ILCAs in the Frostbite Series 2023/24 at Queen Mary Sailing Club - Week 1
by Michael Hicks 21 Dec 2023 13:29 GMT
17 December 2023
ILCAs in the Frostbite Series week 1 at Queen Mary © Tom Buston
At Queen Mary Sailing Club tradition has it that the first helm around the
windward mark on race one on Sunday racing will do the race report... Michael
Hicks has the honour this week.
Sunday saw the first two races of the 22 race frostbite series. Once again Orlando
Gledhill and Mark Little demonstrated their dominance of the ILCA 7 fleet
in a breeze (SW 13 to 16 knots gusting 18 to 21). Orlando won race 1 from Mark
who had to leave early and so missed race 2 which Orlando won comfortably.
Tony Woods (3,2) was 2nd overall for the day followed by Chris Ellyatt (5,3), Guy
Noble (4, 6) and Tom Nash (8,4) in a strong fleet of 20 starters.
In the ILCA 6s
Andrew Whittaker dominated, winning both races head of Mark Sancken and
John Curran.
I would like to say that I am writing this report because I spotted that the wind
would favour the port side of the beat 2 minutes before the start. But that wasn't
the case.
Out of interest, why do I say 2 minutes in a 15 knot breeze? The reservoir is about
1450 metres wide North/South. So a long beat (as we had on Sunday) is probably
about 1000 metres. 5 knots is 2.57 metres per second, which means that in a 5
knot wind it should take a little over 6 minutes for the air to move from the top
mark to the start line. At 15 knots the air should take 2 minutes to cover the
same distance.
In race 1 the start was somewhat pin end favoured, but after some useful training
with Tony on Saturday I was worried that there would be too much congestion
for a safe start and also that the dredger exclusion zone would mean that those
starting at the pin would be forced to tack quite early and not necessarily at a
time that suited them.
So I started about 2/3 down from the committee boat.
Soon after the start there appeared to be a port shift and we were left with the
usual QMSC puzzle: tack immediately or hang on for 30 seconds or so hoping for
the shift to persist and increase. I decided to hang on for a while on starboard.
While the boats to the left had to tack to clear the exclusion zone I could still sail
on starboard. After a while the shift seemed to have increased to the point where
a tack was essential. Soon I was lifting off the fleet on port and sailed as high as I
could to take advantage of the lift while it lasted.
But way over to the right I saw
some boats (including Mark L) looking very good on a starboard lift. It was
anyone's guess as to which side would turn out to be the better. I sailed a bit
lower to try to get into the right shift and managed to round just in the lead but
very closely followed by a pack of chasing boats.
The run was exciting. Tony and Chris passed me to the right while I stayed ahead
of boats behind and to my left. We rounded Tony, Chris, me and Mark (I think). I
managed to get my kicker and cunningham on just before the mark and made a
tight rounding, but this turned out to be my downfall because Chris sailed low for
a short time and then tacked. As I tried to bear away and release the mainsheet
to pass behind my rudder stalled and I caught Chris' mainsheet.
I should probably
have dumped the mainsheet more quickly as soon as I saw Chris tack. The
ensuring turmoil delayed Mark and allowed Orlando to pass and from here on
after two turns I was a spectator to a good race between Mark. Orlando, Tony, Chris
and Guy.
I had a poor first beat in race 2 after starting 1/3 way down from the committee
boat which was a wrong choice compounded by missing the first shift.
From
where I was placed it was difficult to see what was happening other than that
Orlando looked to be in control throughout the race. The race finished Orlando
1st, Tony 2nd, Chris Ellyatt 3rd and Tom Nash 4th.
All in all a really good morning's racing in excellent Queen Mary conditions.
Full results: www.queenmary.org.uk/results-2024/frostbite-series-202324-results