A forecast of a fresh 14 knot, gusting 20 knot, W / SW wind had drawn an eager throng to the lakeside on Thursday. The earlier light sprinkling of rain, which had threatened when the volunteers were rigging and launching the fleet, had passed and by 10 AM the sun was trying, sometimes successfully, to find its way through the light grey cloud cover. By 11 AM the lake was busy with the race fleet, the pirate lugger, the venture and all three Stratos out on the water, plus, of course, the safety RIB and Commandos. The wind had freshened from the earlier gentle breeze to a respectable 10 to 12 knots which enabled the 14 Helms, signed-on for the race, to cross the Start line soon after the final Gong of the starting sequence had sounded.

Here’s the start……clear evidence that everybody was away quickly…

The early leaders above were  Rachel Ibbott and her crew Sophie Poston in their 303, Mike Blatchford in a Liberty, Ann Frewer in her mighty 2.3, Fay Watson and her crew James Thomas in their 303 and Malcolm Hill with his crew Mike McKenzie in the first of the two Martins.  Also on the race course to were Stratos 2 and Stratos 3 and the Venture but they were not in the race, just taking clients out for a sail. However, with their much larger sails (even when reefed or in cut down format) they comprised obstacles for the much smaller 2.3 and 303’s – but not for the 2.4m’s which had escaped from their wind shadow quickly.

But hang on where are Peter Gregory and David Mason in their 2.4m’s? Didn’t they start at the same time as everybody else…?  Ah! Here they are….. way out in front. But how do they do that? (Good question! Ed)

Peter Gregory having managed to get a good start found clean air and tacked most effectively to be the first boat around the Windward Mark B. David Mason and the non-racing Venture and Mike Blatchford’s Liberty followed Peter around Mark B by which time Peter already had a lead of 50 yards.

The wind remained blowing mainly from the West but, in typical Chipstead manner, varied in strength and direction. However that didn’t stop The Red Torpedo from charging downwind, gybing around Mark C and continuing downwind towards Mark D, and by the time he rounded this Leeward Mark, he had a 400 yard lead over the next group of boats in the pursuing fleet.

By the end of the first lap, the fleet had settled down into an order which an observer would have expected, if they had known the boats’ various handicaps. Namely, the second 2.4m, the Martins, the Liberty’s and then the 303s and 2.3. But as we know looking at a boat’s position on the water doesn’t mean a lot when the results are calculated AFTER the Portsmouth Yardstick handicap is applied.

What is important is how fast each boat is being sailed and whether the helm can maintain their best speed consistently. Look here: On the second lap Peter Gregory maintained his first lap time of 8 min and 1 sec, but his pursuers were generally faster over their second laps. See how you did:

• Ann Frewer faster by 3 min 53 sec
• Andy Wallace – 2 min 56 sec
• Martin Newman –  1 min 18 sec
• Malcolm Hill -1 min 7 sec
• Rachel Ibbott – 1 min 5 sec
• Fay Watson – 1 min 2 sec
• Mike Blatchford – 42 sec
• David Mason – 18 sec.

Of course this could be down to having better wind during the second lap but if that was the reason then why didn’t Peter Gregory also go faster? I think it may be down to how quickly you settle into sailing in race mode rather than cruising mode. In the next race try to focus on getting in the groove in lap 1 – don’t leave it until later to show your real speed.  (I think that there may be a lesson to be learned from that data. May be use the 20 to 30 minutes BEFORE the race to get tuned up. Ed).  But everyone sailed well and we all had a great day on the water. Well done to all you WS Racers.

Here is the Race Result:

1. Mike Blatchford – Liberty
2. David Mason – 2.4m
3. Martin Newman – Liberty
4. Fay Watson – 303D
5. Andy Wallace – Martin
6. Rachel Ibbott – 303D
7. Mark Cayzer – 303D
8. Peter Gregory – 2.4m
9. Malcolm Hill – Martin
10. Ann Frewer – 2.3S
11. Lisa Holland – 303D
12. Bill Garry – 303S
    (DNF) Brian Mac – 303

And then after the Race, the sun came out and we all had Lunch outside the clubhouse…

Last Thursday was forecast to be near perfect conditions for Race #2 of the Summer Series. And that expectation was probably why there were 16 boats on the water at 1125, ready to race.  But the forecast was not quite borne out by the conditions that greeted us when we all assembled at the Lake at 0830. Rather than a North-Westerly we found ourselves with wind coming from the East backing to the North-East and rather than a steady 14 knots, the wind was struggling to get to 10 knots – however there were some reasonable gusts which would keep everybody on their toes (Or their gunwales? Ed) 

For the first time in many races, Helms were faced with an anti clockwise course running from the Start Line between an Inner Distance Marker and Mark K, then beating down the lake to Mark D, tacking around D, leaving the Mark to Port, before starting downwind leg to gybe around Mark C and continuing the run to Mark B which was also left to Port, before starting the long leg, beating  back up to Mark D (going through the start gate each lap).

After a short delay to enable everybody who wanted to race to be helped into a boat (Many thanks to Andy Wallace for agreeing to a late change from his favoured Martin to an alien Stratos! Ed), the Race was underway.  There is no doubt that WS Racers‘ starts are getting better, with everybody within a few boat lengths of the Start Line once the one minute Gong had sounded – as is evidence from the photograph below!

Within a few seconds of the Start Gong sounding, the first boats were across the Start Line and tacking up to Mark D –  led by Abe in the Commando! The first to show were Mike Blatchford in Martin 2290, Peter Gregory in 2.4m 148 (AKA The Red Torpedo. Ed), David Mason in his 2.4m 109 and Fay Watson and her crew James Thomas in their 303 with yellow sail #4. (The Pirate Lugger in the pic below was not in the race but may have been eyeing up any  laggards as booty! Ed).

The race also had two Stratos in the fleet; one helmed by Helen Fairfax  – a volunteer – with Andy Wallace  as crew and the other helmed by Bruce Hebbert – a Trustee. The sole Venture in the fleet was  helmed by Paul Hagan with Allan Griffiths as crew (Paul – don’t get Allan to sign-on for the Race. The  Race Controller  didn’t know you were racing but fortunately the timekeeper recorded your lap times – thank you Bob Marsh!! Ed).

The North-Easterly wind was blowing around 10 knots as these front runners began their beat up towards Mark D. The two 2.4m’s were best able to point high into the breeze and after a couple of tacks they were first around Mark D and building up a lead of some 200 metres over the third-place boat, by the time that boat rounded D. Perhaps not surprisingly in this breeze, the two Martins and the third 2.4m were the next group of boats to round Mark D to commence the downwind chase of Peter Gregory and David Mason in their 2.4m’s.

LESSON OF THE DAY – With the wind blowing from the NE and Mark D positioned close to the shore (to avoid the encroachment of water weed in Donald King Reach), all the Helms had to contend with quite a large wind shadow caused by the tall trees on the shore of the lake north of the Mark and extending westward. The Chipstead Lake savvy Helms (e.g. Bruce Hebbert) were seen to steer back into the middle of the lake after rounding Mark D, run downwind and then gybe and Run or Reach across to Mark C rather than head straight downwind towards Mark C.  And from the race hut, we could see the boats using the middle of the lake overhaul other boats stationary in the doldrums – caused by the wind shadow. (So next time everyone can do the same as Bruce!! Ed)

With the wind as tricky as ever, the fleet became quite strung out and gradually the leading boats started to catch up and overtake those at the back of the fleet. However, as can be seen from the Final Result, this situation does not always mean that the boat being overtaken is actually behind the overtaking boat because of the handicapping system. So don’t worry or be downcast, if every helm keeps sailing as well and as quickly as they possibly can, irrespective of how many boats they think may be catching and passing them, then wonders can happen! (That’s right – best foot forward at all times. So this week, all three 2.4m’s, the two Martins, the two Stratos and the Venture all managed to complete three laps whilst everyone else did two laps but just look at the Result! Ed)

Well done to everybody. Below you will see where you came at the end of all your efforts during the race:

Final Result

1. David Mason
2. Fay Watson
3. Paul Hagan
4. Steve Farmer
5. Peter Gregory
6. Peter Wagner
7. Martin Norman
8. Ann Frewer
9. Mike Blatchford
10. Malcolm Hill
11. Rachel
12. Brian Mac
13. Bill Garry
14. Andy Wallace

The final race of the WS Spring Series was very well attended with 13 racers across the Access 303, Liberty, Martin and Venture classes plus 2 of the Stratos fleet, helmed by volunteers, crossing the start line.

By 10.30am when many of the racers were either on the water or getting ready to go on the water, the sun was making an effort to come out from a generally cloudy sky and the wind from the South-west, backing into the West, was gradually increasing up to its forecast 14 knots with gusts to 20 knots.

The start line and course were very much the same as in previous weeks when the wind is blowing from this direction. Namely, the start line was between Buoy K to a Distance Marker with a Flag in the middle of the lake; the upwind leg to Mark B, followed by the downwind leg to Mark C which would be the gybed around before continuing downwind heading to Mark D. Because of the significant increase in the amount of weed in the water, Mark D had been positioned close to the northern bank of the Lake and the racers had been advised to sail as much as possible in the middle of the lake between Mark D, the starting gate and the windward Mark B.

After a short delay to enable as many sailors as possible who wanted to race to get into their boats, the 5-4-1 start sequence ended with most of the fleet bunched up at the starboard end of the start line and 1 or 2 boats on the port end of the line. These helms soon found out why they were in the minority!

Malcolm Hill and his crew Dan in their Martin sail #125 were just first across the start line in the lead of a group of similarly quick starters comprising Mike Blatchford in his Liberty, Pink Lady; Peter Wagner in his 2.4 sail #108; Brian Mac in his Liberty sail #2290; David Mason in his 2.4 sail #109; Mark Cayzer and his crew Nic in their Access 303 sail #4; and Andy Wallace and his crew Helen in their Martin sail #126. But as this group got into their stride tacking up the Lake, the speedy 2.4’s and Andy Wallace’s Martin made grounds on Malcolm Hill’s Martin and were 1st to round the windward Mark B. A few hundred yards into the downwind leg, Peter Wagner had over a 100 yards lead on the 2nd and 3rd placed boats, another 2.4 helmed by David Mason and Andy Wallace’s Martin, which were vying for supremacy of position all the way down to the Gybe Mark C. These three were being earnestly pursued by Stratos 2, Brian Mac’s Liberty, Mike Blatchford in another Liberty,Pink Lady, and Stratos 3. This order was maintained all the way downwind to  rounding Mark D – Peter Wagner having pulled out a 200 yard lead by then, and they were followed by  Malcolm Hill and Dan’s Martin , Paul Hagan and Nigel Lamb in the Venture and Fay Watson and Rick in their Access 303.

In the short tacking sequence from Mark D to the Start Gate, Mike Blatchford made his move to overhaul Andy Wallace and close up on the leading 2.4s. Once into the second lap the leading 4 boats started to pull away from the rest of the racing fleet but always keeping in touch of each other; both Stratos 2 and 3 were also mixing it with the leading pack from time to time, whenever their helms wanted to  show their true pace.  As is expected the slower Access 303s fall back down the fleet on the water but they were battling each other and the wind which was fluctuating in both strength and direction.  Georgia Pearless and Pat were the first 303 to complete Lap 1 over 1 minute  ahead of Fay Watson and Rick but this had changed around by the time they completed Lap 2 with Fay storming ahead to lead Georgia by 1 minute and Fay maintained this standard of sailing by completing a third lap at the same pace as her fast second lap.

All in all there was plenty of toing and froing between the classes of similarly PY handicapped boats and although the results below show  a rather static 1,2,3 etc…the detail behind these numbers shows how close the racing is. Namely:  the differences in the average lap speed between the first six places are: 1st and 2nd = 10 secs; 2nd and 3rd = 3 secs; 3rd and 4th = 1 sec ; 4th and 5th = 5 secs; and 5th and 6th = 5 secs also!!!  I say this in order to encourage every helm to see that you can climb up the results sheet by sailing just a few seconds quicker each lap.

Well done to every WS Racer who participated on another tricky sailing day at Chipstead. And finally, a special congratulations to Lydia Thorn who was presented with a very well achieved RYA Sailability Gold Award by Steve Thomas during lunchtime.

Final Result:

1. Mike Blatchford
2. Peter Wagner
3. Andy Wallace (with Helen as crew)
4. David Mason
5. Brian Mac
6. Fay Watson (with Rick as crew)
7. Georgia Pearless (with Pat as crew)
8. Bill Garry
9. John Hancock (with a crew)
10. Mark Cayzer (with Nic as crew)
11. Paul Hagan (with Nigel as co-helm)
12. Malcolm Hill (with a Dan as crew)
13. Lydia Thorn

I am sorry that I missed this Race but it appears you had an exciting and possibly exhausting day on the water. Many thanks to Fleur Bryant who acted as Race Officer and wrote this report:

Wow! What a race! Firstly, well done to everybody for getting out there and giving it a go. You did brilliantly! For those that made it to the end of the race, I hope you didn’t get too wet and you managed to enjoy yourselves. The lap times were so short (about 6 mins per lap instead of 9 to 11 minutes in recent weeks for the 2.4s) that it was quite a job keeping tabs on you all!

The Start of the Race was delayed because Mark D had drifted too close to the shore, which was keeping the rescue boats busy re-floating the significant numbers of boats that ran aground. Once D was moved, the race got underway. Fortunately the wind dropped a bit to allow for an easier start line. It was great to see lots of good tactical positioning prior to the start leading to a big bunch close to the start line when the Gong sounded.

Well done to Mike Blatchford for his great start. First across the line ……. maybe, but in all the excitement remember not to sail too close to the wind on the Beat since, although you may think you are going to get the upwind mark sooner, actually the boat is not moving as fast as it could if you were to ease off the wind a bit, and hence you end up taking longer to get to where you’re heading!!  This was also the case for the Venture. The first beat saw some really close racing within the Access’ and Liberties fleets. There were some issues at the Windward Mark with a number of people heading too close to the shore and running aground. (Oh dear!! Ed) Try to assess the position of the Mark before planning your route up to it. There was plenty of room to reach the Mark but heading to the left of it was not ideal for the wind direction or depth of water.

The first lap was extremely fast, with Peter Gregory leading the fleet round in just 6 minutes 45 seconds.  After this point, it got rather busy in the race box, single-handedly recording each of your times on the results sheet, so the subsequent tactics and sailing  have avoided any further scrutiny and assessment 🙂 !

There were a couple more Port / Starboard incidents which you should try to avoid as much as possible by keeping an eye on what other boats around you are doing and anticipating where they are likely to tack/gybe and how that might affect you. However beyond this, the overriding rule is to avoid a collision – so even if you are in the right, you still must avoid hitting someone!! (PLEASE!! Ed).
Well done again to everyone that made it round, you are all heroes! We look forward to seeing you next week for the FINAL Race of the Spring Series.

———— Results Update !! ————

The Final Results (pending any further updates), are:

• 1st Peter Gregory
• 2nd Bill Garry
• 3rd Mark Cayzer & crew
• 4th Mike Blatchford
• 5th Fay Watson & crew
• 6th Andy Wallace

There were DNF’s (DID NOT FINISH) for: Bob Fisher & Steve Farmer in two single-handed 303’s, Martin ?? in a Liberty, and Brian Mac in the Venture.
There was also a single-handed 303 (sail number 3) for which we have no name…..if anyone knows the sailor of No:3 on that day, please let us know…

As was stated by the Trustees on the website confirming that sailing would be on today, “Wind was going to be hard to find”. Nevertheless we had nine Racers eager to enjoy a beautiful, sunny morning on the water and ready to find whatever wind might appear. Certainly at 10:30 AM the expected 4 knots of breeze was looking optimistic with barely a ripple disturbing the glassy surface across most of the lake.

The course was set with the wind blowing from the SSW, from the normal Start Line (between Buoy K and a distance marker Flag in the middle of the lake) with an initial Beat up to the Windward Mark B, to be left to starboard, before running down towards Mark C and, after gybing around C, continuing the run to Mark D which was to be left to starboard before starting the beat back to the starting gate and Mark C. However, today was a day when the Racers would find it was not only going to be difficult to find the wind but also to work out how to react to the wind’s changes of direction.

The 5 minute gong sounded on time at 11:25 AM and despite the difficulties caused by having very little wind, all the Helms in the race managed to have a clean start. David Mason in his 2.4 quickly put two or three boat lengths between himself and the following group comprising Fay Watson in a 303, with her trusty crew James Thomas, Andy Wallace in a Martin, Peter Wagner in a 2.4 and John Masters in a Stratos. There wasn’t a lot of space between these Helms as they followed David Mason towards the first Mark.

A few boat lengths behind them came Ann Frewer in her 2.3, Bill Garry in a Martin, Brian Mac in a Liberty, Mark Cayzer in a 303, with his crew Andy, and Kelly in a 303, with her crew Mike McKenzie. The Helms in this second group benefited from the vagaries of the light breeze, as a gentle increase in strength seemed to bypass the first group and hence enable the second group to make up ground so that nearly the whole fleet was bunched up as it approached the Windward Mark B.

Meanwhile David Mason had rounded Mark B in the lead and was well on his way to the second Mark C by the time the first of the chasing boats reached and rounded Mark B.

At this stage the strength of the wind was close to the forecast 4 knots and all the Helms were probably quite happy since their boats were moving along nicely. The steadiness in the wind meant that David gybed around Mark C still with a sizeable lead over Andy Wallace in his Martin. But Andy was in hot pursuit as were Fay Watson in her 303 and the Stratos, with John Masters at the helm. A slightly stronger breeze had also helped Peter Wagner in his 2.4, Brian Mac in the Liberty and Bill Garry in the other Martin to make up some distance on the leader. However, as was expected today, the wind started to play tricks and whilst David Mason benefited from a short-lived gust, those just 200 yards behind found themselves stalled as the wind died. On approaching Mark C, the momentum and bigger sail of the Stratos managed to help John Masters sail past the boats that had stalled in front of him and, together with Peter Wagner, he started to chase after David Mason. Andy Wallace found the wind again and took up the pursuit closely behind Peter Wagner. Brian Mac and Bill Garry  were also still very much in the hunt, although seeming to take a longer course than was necessary given the wind direction.

As the front of the fleet tacked around Mark D, there was sufficient wind to help them keep moving across the water and complete their first lap of the course.

However, the wind soon backed into SSE and the leg from Mark D to Mark B became a run rather than a beat. The Helms that recognised this were clearly at an advantage and let their sails out accordingly….but this situation did not last for very long, since the wind died completely, leaving the second half of the fleet (now on the leg between Marks D and B) in the doldrums. When it returned, it was blowing from the SSW. From the Race Hut, we could see how difficult it was for Helms to decide how best to set their sails. A number of boats started sailing involuntarily back to Mark D whilst others went round in circles, until the wind made its intentions clearer and settled down blowing  gently from the South!!

For the remainder of the race, David Mason, John Masters and Peter Wagner managed to gain a sizeable advantage over Andy and Bill’s Martins, Brian’s Liberty, Ann’s 2.3 and Fay, Mark and Kelly’s 303s who all completed their second laps, seesawing up and down the order as the wind blew or disappeared. The two 2.4’s were asked to sail a third lap since they were well ahead of the rest of the fleet after 20/25 minutes.  and at some point during their third lap, Peter managed to find some good wind whilst David sailed into the doldrums. Which enabled Peter Wagner to finish in front of David this week. (What a ding-dong tussle these two are having this series! Great stuff. Ed.)

Well done to everybody racing. It was another tricky and trying day for you all.

And many thanks to Fleur Bryant who was out on the water with her son Henry giving encouragement to and teaching those in need…
 
and to Chris Wagner for dog-sitting Gyp.

The Final Result is:

• 1 Peter Wagner
• 2 David Mason
• 3 Ann Frewer
• 4 Mark Cayzer and Andy
• 5 Andy Wallace
• 6 Brian Mac
• 7 Kelly and Mike McKenzie
• 8 Bill Garry
• 9 Fay Watson and James Thomas

These results have been added on to the Spring Series Race Summary where you can see that 11 racers have now qualified for the Series by sailing at least 5 races. Bravo!!