_____________________________________________
" The interesting thing about the incident at the hut end of
the line between Max and Dave is I tried the same trick in the first race I
ever helmed, aged 11 at Langstone sailing club. Barged in with no rights and
hit Martin Price in his Laser. Richard Lewis came up afterwards and told me to
retire or else. I remain mentally
scarred ever since. Anyhow, now Mark has given away the secret knowledge that
the other end is in fact closer and out of the tide, and a better angle when
the wind is in the west, I assume we can expect the crowd to move down to that
end. Darn!
Started behind Mark and Dave Acres in their RS300s, for
which there are no excuses. Did the approach too late, so ended up trying to
luff up Dave, who correctly pointed out that you can’t just poke your nose in
to leeward and start luffing, you have to give the windward boat time to keep
clear. That was the first mistake that cost us the race. However there was a
gap to windward of Dave which was blanketed by the Fireball and would have been
the perfect place to hide at the start, as Mark did: probably OCS but
unspottable. [Ed comment: Rubbish]
Then it was a procession to Wickor, wind shifted first to
the south , then a big shift to the right at Wickor. Mark tacked off. Normally
this is fatal as there is a lee-bow effect if you continue on starboard.
However, as the shift to the west had been forecast,t so he’d be on the inside
of the bend and there was more wind, it just about paid off.
We were overtaken by Mike and Emma on the first beat, mainly
because there was more wind on the right. Should have tacked to cover them but
being in the same team and all that, (yeah really) decided not to.
Got past Mark and Mike on the next run, as could see them
stuck in a hole near Northney, so gybed out into more wind in the channel. Gained
100 yds or so. Next beat was better, again more wind on the right.
When the shorten course flag was up at NEH, caught us by
surprise and we slotted in an unnecessary gybe, which probably cost us 30s or
so. Still had a good lead, but got to 200 yds of the finish and
the wind just died. Rather like watching paint dry, if it wasn’t so stressful.
Had to sit there and watch that pesky RS300 catch up again with slightly more
wind from behind.
Not a bad race, but the start could have been better!"
No comments:
Post a Comment