The Hare and Hounds series starts

This weekend the H&H series started at Slipper.  Its a series that includes sailors from three clubs in the harbour - Slipper, ESC and TISC.

Racing started on Saturday with very light winds, a fickle F1 ENE.  The race officer wisely chose a lap course, to keep everyone relatively close to the clubs in case of the wind completely dying.  The one downside of the course was a southerly start with (i) a strong bias to the pin end, (ii) options to start on port or starboard at the pin end, (iii) 20 boats determined to start at the pin end (iv) 15 boats determined to somehow start on port.  It was carnage, and very difficult to make a controlled start.  After two general recalls, the RO flourished the black flag, and the rowdy fleet became more disciplined.  Andy and Vicky in their ISO won the pin end, and Matt and Gael made a good conservative mid-line start.

The race itself was somewhat processional, with only a beat to Little Deep to split tacks.  Fortunately the RO limited racing to a single lap, allowing all boats to finish in a reasonable time.

Some highlights of the race:

- Andy&Vicky and Matt&Gael separated from the fleet at the start and never looked back.  Good Slipper points.
- Great to see Paul Fisk and temporary crew Jo heading the RS200 fleet, great boat speed and an excellent 6th place result.
- Tom Tredray (closely followed by Dave Valentine) showed that Lasers can compete in these very light airs.  A creditable 7th place.
- Dave Acres shows that its not all about RS300 sailing, and places 3rd with Russell Payne crewing.

Sunday was quite different, F2-5 NE, very variable in strength and direction.  A Northerly start this time, with the first mark Echo some 100m upwind.  Again, an interesting and somewhat chaotic start for the 40 boats on the water.  The wind was shifting all over the place just before the start, which made for a relatively unbiased line (thankfully), but a combination of (i) 40 boats, (ii) a floating jetty, (iii) multiple moored boats, and (iv) a starboard rounding of Echo and (v) some interesting rule interpretations,  made for an interesting first beat.  I have never seen so many minor collisions on a 50yd beat. 

The rest of the race was less fraught, and good racing, with a mix of upwind/downwind and reaching legs.

Some highlights of the race:
- Mike Lillywhite and Emma Pethybridge were seen performing a wind dance on the millpond wall, the resulting increase in wind gave a significant hike in result - 1st place, and one smiley Emma.
- As I rounded Fowley, I could see a distant speck on the horizon with a black and white kite.  That was Tim Weedon giving the ISOs a run for their money downwind in his RS100, 5th place. 
- Great to see Jemima Lawson and Lilly Summers in their 420, placing 6th out of 40 boats.  Fantastic result, and shows that conventional spinnakered boat can mix it up with the asymmetrics.
- Dave Acres had an excellent start and placed 3rd in his 300.  Fresh back from a 2nd in the Nationals (on same points as 1st place), its going to take some sort of divine intervention for other 300s to take a race from him!
- Several geostationary satellites reported seeing a bright flash of light emanating from the Emsworth foreshore at about 16:00 BST.  That was Bryan Smith's radiant smile as he finished first standard Laser, great result.  

The starts have been a source of concern, given the volume of boats.  We are going to discuss splitting across fleets for the next races, so please watch the Slipper website for changes to standard SIs for this series.  No firm plans are in place,  but change is likely. 

I will post some fleet based results soon.