Conwy Fife One Design 'A' Series at Royal Anglesey Yacht Club - Race 8

Conwy Fife One Design 'A' Series race 8 © Ian Bradley

Having watched the weather forecast over the preceding days, it was a pleasant surprise to arrive in Beaumaris to be greeted with 'sailable' conditions for a change, a 3/4 South Westerly (is this a return to the historical prevailing wind, or just a temporary blip?) but no sun, but then we can't have everything we wish for.

The Race Officer (Nick) and his team decided that we would have a crew's race, and we would have a Gazelle start for the 'A' series race. With a building ebb tide heading for Puffin at a rate of knots, it was going to be a long beat to the Gazelle.

As the crew's race 'fleet' (not sure what the singular for fleet is?) started to short tack along the shore into the moorings, the sky became ominously overcast and as we cleared Gallows Point the 'Glaw' arrived and the crew on 38 (Steve, Hope & Mike) asked the age-old question, "remind me, why are we doing this?"

After a titanic struggle, 38 managed to win the crews race despite stiff competition!

The rest of the following flotilla* were grateful for the tow offered by Guy and Cat (The new, and improved Arwel) to get them to the Gazelle in time for the delayed start.

The race team, having emerged from shelter of the bar (or cars as they later claimed) set course 22, which kept the flotilla quiet before the start, as they tried to memorise / write down the various and it has to be said, many, many marks to be rounded. According to the course card, 22 is 11NM long (in a straight line, that is) so it was an ambitious choice!

Fortunately, having got all the competitors well and truly soaked, the rain stopped and things started to look up.

There was a degree of indecision as to which end of the line to start, the assembled flotilla eventually all started close to Bangor Pier, I suspect mainly because 42 was loitering at that end from early on, and they know what they are doing and the consequent FOMO.

The beat was the usual game of snakes and ladders, some tacks were winners, some tacks were losers. 29 (Trigger & G) were the first to take the lead and would have rounded Cadnant first, but 38 played their joker and managed to find a 'lucky' lifting tack to get inside at the mark. 34 (Paul, Helen & Jay) and 42 (Family Booth) followed. The cross-tide reach to George saw no place changing and we started the long run to Ogwen.

It was now that 38 discovered that letting the owner rig the Spinnaker and pole before the start had been a mistake, as various 'issues' arose as the big flappy sail went up, came down and went back up again, fortunately, 29, in second were also having problems, so honours even.

As 38 approached Ogwen, the in depth tactical discussion on board revolved around the best way back to Cadnant, Hug the uncovered banks, or head for the Anglesey shore crossing the tide in the process?

It turned out to be 'heads' so they tacked immediately on rounding to follow the banks route, while 29 stood across towards Anglesey.

First 29, then 42 and 34 passed 38 in what proved to be an interesting / frustrating beat, when at seemingly random times it paid to stand out into the tide and at other times to hug the banks. Just to make it even more interesting, it also became shifty.

The game of Cat & Mouse continued, with 38 now at the back and 29 just in front of a closing 42 and 34. Shorten course was signalled at some stage (probably because the cake had run out), and as the pack closed on Bangor Pier the wind became lighter and even more shifty. More by luck than judgement 38 managed to string together a number of fortunate tacks to move into the lead, aided by 29's temporarily parking on the banks.

So, having gone from Hero to Zero and back to Hero again, 38 took their first cannon of the season, followed by 42, 34 with a disappointed 29 in 4th.

So, after 5 races, 42 Maintain their lead in the series, with 29 and 38 not far behind, mind you with 15 races still to sail, who knows?

Races 5, 6 & 7 were all lost because of 'inclement' weather, which is good news for those who have sailed all the races held so far, as discards are running out for those yet to launch! Hopefully we will see more boats afloat this week as the weather and tides are looking favourable. 7 boats are in varying states of preparedness, so fingers crossed we may get back to a fleet next week!

* According to my dictionary the definition of flotilla is, and I quote: 'A small fleet'