Sunday 14th June 2015
Many have tried and many have failed over the years to try and tame the wind, today would have been a great day to succeed in that endeavour as it was not behaving at all and kept our OOD and rescue course advisers confused and bemused for most of the two mid season races. The mysterious disappearance of our Amroth mark has not improved the ability to set a course round this testing and blustery weather we seem to be having recently.
The decision made and a PMH course was set and 9 keen boats ready on the line to test their tactical knowledge against each other. We were fortunate today to have a new sailor by the name of Simon in his Contender on the scene testing out our club on loan from Neyland SC who it appears is a friend of current race leader Maurice and more commonly known these days as Pinky and the nemesis of James at present in the Phantom.
Well they were off and a close start between Keith in the Aero who trounced everyone last week in the light winds, peoples friend and the two contenders, Maurice it seemed though was putting his foot down literally on the gas and seemed to be pulling away. Great to see Ben back out in his Laser radial along side Harry and Steve in the Vision who had reasonable start mid pack in some testing conditions. Martin in the Solo was keeping a close call this week and all seemed to be going to the normal gold and silver fleet split apart from Mark and Trish in the Beast ( Tasar ) who had not read the script and seemed to be hanging on to the gold fleets coat tails, good sailing.
The wind went up and it came down, it turned round and it slowed down, but eventually the race was shortened with a win for Maurice in the Contender, 2nd James in the Phantom, 3rd Keith in the Aero. Simon our guest who could not be included in final results due to membership though would have been 3rd if counted so well done on your first outing into the bay.
Debate raged across the radios as to which way the wind was going to settle, we took a good guess and went for reverse course tactics and set PMH, apparently a beat on one leg actually raised it's head for a short period but turned into a reach for others so some lucky and some not. Unfortunately Martin in the Solo took a turn upside down a couple of times and needed assistance which kept Nick in one of our rescue boats tied up but along came cruiser "Elgar" with captain John and galley girl Tonya on board to step in and volunteer another pair of eyes on the fleet to watch over the windswept sailors.
We were in dismay up in race control about the course today but it seemed most people seemed to enjoy the tricky route round, the Love boat ( N12 ) which may at the end of the season be sent off to a swapping party was actually going well on occasions today so obviously has realized it needs to behave itself a bit more out there or else it's firewood next winter. Paul and Julia were screaming in on the last leg which would have been great if they could have done that the whole way round. At one stage it looked as though new boy Simon had not also read the script about who is in control out there as he came over the line on the first lap 7 secs ahead of Pinky his apparent good friend and both in the Contenders, James was moving closer and only 40 secs behind so all was still in the bag to pull out a win.
Eventually Maurice pulled it all back and came in 1st with his trusty Contender in command again, 2nd James in the Phantom, 3rd Keith in the Aero. Again Simon did well and would have finished 2nd by 17 secs if he was to have been on the membership books so lets wait and see on that one. Some good sailing by all today and thanks to our normal crews who help this all happen each week by volunteering their services. John and Hywel in the Dory, Nick and Paula on the new cruiser, and thanks again to John for stepping in and seeing that we needed assistance when required. Apparently the OOD box did a brilliant job today so thanks to Mick and Terry up there in windy city. We cannot forget current club person of 2014 Clare who we now rely heavily on sorting all the beach handling out with trolleys up and down the slipway and hot coffee to cold sailors on their return.
No club racing next week as a few of us are off to Tenby for their regatta which is a great event if you want to join us, on Sunday it is the round Caldey race which is also a great spectacle with all the cruisers and dinghies racing it out between each other for the grand first prize of £500.00.
RYA Honda Rib competition. Again this year the club entered one of our younger members in the form of Hywel who travelled to Swansea to take part in the now annual competition, his skills have been used for many weeks out in the bay on rescue and it was time to put them to the test. The club can be very proud of his achievements and came in 2nd place against some very tough competitors, so well done Hywel and thanks from the club for taking part, and of course mum Clare for taking you there as well.
Club training is currently ongoing and information and contacts can be found on the website and Facebook pages.
A salty sea dog
