklore.
I also had a more personal experience with Tony at the 1988 Dutch Championship at Uitdam.
It's race 3 and all the Dutch are smiling, the windmills rotate like propellers about to take off and the shallow Ijsselmeer kicks up a foreboding chop. We are blasting around the course, a few years of competition have honed our heavy air technique and quelled our fear of drowning and I am gaining on Tony as we eat up the distance to the gybe mark. I opt to power over him in my HPS built, minimum rocker Solo. Also, I do not want to try my luck gaining water on someone with fists the size of sledgehammers. Crack....I lose my rudder, the hull rolls to windward and corkscrews down onto my mate like an Exocet. His back bears the brunt of my bow, thank goodness Jack Holt didn't design the Solo with a point or worse, a bowsprit. I disappear into the brown water and by the time I am back upright the fleet have gone. The rescue team tow me back towards shore but my heart lurches when I catch sight of my mate waving me over. My grasp of the Dutch language is clearly lacking though and the young driver continues to head for port and at a frightening pace given the waves. I make it back to the boat park, my rudder had lifted off it's pintles, the plastic stopper the weak link, so that was a false economy. Tony walks towards me, his face filled with thunder, the paddle in his hands clearly meant to do me harm. I had apparently taken out his shroud during the collision and he was indeed waving at me... with his fist. Fortunately, my bloodied face dissipated his anger, such is the camaraderie of any worthy class.
Howard dominated a breezy 2011 Pusinelli Trophy at WPNSA, you race at an Olympic venue in the Olympic year, you better step up. The echo of the tannoy announcement on the morning of day 2 that it would be 27mph gusting mid 30's still scars my grey matter. It was not necessarily the information but the cheerful delivery that I found un-nerving.
Late in 2011 and with the back end of a hurricane forecast to hit, it was going to be an Inland Championship full of hurt. Saturday was windy with Andy Davis posting a gladiatorial 1-2-2 but Sunday dawned with the wind whistling through the boat park and competitor legs still full of lactic. Matt Howard would rule the day with a masterful display of heavy weather sailing, winning the regatta with 5 bullets over the two days. Clearly, racing a Finn makes sailing any class a cinch as Garry Hoyt once wrote in his epic book, Go for the Gold (available via Amazon). Davis was equally dominant but his 3-2-2 just not enough.
I have one very fond memory, though those that were racing may refer to it as masochist and that was at the 2015 Nationals at North Berwick. The wind was blowing straight off Bass Rock, the stench from the Gannet poo a pungent indicator. The fleet were fighting hard in the second race of the day and the leader, Charlie Cumbley rounded the top mark with the fleet on his transom. I had been called ashore to deal with an impending rule 69 but as the rib powered through the axis of the course my eye was drawn to the white caps rolling down the course. I immediately directed my driver back towards the leeward mark and was on station as the fleet made the wing mark. The sun had tracked slightly further west, the light cloud parting as if Moses had commanded it and I readied my Fuji S1. Plumes of white water arced from bows, the sun kissed Kevlar glistening like shards of broken glass and I marvelled at the sailors skill and physicality. These are moments that make my day.
The Dutch venues always provide some demanding racing and Medemblik did this in spades at the 2016 event. The natural topography is no challenge to the elements and with the wind blowing down from the north, this May regatta would test endurance and thermal properties. Andy Davis would get his revenge on Howard with a scoreline of 1-1-1-1-2-2-2 but to be fair Matt was sporting a back injury. The club had been the victim of some outboard engine theft prior to the event and this put extra emphasis on the sailors skill as there were only 3 safety ribs to cover both the Solo and OK fleets. Not sure if a UK event would have gone ahead but everyone lived to tell the tale! My own experience from aboard the media rib was one of pain having employed Jim Hunt to drive. He had broken his OK the day before the event and clearly had a death wish, doing his best to plane over, through or under every square shaped wave.
I applaud all those sailors who battle the elements, sometimes losing but always keen to tell the story in the bar.
There are many instances where the Solo Class has battled the elements and won but this weekend was not one of them.
Let's hope the re-scheduled event goes ahead on March 5, one weekend after the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show. As a point of grammar, I believe the plural of Watersport is... Watersport (I'm not sure about that! - Ed.)