What a day was had by all who ventured down to join the 25 or so volunteers of Wealden Sailability at Chipstead. A nearly completely blue sky and 10 to 14 knots of westerly wind – veering and backing between SW and NW. Most of the WS Racers arrived early and had plenty of time to test the wind around the course of the Windward Mark A, followed by a broad reach to Mark B and then a downwind run to Mark D and a short reach to Mark J, before tacking and beginning the tough beat back up the lake to pass through the Start/Finish Gate and sail onward to Mark A.

Here is an extended video of the Start and how the leading group got away and how the groups of boats in the middle and at the back of the fleet fared! (As always, do try to find your own boat in the film and decide if you can see whether you can learn anything regarding, for example, better positioning on the Start Line, or the timing of when you tacked on your way to the first Mark. Ed.)

The Result was:

1. David Mason in a Liberty Sail # 24
2. Malcolm Hill and crew Douglas Haig in Martin Sail # 125 (+3 seconds per lap behind the boat ahead)
3. Ann Frewer and crew Helen Fairfax in 303 Sail # 6 (+8 secs)
4. Mike Blatchford in Martin Sail # 126 (+5 Seconds)
5. Keith Eeles in Liberty Sail # 21 (+52 seconds)
6. Imogen Fletcher and crew Di in 303 Sail # 1 (+2 seconds)
7. Fay Watson and crew James Thomas in 303 Sail # 10 (+9 seconds)
8. Peter Wagner in Liberty Sail # 22 (+6 Seconds)
9. Martin Norman and Sebastian in 303 Sail # 2 (+15 seconds)
10. Ben Gubb and crew dad, Ian, in 303 Sail # 4 (+12 seconds)
11. Geoff Taylor in 303 Sail # 7 (+47 seconds)
12. Mark Cayzer and crew Ralph in 303 Sail # 8

Well done to all the Racers and many thanks to Alan Cayzer for his assistance in the Race Hut and all the volunteers who crewed.

The result was:

1. Keith Eeles in Liberty Sail # 24
2. Mike Blatchford in Liberty Sail # 21
3. Martin Norman and his crew Sebastian in Martin Sail # 126
4. Kelly Tripp and Kim Sparkes in a 303 Sail # 1
5. Lisa and crew James Thomas in 303 Sail # 9
6. Malcolm Hill and crew Douglas Haig in Martin Sail # 125
7. Ann Frewer in her 2.3 Sail # 279
8. Peter Wagner in Liberty Sail # 22
9. Lewis Atkins and crew Mike Cartwright in 303 Sail # 4
10. Mark Cayzer and crew in 303 Sail # 10

Well done to all the Racers and thanks to the volunteers who crewed 🙂

Those Racers who decided to come to Chipstead were – according to most weather forecasters – taking a risk of getting very wet and being blown around the lake by a quite strong and gusty wind. The early volunteers found themselves launching and rigging the fleet in light drizzle but fortunately that eased off and the task was completed in dry conditions. The wind was blowing from a WSW direction (that is from the Bricklayers Arms / Waterfall end of the lake) and, by its gusts, showing that it was probably going to blow as forecast!

The volunteers’ briefing heard that heavy rain and squally conditions were due to arrive sometime during the middle of the day. Exactly when was uncertain but it was decided to keep the Race Start Time at 1130 and hope that we could derig and get most of the fleet out of the water before the monsoon arrived!

T’was good to see Steve and Ann amongst a dozen stalwarts who had arrived to race. The Pontoon Manager and volunteers sorted out the crews for those who wanted them and suitable boats for the others – with Martin back in a Martin this week – and there was plenty of time for them to practice the course under a rather overcast sky with the same gusty winds.

The sun broke though the clouds at 1120 and the race started on time, in glorious conditions. And, if only he had been 2 seconds (or about 3 meters) further away from the Start Line, as he approached it, Martin Norman (aforesaid helm of Martin 126), would have made a storming start. However, despite announcements from the Race Hut over the Tannoy and shouts from the Pontoon Manager, Martin did not know he was required to go back and restart, until he had already sailed a 100 meters. Nevertheless, he made a swift turn about and restarted the race quickly and then had a battle on his hands making up distance he had lost to the leaders. The other fast starters can be seen in a short video clip (Thanks to Matt Bryant for technical help with loading the video. Ed) as the fleet tacked up to Mark B and then reached across to Mark A.

The rest of the course was: 3rd leg downwind to gybe around Mark D and sail further down wind to Mark J, before pulling in the sails to tack back upwind, across the Start/Finish line (Mark K to a flag in the middle of the lake), to Mark B.

There was good close racing throughout the fleet as the various classes got stretched out on the water.

The Race result is:

1. David Mason – 2.4m – #108
2. Mike Blatchford – Liberty – Sail #23
3. Malcolm Hill and his crew Mike Mackenzie – Martin – #125
4. Peter Wagner – 2.4m – #109
5. Peter Gregory – 2.4m -#148
6. Kelly Tripp and her crew Doug Haig – 303D – #10
7. Martin Norman – Martin – #126
8. Steve Farmer – 303S – #1
9. Fay Watson and her crew Bruce Hebbert – 303D – #6
10. John Beck and his crew Paul – 303D – #745
11. Ann Frewer and her crew Don – 303D – #8
12. Trevor Nunn – Liberty – #21

Well done to all the racers. The results have been added to the summary sheet on the website.

The Series was completed on 25 July 2019 and here is a summary of what happened and how many took part:

• 12 races held (only 1 cancellation on 30 May!)
• 26 competitors have raced making 139 entries
• 14 Qualifiers (= at least 5 races each)

The Podium

1st – Mike Blatchford

2nd – David Mason

3rd – Peter Wagner

And the rest of the field…..

• 4th Equal – Malcolm Hill and Martin Newman
• 6th – Peter Gregory
• 7th – Mark Cayzer
• 8th – Fay Watson
• 9th – Keith Eeles
• 10th Equal – Steve Farmer, Imogen Fletcher and Ann Frewer
• 13th – Trevor Monk
• 14th – Tom Phillips

Click here to see the Summary Sheet with details of every race in the Series and how the results are calculated.

Well done to everyone who participated and many thanks to all the volunteers who crewed during the Series.

The hottest day of the year! That is how July 25 was being advertised and the WS Trustees heeded the warning and decided to curtail the day’s sailing to just the morning session. Nevertheless, a dozen WS Racers came down to the lake in the expectation that they might be able to improve their final ranking in this the final race of the Spring Series.

The volunteers arrived earlier than usual at the lake to rig and launch the fleet, hoping to avoid the worst of the heat. So everything was ready and looking resplendent by 0930 hours and the first Racers started to appear. The wind was forecast to be SE backing ESE at 8 knots, gusting to 20 knots. Well that was the forecast. As the photographs below show, the wind speed was more like 1 knot, gusting to 4 knots (Oh dear, whilst the temperature was climbing inexorably higher! Ed).

In the Race Hut, two volunteers (Paul Cove and John Hunt) were being trained as future race officers and, after summoning the Racers over the Tannoy, they sounded the three minute Gong at 1127 ready to start the race at 1130. Here is a video from a few moments after the start until the leading boats had rounded the first two Marks (J and D). (And a finger-wag to the Stratos helms who sailed a bit too close to the race fleet at times. Ed)

Sailing the course proved to be very tricky with the Chipstead Lake wind – blowing from S or SSE – living up to its reputation of being difficult to read and as a result it often wasn’t where you expected (hoped? Ed) it would be! Here are some photos taken during the sole lap that the race fleet were able to complete in the 30 minutes. The finish for quite a few boats was affected by the inability of sailing straight into the wind in order to sail within the Flag/Distance Marker and Mark K (which delineated the Finish Line). Nicola Buss and her crew Thomas were especially hard done by, coming within 5 boat lengths of the Flag, then being headed by the wind and eventually finishing 3 minutes later, thereby coming 11th rather than 6th. (Oh dear….but the name of the game is “plan your approach to each Mark/Flag” well before getting to it! Ed)

Race result
1. Mark Cayzer and his crew Peter Moore – 303 Sail # 7
2. Mike Blatchford – Liberty # 24
3. Peter Gregory – Liberty # 22
4. Keith Eeles – Liberty # 1882
5. Fay Watson and crew James Thomas – 303 # 6
6. Martin Norman – Martin # 126
7. Malcolm Hill and his crew Mike Cartwright – Martin # 125
8. David Mason – Liberty # 23
9. Steve Farmer – 303 # 8
10. Imogen Fletcher – 303 # 1
11. Nicola Buss and crew Thomas Buss – 303 # 2
12. Tom Phillips – 303 # 10
13. Peter Wagner – Liberty # 21

Well done to all racers and a special thanks to the volunteers who crewed. See separate post for results of the Spring Series 2019 and
onward to the Summer Series 2019 which will start on 8th August.