Pwllheli Sailing Club Winter Series - Week 1
by Lyndsay Harrold 14 Nov 2022 08:22 GMT
12-13 November 2022
Encouraging young sailors on 'Finally' - Pwllheli Winter Series week 1 © Lyndsay Harrold
The first weekend of the Pwllheli Sailing Club Winter Series kicked off with some great conditions forecast, decent racing winds of 14-15 knots, and dry!
Winter series consists of one race a day over three weekends, so as the fleet headed out on Saturday, for the start, Race Officer, Robin Evans set a course that was ideal for the conditions, and everyone looked forward to some great sailing using the full sail wardrobe!
William Partington's' HB31 Honeybee, made a great start, first over the line, closely followed by Paul Kitteringham's Elan 350 'Finally'. The start line saw a healthy 14-15 kts of wind, but it didn't last long and dropped back to a somewhat frustrating 6 to 7 kts at times, especially towards the end of the race!
Close racing between the boats, all the way round the course saw 'Finally' finally take the lead on the water, to take line honours, but Honeybee won the day on handicap, with Mark Rosenthal's Elan 40 Flair IV coming in, in third place.
Sunday conditions were initially forecast to be stronger winds of 16-18 kts with gusts into the 30's. Flair IV headed out double-handed, and reefed briefly, but soon it was apparent that on-the-water conditions, were not as strong as forecast, at and the whole fleet started the race on full sails.
Another great course from the race office, saw an exciting start line with all boats very closely vying for first over the line, and the first leg of the race took the fleet close hauled eastwards to racing mark number 7, with some super close competitive and tactical sailing!
Mid race saw the winds build slightly and Finally took advantage to sneak through the fleet into first position before a run back towards Pwllheli, that saw Finally and Honeybee both hoist spinnakers, but in the end, the final result was exactly as the day before, with Finally again taking line hours but dropping a place on handicap to Honeybee, and Flair IV coming in in third place.
Well done to all who took part and enjoyed some November racing at its finest! The series has two more weekends, and we are always keen for more boats and more crew to join us!
Full results and racing schedule are on the club website www.PwllheliSailingClub.co.uk