Race Report - 12/13 September

With apologies to the boats concerned for any incorrect recollections, in particular on Saturday as we had our hands full!

Saturday 12 September

Peter Jackson, race officer for the RYS, had been observing the conditions in the build-up to the weekend. Despite forecasts of upper-end weather on Saturday, he held out for the published start time.

Stiff South-Westerly winds were forecast, with some models predicting high twenties by mid-afternoon, not helped by a high water time of about 1pm causing wind-over-tide conditions.

In the event, the wind had filled in come the start to borderline conditions but never quite to the point where we shouldn't be sailing. The eight-strong fleet had two fantastic races with plenty of challenging downwind sailing.

Race 1

The first leg was to CHS, a yellow mark inshore of Gurnard cardinal. Starting from the RYS line in a good ebb tide, there was arguably a little wind bias inshore but the start was won by Darling, sailing fast and on time from a mid-line position. On Defender, with Chris Torrens helming, we were inshore but couldn't cross after tacking and had to take the whole fleet's transoms.

Nonetheless we didn't turn out too badly, having gotten out into the tide sooner. By the mark we had recovered to third, only behind Darling and Dreamer. These two lead boats very close together and found an accurate layline to come in from offshore for a clean starboard rounding.

The fleet (mostly choosing the small kites) hoisted for a close reach to Gurnard cardinal before bearing away to South Bramble. There we gybed onto a Starboard broad reach for North Ryde Middle, which was a long way in the ebb tide and offered a lot of opportunity for positional play and finding passing lanes in the dense chasing pack.

There followed a fetch up onto the Brambles Bank for Ancasta, and a beat home passing West Ryde Middle to the North. For the leaders, the last two legs were fairly uneventful, with Darling leading from Dreamer all the way to the finish. We on Defender held onto our third place but had some worrying moments!

Our heads were firmly "in the boat" for most of the race. Having had to jury-rig the kicker shortly after the start ("that looks a bit frayed Chris, we should replace that when we get ashore...[SNAP!]"). Then, shortly after rounding Ancasta, we noticed the leeward jumper stay flogging at the top of the mast. On inspection, the stainless plate to which the bottom of the stay was fixed, below the deck, had pulled itself out of the mast taking the rivets and a square inch of aluminium with it!

We decided to continue racing (as it was a long way home otherwise) but eased mainsheet and traveller when on the suspect tack. The top of the mast had some definite "sag" but held up. We had enough in hand to hold onto third.

Mid-Race

Having radioed the RC at the finish to inform them of our plans to execute a hasty swap to Dauntless, we dropped sails on Defender and made the transfer. Fates were against us from the start as the jib cunningham fell through fumbling fingers and below the deck, necessitating a crawl up forward for the largest member of the crew!

No sooner had we cast off then we encountered our next problem, that we had sailed over the mooring line. Rushing to resolve the issue, we sent our foredecker (Tom Dickson) to test the bathing water quality in Cowes Harbour before finally getting underway no more than 20 minutes after crossing the line in Defender.

The Race Committee (and the fleet) had been kind enough to wait for us and the AP was brought down for the second race.

Race 2

The second race mixed it up with a downwind start. We, still rushing, hadn't spun the gear while everybody else recognised that it would be a Port pole leg to Royal Thames. However, we eventually got the kite round the right side in decent shape, still very much in the mix.

At Royal Thames we dropped, spun the gear, and then attempted to re-hoist, but made a mess of it with the wind feeling quite far forwards, and so dropped the kite into the boat. Meanwhile, Streak had gotten herself clear ahead and Dynamite powered through to leeward with their typical strength under spinnaker in strong conditions. At the same time Diamond's black kite was closing on us and Dancer, neither of whom were flying. It was a very long way to North Ryde Middle (for the second time that day!) with white sails!

The last few legs were a short beat to West Ryde Middle and another run to South Ryde Middle. Dynamite went on to catch Darling for second at some point in the race, while Streak held on for first. Dreamer sailed the best of the rest, albeit a couple of minutes behind the leaders. In the following pack Dauntless gave Dancer an opportunity, doing a spot of fishing on the final drop of the day, and the two of us had a good battle all the way up the final beat home with Dauntless barely holding on after some defensive sailing.

I took away two lessons from the day - not that it's the first time I've learned either!

1. Keep an eye on the condition of the boat - regularly! And,

2. For breezy kite work, it's often worth spending a minute talking through a maneuver before you do it...especially if you've not sailed together before.

After packing up both boats (!) we joined other sailors for a well-earned Pimm's at RYS to congratulate the winners.

Sunday 13 September

Despite more moderate conditions on Sunday, the fleet was reduced with Darius and Dancer not coming back out. The six remaining boats experienced 10-15 knots from the West, backing South West, and an ebb tide which built from slight to strong through the race.

The initial beat was to ISC (which caught us by surprise, forgetting that it was not as far along the green as CHS!) followed by a spinnaker leg to South Bramble. By this point, Darling had established slight lead over Diamond, who had several more lengths over the chasing pack of Dauntless, Dreamer, Dynamite and Streak.

While the leaders held their positions all the way until the last leg, the chasing pack played musical chairs with lots of passing lanes in the long downwind legs and some close action at challenging gybe mark roundings such as South Bramble.

Three successive downwind legs at different angles (South Bramble; West Ryde Middle; North Ryde Middle) kept us on our toes. Dropping kites coming into North Ryde Middle, the chasing pack compressed again and Dynamite surprised herself, coming into the zone fast to find a pack of slower boats still rounding the mark! Third to Sixth were separated by barely a couple of lengths to this point. With nowhere to go, she gave Dreamer a small tap on the quarter and took a turn, putting her to the back of the fleet again.

A fetch to Colette allowed Dauntless to pass Streak to weather for fourth while Dreamer held third. A port-pole broad reach back to Little Ship Club (a yellow on the Ryde Middle Bank) then let Dynamite past Streak.

However, it was all up for grabs again on the final leg, which was a long beat with big decisions to be made all the way home. Initially, the fleet all aimed for the closer North channel off the Ryde Middle Bank. All, that is, for Streak who, bringing up the rear, placed a large bet on finding stronger tide in the South channel. She was later joined by Dreamer, who was looking back at some initially worrying upwind pace from Dauntless. She tacked and crossed the Bank again at its narrowest point.

They either found strong tide or a large shift, as they came out having gained some hundreds of metres. Dreamer slotted between Darling and Diamond at the front (and then battled through boat-on-boat to take first) while Streak moved past Dauntless and Dyamite up to fourth. Meanwhile, to the North, Dynamite sailed fast upwind to leave Dauntless bringing up the rear.

Nonetheless, a lovely day on the water and some novel and interesting course-setting from RYS provided a good challenge. Overall, Darling has clearly consolidated her grip on the season and looks like the favourite heading into the end-of-season Stug Perry Regatta.