The first day looked to be very light and the first race started in very light conditions. We had a promising start, letting Hyde sails through on the last downwind leg to finish 4th. The second two races, we didn’t seem to get into the same groove upwind and lost a lot of ground where other boats played the shifts beautifully. The last race of the day was sailed around the time of the airshow and we had a few great sights of tornados and v bombers above the course. On our last upwind leg, a jib fitting blew which meant we had to limp around the course to protect our 5th from Carsington who were slowly gaining on us. Mason, guest helming Pica showed the whole fleet he still had it by coming first in every race of the day.
The evening’s social was held at the host club, Parkstone Yacht Club, where all the shots of the day were shown. Whilst the shots helped inflate our egos at how cool 18s looked on good number one conditions with blue skies, it was good to look at the setup of the boat compared to others and see how people were sailing other skiffs.
Day two of the event was a bit more bleak, but a fresh wind meant we were still triple wiring around the course. We emerged at the first top mark around mid fleet chasing the newly branded TeamO boat (ex Gill). On the second upwind leg we came very close in a tacking duel and on the last port layline tack, we managed to squeeze a little extra height and get in front of them, exhausting bad air over their sails. As we were pinned up against the layline, there was nothing they could do, and our lead extended. We managed to keep the lead downwind and, with a spread out fleet for the last beat, we kept a loose cover to consolidate a 4th. We picked up another 5th in the second race of the day, not managing anything special on the leading pack.
The final race of the day was a highlight for us all. Most of the weekend saw the inshore right side of the course paying well, but after we found ourselves in 6th place after the first lap and nothing worse than a 5th to discard, we had nothing to lose by heading left. The deeper water seemed to be a little fresher and we settled into a slightly faster lower angle. By the next top mark we had overtaken the Welsh Skiff, Carsington and LED bringing us up to 3rd. With arms getting tired at the front end and tension growing in everyone on the boat, we managed another quick set to follow Hyde downwind. For the last upwind leg, we chose to roll the dice again with the left hand side to see what we could do. By the top mark, we had passed Hyde. Running on absolute empty Mark and Mike got the kite up and we kept to the same side of Hyde, not wanting to let them through. We crossed the line after Pica, to take second.
We were very pleased with this result, showing that our successes in Europe and the UK events were repeatable; we just need to consistently be in the fleet working with the wind, rather than consistently middle, following others. The next event is a big one; Last European event, Last UK event and the National Championships at Plymouth. We are still joint second, but now with LED and Hyde. Carsington are only two pints behind us. There are three days of racing in the early autumn storm season, possibly number 2 rig weather in the bay. Plymouth is set to be a dramatic end to the season.
Photos courtesy of David Harding and Mike Millard.
No comments:
Post a Comment