Sailing Club

Tell Tales

There are a lot of different opinions amongst sailors about how interesting, relevant or even necessary sailing around a racetrack is. Some think it is indeed the pinnacle, others, that like to sail to destinations or just go wherever the wind blows them, think it is just for a bunch of overenthusiastic tweedledums.

As there is no special point at which “sailing” exists, I think, from the smallest dinghy to the largest and sleekest yacht the joy of sailing belongs and is relevant to each sailor individually.

Saturday was April Dancer’s turn to herd the flock out through the entrance and into a light south wind, which was lightening off as the day warmed up. Two keel boats, 5 ff’s, 1 trailer sailer and 1 laser, lazily fell downwind to get to the start mark. Set at 180° by Geraldine and John M (with help from Russell).

With the wind lifting off slightly and swinging a little to the east it was a port end start for most of the small boats. We have had a lot of light starts this year and prestart it is sooo important to stay close to the line. With all the small boats off on port it was just Boheme and 10+1 to cross on the second start 5 minutes later.

As the winds lightened even further it was a slow and painful crawl to the top mark for all; 55 plus minutes to be precise! With everyone feeling the frustration of trying to stitch the whisps of wind together. Skifflebeat had done well but the big winner on this leg was Boheme who had looked like they were heading back to the harbour at one point, only to flip over onto stbd and ride the tidal express back up to the top mark in first place!

State of the Arc followed after those two and was probably lucky to see them both pushed west/ left below the gybe mark and was able to stay a bit further to the right, going on their merry way. It was also one of those days where 20mts of separation could easily mean the difference between 5 and 0 knts of wind.

Ziff had picked up some fishing line somewhere along the way and spent a few valuable minutes sorting that. With the race only consisting of 3 legs there were a couple of lead changes. Ziff ended up well in front (7 mins) but a forgotten penalty turn cost them a result. SotA was second over line, 10+1 was 6 seconds quicker but started off the 5 minute second grid so was probably the surprise of the day. April Dancer snuck past Windswept by 7 seconds with slightly tidier spinnaker work. Skifflebeat, Boheme and the laser were left to ponder what could have been. Boho (Mick and Russell) enjoyed the day out.                               

Results

Life is good. Come Sailing!

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