Well everyone, the long awaited race report for the race on Thursday 29th June, written by our newest race officer Fleur Bryant, is finally here. What a race report it is, with a fantastic result at the end once the handicapping was applied….and a new race winner…!!!

THE REPORT

Light, shifty winds were the order of the day, but the race was able to take place on the now common ACD race course. The pack bunched at the start, competing for position. Mike Blatchford was first across the line on the port end of the line in a Martin. The wind was fickle though and his good start was whittled away by Peter Gregory in his 2.4, aka The Red Torpedo, who took full advantage of the lighter shifty breeze. He was followed closely by Peter Wagner and David Mason also in their 2.4s. Behind them leading the way for the Access 303s were Fay Watson with her crew James Thomas and then Brian Mac in a Liberty.

The wind struggled for the remaining part of the lap. The 2.4s had a highly competitive first lap, but the end of the first lap showed the importance of choosing the right side of the beat when Peter Wagner and David Mason rounded the Leeward mark and took opposing sides. Peter being forced into the shoreline side of the beat lost out once they reached the start / finish gate.

Brian Mac continued a strong performance from the start, gaining advantage on the beat and maintaining his position on the subsequent two legs. The 303 fleet was led by Fay Watson, followed by Bob Fisher then Ann Frewer in her, highly handicapped, 2.3 and then Steve Farmer and Mark Cayzer. Whilst the beat was competitive on the 2nd lap, positions were maintained with only 2 changes. Fay made her move and overtook Brian Mac in the Liberty, whilst Andy Wallace decided to retire.

The 2.4s sailed a 3rd lap having completed the 2nd lap in well under the 30 minutes allotted for the race. The placings were maintained, although both Peter Gregory and David Mason managed to pull away, increasing the gaps between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 3rd positions on the water.

Well done to everyone for persevering with the fickle winds. Mark Cayzer must also have a mention for brilliantly persevering and finishing the course.

A couple of points to remember: firstly, the starboard end of the line (the right side) may not always be the best end to start as was proved by Mike Blatchford in this race; secondly, before the race, try to practice the time it takes to get to the line from a starting position behind the line. There was quite a gap between the gun firing and the first boat over the line. Getting this right will lead to significant gains over competitors and reducing your overall sailing time.

Finally well done to everybody, not a single competitor forgot to go through the start / finish gate. And many congratulations to our new race winner Fay Watson!

The final result is:

• 1st Fay Watson (crew James Thomas)
• 2nd David Mason
• 3rd Peter Gregory
• 4th Ann Frewer
• 5th Peter Wagner
• 6th Brian Mac
• 7th Bob Fisher
• 8th Steve Farmer
• 9th Mike Blatchford
• 10th Mark Cayzer
• Retired Andy Wallace

This leaves the overall series results with 4 races left, as:

• 1st Kim Sparkes – 5 points
• 2nd Mike Blatchford – 7 points
• 3rd David Mason – 11 points
• 4th Peter Gregory – 14 points
• 5th Fay Watson – 18 points

WOW..!! What a day and what a race…!!
The day was beautiful and sunny, with a Westerly 10-15 knots of breeze blowing straight down the lake.
Which made setting a course very simple, with the start line between Mark-K and the now regular small marker flag, being directly in front of the main pontoon, and more importantly me, in the race hut on top of the grass bank. The course then headed off towards the Bricklayers, or more importantly Mark-A, which was to be rounded on the starboard side. The next mark, on the far side of the lake was Mark-C, again rounded on the starboard side, which would therefore also require a gybe. Then the last mark before heading back to the finish line was Mark-D, just in the narrow area of the lake. After rounding this mark, again on starboard, boats then needed to luff up to close hauled, then start tacking, in order to make their way back to the “end of lap gate”, between Mark-K and the small flag.

With that to look forward to, it was great to see 17 keen racers turn up for the battle!
And the racing did not disappoint us, with lots of tussles, and maybe a few actual “clashes” ongoing throughout the race. A couple to mention were:-
The race long fight between the Red Torpedo of Peter Gregory, and Paul Hagan (ably assisted by Bruce Hebbert) in the RS Venture. They were so close, that even at the end of their 4 laps, they were only 34 seconds apart..!!
Also worthy of note, was the excellent performance from Andy Wallace, who did so well in his trusty Martin16 that he finished only 2 minutes behind Mike Blatchford (a regular front runner in the fleet)!.

Now for a little bit of “NEW” information.
At he’s own request and because he is almost a guaranteed winner of every race he takes part in, Peter Gregory has agreed to have a ‘personal handicap’ applied to his race results. (FYI. I’m happy to discuss in more detail if any is that interested, but every boat has what is called a Portsmouth Yardstick handicap number, which is meant to even out the speed difference between faster and slower boats.) Quite simply what this means is that the handicap number for Peter will not be the same as the other two 2.4m’s. So Peter will have to sail that much harder and faster to have a chance of winning…..!! Also, Peter’s new handicap has been retrospectively applied to all the previous races in the Spring Series….so have a look at the overall race sheet to see what effect this has had…!!
Peter may start to regret this very soon, when he realises where this new handicap puts him in this last race…

Anyway, to the actual race results. The positions were:-

• 1st Kim Sparkes
• 2nd Mark Cayzer (crew Fleur Bryant)
• 3rd Mike Blatchford
• 4th Fay Watson (crew James Thomas)
• 5th David Mason
• 6th Andy Wallace
• 7th Paul Hagan (crew Bruce Hebbert)
• 8th Brian Mc
• 9th John ? (crew Nigel)
• 10th Peter Gregory
• 11th Peter Wagner
• 12th Steve Farmer
• 13th Phil ? (crew Papa Pete & Helen)
• 14th Bill Garry
• 15th Sam ? (crew Jemma)
• RETIRED – Bob Fisher
• DOES NOT COUNT – Pole who is a volunteer sailing without a client

“Sailors like wind!” I hear you cry – but maybe not after seeing the dramatic pitchpole last Tuesday by the NZ  Team Emirates  skipper when he found that 24 knots of wind was just too much to handle as he managed to bear away and start the chase from the head to wind position he had been forced into by Ben Ainslie in his Land Rover BAR boat before he was able to accelerate away to cross the Start Line at 25 knots and increase his boat’s speed to 40 Knots. And he was half way to the first race mark on the Great Sound of Main Island Bermuda when the NZ boat rose high on its foils before its race-ending nose dive! Nevertheless in the mere 14 knots of wind today, the 26 year old Peter Burling proved his cool and resilience and beat Ben’s Land Rover BAR team in the semi-final by 5 wins to 2. A brilliant effort by the Kiwis who – for me – have been the stand out boat of the challengers so far. But the Artemis Swedish boat is coming up fast.  Today it has edged ahead of Softbank Japan by winning 3 races on the trot – the last one as a result of a favourable umpiring decision for Artemis; (Key Learning Point – Ed: the umpire agreed that Artemis was not given enough room to tack round the Mark by the Japanese boat when Artemis was the inside boat within the 3 X boat length circle of the Mark!! All amazing stuff which I hope some of you WS Racers will have been able to watch.

Well there was plenty of wind to welcome the 7 Racers who turned up at Longford Lake in Chipstead today. The SSW wind was blowing at around 20 knots, gusting towards 30 knots, and due to the high trees around the lake, it was arriving from a variety of directions  – backing to the S and veering as far as WNW. This made life very tricky for all the helms and crews out on the water.

The course was set and shown on the Race Board and repeated verbally over the Race tannoy immediately before the race so that nobody would set off for the wrong first Mark! The course was a beat from the Start Line to Mark A at the western end of the lake, tacking and leaving it to starboard to set up for the run down towards Mark C which the fleet gybed around before continuing to run down to Mark D, and after tacking round that Mark, they had to beat back up towards the Start Line gate which they then had to pass through each lap.

The whole fleet got away to a good start, even the Martin 126 that honestly came back to cross the Start Line within the Gate (Thank you Brian Mac! Ed), before battling its way up to the windward Mark and then literally flying downwind to Mark C and, after a quick gybe to correct their sail angle in front of the wind, down to the leeward Mark D, where helms split into two camps – Camp A: who tacked immediately and began beating up to the Start Gate on port tack and Camp B: who rounded the Mark and then tightened up on the wind to cross the lake towards the boat park before tacking back on a lay line to the Start Gate – some boats needed a another tack, but some did not, hence saving time!!

As the race unfolded, the view from the Race Hut was a marvellous spectacle with boats, sails pulled tight in, heeling over as they got buffeted by the gusty wind and others, going in the opposite directions, flying along with billowing sails as they planed  downwind.  All in all great fun to watch and, I hope, fun to be part of on the water. Well done to you all and thanks to the WS volunteers who helped as crews on some of the boats and to Fleur Bryant who was out on the water in the Commando encouraging everyone and giving help to those who needed it.

Also many thanks to Chris Wagner and Alan Cayzer who have assisted Mike Coleman and myself in the Race Hut – so that we can get the correct lap times for each boat as it crosses the Start/Finish Gate!

At the end of 30 hard sailed minutes, everyone finished and the Final Result was:

1. Kim Sparkes (303); 2.  Mike Blatchford (Martin) 18 seconds per lap behind the leader; 3. David Mason (2.4m) 47 secs; 4. Brain Mac and his crew John Douglas (Martin) 58 secs; 5. Mark Cayzer and his crew James Thomas (303) 59 secs; 6. Fay Watson and her crew Mike Coleman (303) 1 min 2 sec; 7. Peter Wagner (2.4m) 1 min 20 sec; 8. Nigel Lamb and crew Paul (Venture) 2 min 7 secs.

“What an absolutely, fantastically beautiful day!” was the main refrain heard yesterday around the club house and across the lake. It really was – summer had arrived on cue and although the early sign (at 0830 hours) was a total absence of wind, by 1000 the forecast EAST (Ed. Many thanks to hawk-eyed David Mason!!)  wind of 8 to 9 knots was filling in nicely. Not surprisingly therefore there were a lot of sailors with big smiles on their faces starting to gather in the clubhouse and down by the water.  As the wind improved from 1000, many of the Racers were out on the water and enjoying themselves along with many other clients. By 1100 the lake was very busy with most of the fleet out, beating, reaching, running, tacking and gybing! (Ed. How many more sailing words are there that describe how a  sailboat moves?)  But at 1120 the wind seemed to decide it had blown enough and took a rest, and the view from the Race Hut saw many Racers in the doldrums at the west end of the lake. Would they be able to get back to the start line in time to hear the 5 minute Gong? Fortunately all was well and the wind filled in again and 12 racers were on the water, milling up and down the Start Line, ready to do battle.

The Race Controller advised the competitors that the 5-4-1 countdown was to start imminently – but “Not so fast!” radioed the Pontoon Manager to the race Hut, “There are two late arrivals whom we are  helping to get on the water, please delay the start.” So after a 5 minute delay the (now customary) countdown began and the hustling along the Start Line began in earnest. The braver souls were right there in the thick of it – using their knowledge of the racing rules (Ed.  Is that mainly, Starboard Boat and Windward Boat?) to keep other boats at bay and prepare a clear line  for the “Off”! The final Gong sounded and the Race was on….but what is that I hear. “Boats 108 and 126 must restart!”  Oh dear – two helms had been a little too eager to get a blinder and strayed over the start line before the Gong. Back they came to restart their races – getting the all clear from the Race Controller.

As is often  the case when Peter Gregory is in the Race, his Red Torpedo (Sail # 148) hit the Start Line at speed on Starboard Tack which quickly enabled him to find clear air and use the E wind coming straight down the lake from Dover and the Windward Mark – D.  But there were many others chasing him up to D and after rounding D to Port running downwind towards the Gybe Mark – C – and onward to the Leeward Mark – B – before beating back up the lake, through the Start Gate, to D. In view of the clear warnings previously given to WS Racers about  the need to sail through the Start Gate EVERY lap , the Race Hut had to remind a few Helms that they were in danger of “forgetting” to do this. So thank you all for full compliance in this race!

From the timings recorded for every boat racing, as they complete each Lap, it was evident that the wind had strengthened during the second Lap – since most competitors at the front of the fleet sailed a faster second than first lap. This is important to note as a REMINDER to Racers that they need to take advantage of every scrap of wind on every Lap since that will REDUCE their overall Average Lap Time.

In the final stages of the Race, Peter Gregory was left to sail his fourth Lap and then the boats on the water behind him were given a FINISHING GONG as they passed over the Finish Line. With Emma and James, in a 303D Sail # 1, being the first boat to complete its second lap, one minute after Peter Gregory had started his fourth Lap. I should also report that there were three other boats on the water and racing around the course – a Martin, helmed by Fleur Bryant who was giving sailing tips and hints to WS Racers, and a Stratos and a Venture with multi occupancy. Well done to you all!!!

I show the race result below but I would like to stress that after taking the PY handicap into the consideration, there was very little between some of the boats.

The (provisional – awaiting scrutineering) positions were: 1. Peter Gregory (2.4m); 2. Kim Sparkes (Liberty); 3. Emma/James (303D); 4. Steve Farmer (303S); 5. Ann Frewer (2.3); 6. David Mason (2.4m); 7. Bob Fisher (303S); 8. Peter Wagner (2.4m); 9. Andy Wallace/Di (Martin); 10. Mike Mathews (Liberty); 11. Mark Cayzer/????? (303D); 12. Paula Penn/Sophie (303D); 13. Fay Watson/Rick (303D); 14. John/Jemma (303D).