The results for Races 7 and 8 have been added to the Spring Series 2021 spreadsheet on the WS Website. Unfortunately Race 6 was Abandoned due to poor wind and weather conditions which the Race Controller felt warranted terminating the Race. Later in the day an informal race was organised to reward the WS Racers who had turned up at Chipstead but the results of that race were not recorded.
Today was a quintessential British Summer’s day. Perfect weather for being near or on water. Either by the sea shore or by or in a lake (or even, as I found my granddaughter when I got home, in a paddling pool! Ed) But sailors are demanding folk and need wind as well as warmth and sunshine. The warmth grew gradually during the morning and by early afternoon the sun was fully on parade! Definately a day for high factor sunscreen. But little wind :(.
BY 1000 the team of volunteers had a sizeable fleet of dinghies in the water and sailors started to arrive soon after the Day Briefing by David Mckee the Session Manager. Alas the two Martin 16s which we had hoped to be ready for use were still in their final stages of testing after a major bit of maintenance. Nevertheless the lake gradually filled with sailors and the Race was able to start shortly after 1100. The course was up on the Board and each sailor was told the course (and every volunteer was told the course! Ed) which was: Start / Finish Line in the middle of the lake between Buoy B and a Distance Marker with a yellow flag; a beat up to the Windward Mark A, left to starboard; then a run downwind to Mark C left to starboard; followed by a Reach across the lake to Mark K, left to starboard, followed by a beat through the start/finish gate before starting a new lap beating to Mark A.
Here is a video of the Start of the race. Try and work out where you are in the video and then decide how well you sailed in comparison to your competitors.
After an momentary lead by Martin Norman (Liberty White Sail #23), Kim Sparkes in 303 Red Sail #10 grasped control sailing across the fleet on Starboard Tack and only the wind was going to beat her. The rest of the fleet followed in her wake with each contender closing the gap whenever the wind favoured them on the downwind leg from Mark A to Mark C and they were behind…..but they were never able to get ahead. The wind conditions were not easy. The strength varied from a tickle to 8 knots and Alex Ross – a new WS Volunteer (Your knowledge of sailing and racing will be a great addition to the WS Racing Team Alex. Ed) – who was in the Race Hut with Fleur Bryant and myself, said that there was a 90 degree wind shift during the second lap. That means there will be winners and losers. The winners are those whose Tack/Gybe or Reach can be made more direct to the next Mark IF the sailor notices what has happened and adjusts his/her sails accordingly to make the most of the new wind direction – whatever strength it is blowing.
Here are some more photos of the race – in chronological order so you can see the boats nearest to you…..
We had 9 entrants and we had 9 finishers and we had 2 volunteers getting used to the dinghies (and enjoying themselves! Ed). The last boats’ positions were calculated from their time for just one completed Lap. The Race Result is known and the winner is shown below sailing to victory on her to complete her third lap.
The details below have been added to the Summary Scoresheet.
Well done to all these WS Racers and the volunteers who enable the Race to be run.
Thursday 3rd June was an absolutely perfect day for sailing….if there had only been one group of sailors on the same part of the lake (Which apparently was not the case this week. Ed). Nevertheless David Mckee in the Race Hut, ably assited by Maria Lamb, arranged a course for the 13 entrants to sail around and that is exactly what the WS Racers did, with great skill and determination – avoiding all the obstacles they found in their way. There were two guest visitors amongst the entrants, a young man, Oliver, sailing his Topper dinghy Sail #62 and a volunteer, Ralph, sailing an Access 303 Sail #8. There was also a first time attendee, sailor Noah who came along with his parents to see how Wealden Sailability operated. Noah went out helming an Access 303 Sail #9 with his crew, Peter Moore, and finished a very creditable 9th. (Welcome and well sailed Noah and thank you Peter! Ed)
More details of the course and how the race unfolded may appear but the Race Result is known and the details below have been added to the Summary Scoresheet.
Well done to all these WS Racers and the volunteers who enable the Race to be run.
What a day – horizon to horizon blue sky with bright sunshine amid fluffy clouds and at last some warmth to enable everybody at the lake to shed a few layers of clothing and long trews. As a sailor said to me “Sunshine makes everyone happier!” This was especially welcome after the cancellation of Race 2 last Thursday caused by the arrival of a strong gusty wind blowing across the lake which would have made sailing very difficult and possibly dangerous for WS Racing’s sailors.
As planned the volunteers assembled at 0830 to rig and launch the fleet required to meet the anticpated demand – so we had three Liberty, seven 303 and the lugger plus the Safety Rib and Commando in the water by 0945 and all were ready for the day’s briefing by the Session Manager. Early arrivers, Bob Fisher and Steve Farmer and Peter Wagner and his parents listened into the briefing and Mark Cayzer and his parents. Derek Preston and his wife Kay arrived as the meeting was wrapping up at 1000. Everything was set for a grand time out on the water…but where was the wind? The forecast was for 3 to 4 knots with mighty gusts of 5 to 6 knots from WNW. This made setting a course with a upwind beat to the first Mark tricky. But the course was set and the Safty Boat moved some Marks around to try and ensure they were not in wind shadows (caused mainly by the trees on the north shore).
The course was set:
The wind was dropping as 1100 approached so the Race Controller announnced over the Tannoy a delay to the start, hoping for enough breeze to enable the fleet to get off to a reasonable start. A few minutes later that happened and the 3 Minute Gong sounded with boats on both sides of the Start Line but gradually with help from the Race Hut over the Tannoy, nearly all the entrants were to the south of the Start Line and the 2 and 1 Minute Gongs sounded and the Race hut gave a 30 and 10 second verbal warning and a countdown from 5 seconds to get Race 3 of the 2021 Season started with an “All clear” announced from the Race Hut. In the photos below you can see that Peter Wagner (Liberty #22) appeared to have made a good start but of course he also had the whole fleet between imself and the prevailing wind so that was going to slow his progress. Kim Sparkes (303 #2) was well positioned but still a bit hemmed in. Steve Farmer (303 #3) had pole position having started at the windward end of the Start Line and as can be seen in the photo he soon pulled out a good lead.
But the next 5 minutes was when the story of the Race was written. After the race, Steve Farmer told me “I was having a great time. My boat was going really well so I just wanted to keep going. I didn’t mind where I was going and I did not even think everybody would follow me!” (Well that’s exactly what happened and I expect that they will all learn from the experience. Ed) From our view in the Race Hut across the lake, we were expecting the leading boats to tack in the direction of Mark C….but we waited and waited and with no Tack insight and Steve nearly at Mark A, the Race Controller asked the Safety Rib to REMIND the fleet that the first Mark was C (not A?). The next few photos show the beneficiaries of this disarray – namely Peter Wagner and Trevor Monk (303 #7) – as they were able to get to Mark C first and second respectvely. This was a remarkable turn around for Trevor who had been 100 metres behind the Start Line when the Race had started . (Lovely to see your coolness rewarded Trevor! Ed,)
The wind struggled to maintain even 3 knots so the sailors had a tough time. (The 303 and to a slightly lesser extent the Liberty are not responsive to the helm when the wind dies and this can make them very frustrating to sail in such conditions. Ed) However, Peter Wagner never looked back after rounding Mark C and the rest of the fleet gradually sorted itself out as can be seen from the next few photos. Kim Sparkes showed her class by taking a good course from Mark C to Mark A and when Trevor found that he had to put in a late Tack to round Mark A, Kim overhauled him and started chasing down Peter Wagner.
Peter and Kim crossed the Finish Line at the end of their first Lap just a second apart and once the PY handicap is taken into account (By the clever program in the spreadsheet! Ed) Kim was Race 3’s Winner by 40 seconds. Congratulations to Kim – especially since she was close to Steve Farmer as he approched Mark A whilst “enjoying his fun time on the water”! And very well done to Peter Wagner since this was his first sail for 20 months. (After the Race Peter said to me “I did wonder if I was a bit rusty after 20 months of not being behind a helm, but oddly enough my virtual flying did help… a lot! Secret weapon, eh. Ed) Brilliant Peter….and watch out everybody else if this is what Peter can do when just flying by the seat of his pants?
Other Racers were having fun chasing each other and finding out that when leading a group it is even more important to know the course. Here are some photos showing Derek Preston steaming along to what he thought was the Finish Line….but not quite..so he had to Tack twice whilst Rachel and Imogen sailed by.
(The course is always written up on the whiteboard just outside the entrance to the clubhouse – see photos above. And FYI the Marks are set out in clockwise/alapbetical order around the perimeter of the lake – see photo below. Ed)
The Race Controller decided to allow the first and second wave of the fleet to continue for a second lap (even given the difficult/non-existent wind) and to dong just the last three boats after one lap (which is the signal to tell a helm that they have finished and can stop racing). So the five boats who completed their first Lap were doing EXACTLY what they should have been doing (and hence apologies to some Racers who were advised by a Volunteer in the Safety Commando that the Race was only one Lap and they were no longer racing. That instruction was incorrect. So next time, please carry on racing until you are gonged over the Finish Line or you hear an announcement/multiple gongs from the Race Hut. Ed.)
With the wind dying almost completely, the Race Controller stopped the Race and another exciting day on the water at Chipstead ended. Well done to everyone and many thanks to all the volunteers on and off the water who make this possible.
The Race Result was:
Onward to next week!
Everyone associated with Wealden Sailaibility has looked forward to this day for nearly eighteen months (Yes, really. Since October 31st 2019). Of course the first five months was the expected Winter break when the fleet, the pontoons and the foreshore is checked over carefully and repaired or upgraded as required. Then just as you and we were all getting ready for the 2020 Season, the first Lockdown was announced and every initiative and activity had to stop. Since then a huge amount of work has been done behind the scenes (or, since we are sailors, “Under the surface”? Ed) by the Trustees to work out how “WS could function in a socially distanced world?” Yesterday was the culmination of all their and the volunteers’ efforts to be ready to safely and legally welcome sailors back onto the water at Chipstead. Thank you – all of you!!
Since mid-March, everyone who has participated in WS Races has been contacted and told about the situation and the Trustees’ plans to start asap. Some of you Racers were keen as mustard to get out on the water, whilst others were more cautious. Eventually ten sailors were invited to attend the inaugural sailing session and race on 13th May. Due to late opportunities for medical attention and concern that it was still too cold, it was left to a stalwart eight and their families and carers to arrive at a drizzle swept Chipstead Lake by 10.30am. (Hooray and many thanks to you for coming to support the small group of volunteers who had been at the lake since 8.30am staring at a nearly flat calm lake wondering how many sailors would brave what was a rather uninviting scene . Ed)
It was lovely to greet the sailors who had accepted an invitation to sail and for them to greet each other….
After a brief chat amongst these sailors, they decided that they would like to get out on the water and race. So the volunteers rigged and launched the necessary boats and the sailors got into them….
The wind had been forecast to blowing from the East at a perfect (for first day back) 8 knots with gusts to 14 knots. The course had been set with that wind direction in mind allowing a beat from the Start Line (stretching out into the lake in front of the Race Hut) up to Mark D which had been dragged towards the southerly bank of the Donald King Reach. But In reality there was a gentle 4 knots blowing from the South East which resulted in nearly being able to reach to the first Mark on a single tack. As can be seen in this short video….
After rounding Mark D to port, the course took the fleet westward and downwind to round Mark C before heading for Mark B after which the fleet had to harden up their sails to reach across to Mark A and then tacking around to start sailing back to the Start/Finish Line. Or at least that was the theory when the Race started at 11.25am but by the time the racers had got round to Mark B they found that the wind had veered from the expected East to South East and then South! If the wind had been consistent, that would have meant the leg from Mark B to Mark A was a straightforward reach but instead it became a tricky beat. As you all know Chipstead’s wind is not consistent, so rounding Mark A was difficult and some sailors who got the approach right made good progress at the expense of others who rounded Mark B in front of them. (Welcome back to chaos Racers! Ed).
After lots of encouragement over the Tannoy from the Race Hut, the fleet was well bunched up on the Start line ready for the 3-2-1 Minute count down to the Start. The video shows the early leaders and Derek Preston (Liberty Sail #24) was able to stretch his lead down to Mark B but then he inexplicably sailed off course (Was he on a sight seeing tour of our beautiful waterfall? Ed) which enabled those following him to beat him around Mark A, not least the other Liberty helm Martin Norman (Liberty #25). And Martin led the Race across the Finish line for the first time and was followed by Derek who was chased hard all the way home by Kim Sparkes (303 #4).
Trevor Monk (303 #6), Mark Cayzer (303 #7) with his dad crewing, and Tom Phillips (303 #8), were all sailing well and battling the wind shifts as they ocurred. This meant that these three were swapping places throughut the race…..
But it was not until the leg from Mark D to Mark C on the second lap that Tom was able to overhaul Mark, having passed Trevor earlier.
Despite the drizzle and the lack of wind, all the Racers said that they had enjoyed their sail as had Rachel and Imogen who had opted for the luxury of a sail on The Pride of Peppenbury, WS’s beautiful Longboat, togther with Brigitte who had brought them and Tom to Chipstead.
The final Result after applying the PY handicapping for each class (303 Double handed; 303 Single handed; Liberty) was:
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this Race Report and seeing the photos of your friends will inspire you to contact Steve Thomas and Peter Ashwell so that you are invited you to the next Thursday Sailing Session. Bravo all of you sailors!!
After the entire 2020 season being lost, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we are delighted that the Trustees have been able to organise matters at Chipstead to enable a few sailors to start sailing again. It has been a tough time for everyone involved, not least you sailors and racers who get so much stimulation from your time on the water. Please note that as we restart, the numbers of sailors will be limited due to the persisting government restrictions but the Trustees will increase the numbers as soon as these restrictions are eased. If you are ready to sail or race, please contact Steve Thomas – Trustee and Peter Ashwell – Racing Coordinator. If you have already been in touch and we know your status, please wait until you receive an email confirming that we are expecting you to arrive on a particular Thursday.
More information will be appearing on the website in the next few weeks, so please come here to check what is happening on the racing front. Do contact David Mckee, Fleur Bryant or Peter Ashwell for any other information.