Race Report - 15-16 May

This weekend's race report comes from Dreamer, courtesy of Pietro Strada

Saturday 16 May

The conditions were ideal for some fun racing: the forecast was for wind up to 10kts from WSW with sunny spells. HW Portsmouth was 11:20 with a 4.6m spring tide, meaning a first in the fullest of the ebb.

The RLYC was the organising club using the club’s starting line; two races planned for the day, with the first starting signal at 12:10.

Race 1

Eight boats were on the starting line. The committee started the fleet downwind against the tide with the first mark being 4Y (North Ryde Middle). The trade-off was between starting at the pin-end against the tide and trying to cross the channel early, or close to the breakwater with less tide, with the risk of being covered by the land and less wind.

The fleet split, and Destroyer and Darling, having started at the pin end and crossed the channel early, got to the mark first. Doublet was also in contention but had to retire for a fault.

The next mark was West Ryde Middle (4P) followed by a short downwind leg, remaining on the bank, to Goodall Roofing (4U), which took longer due to the strong tide. The last leg was tacking upwind to the finish line.

The boats had to play the wind shifts off Norris, where the wind strength and direction was typically unstable. The finishing order was #1 Destroyer (32), #2 Darling (11) and #3 Dynamite (9) followed by Dreamer (36), Darius (30), Diamond (5) and Derring-Do (24).

Race 2

With Doublet remaining out of service, only seven boats were on the starting line. Mixing things up the committee started the fleet upwind and down-tide, with the first mark in Gurnard Bay at Polly’s Challenge (3Q). The inner part of the line was favourably biased, so the boats starting inshore got to the mark first.

Next came a long downwind leg to Ben F Wood (4N, South of the Brambles Bank) against the tide, but nonetheless the strong wind seemed to favour the boats offshore. A short upwind leg to South Bramble (31) and a short downwind leg to West Ryde Middle (4P) created some action. The wind picked up above 15kts with gusts at 25kts, and the downwind leg was quite shy, so not all boats carried the spinnaker with one becoming ripped.

At the end, the same three boats took the podium, but in reverse order: #1 Darling (11), #2 Dynamite (9) and #3 Destroyer (32), followed by Dreamer (36), Derring-Do (24), Diamond (5) and Darius (30).

Luckily, we escaped the rain during racing!

Sunday 17 May

Seven boats were sailing for the only race of the day starting at 12:15. The wind forecast was for 10-12Kts of wind and HWP was only fifteen minutes after the 1215 start. The skies were clear - perfect conditions.

We started upwind towards Cowes Yacht Haven (3P) and the inner part of the line was favoured. Darling (11) got it right and immediately gained 6-7 boat lengths on Dreamer (36), whilst several boats were late to the line.

The next leg was a 4nm long downwind sail against tide to Ancasta (4W). 5 boats crossed early and went on the bank with less tide, except Dynamite (9) and Destroyer (32) who stayed close to the island shore. When we reunited at the mark, Darling and Dreamer had gained only 4-5 boat lengths on Dynamite and Destroyer, but not much on such a long leg! 

The course continued to South Bramble (31) with a 2nm upwind leg followed by a 2.6nm downwind leg to East Bramble (41). Diamond was fast and took two positions to round third the last mark before the finish line.

The finishing order was unchanged with #1 Darling (11), #2 Dreamer (36), #3 Diamond (5) with an advantage of only 3s over Dynamite (9) after a 13.5nm race! Following up was Destroyer (32) and Darius (30). Dancer (14) did not finish.