The first race of the new season at Slipper today, the RNLI Pursuit race. The Met Office was forecasting f5-6 occasionally 7, Windguru was forecasting f3-4. The actual conditions were somewhere between the two, a NE f3-5. Not a huge turnout for the first race of the year in the local Emsworth harbour, but there were a few mitigating factors : (i) it is still very cold, (ii) the NE wind direction is always full of holes, (iii) ESSC have their cruiser lift-in over the next few days, (iv) ESC is having lots of building work done meaning the bar is not acessible after racing (Dave Acres looking especially forlorn), and (v) did I mention the cold.
Anyhoo we ended up with 12ish boats on the water, with everything from a Laser 4.7 (training-partner-Claire) to a pair of ISOs. The RO set course that spanned our full sailing area, with a good mix of upwind, offwind and downwind legs. Of course the asymmetrics all complained about the 250m of beam reaching on the 6 mile course, but my 300 brethren and I are used to this, and accept it with the stoic manner for which we are famed.
Some highlights:
- Claire was the first boat to start, and lead the race for a decent period. Flat straight leg hiking upwind was noted by more than one boat (well me and Matt).
- Dave Acres wins the race in his 300, despite an early dip on the first run. Excellent pace upwind, and very fast on the powered up reaches.
- Mike and Emma again put the new Rooster sails through their paces and finish third (I think). Amazing speed on close reaches, and I would say very close to planing upwind on the return to the club. The leech on those sails was very open, wonder if a little more mast ram would help give more power.
- Great to see Andy and Vicky emerging from their winter hibernation in full competitive froth in their ISO. Some bimbling going on in the boat park when I left, no doubt looking for more speed tomorrow.
More racing tomorrow. And Sunday and Monday. What a great Easter weekend.
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