Race Reports

There’s been this new Enterprise on the dinghy park for the last couple of weeks. No one knew much about it, except for Peter who said that being blue it must be really fast. Peter also has a blue boat which colours his judgement.

Anyway, come Wednesday it was Nick and son Doogie who joined the fray in the mystery new Ent. Nick is a sailmaker which is means ‘professional sailor’ in most people’s world.   He’s been racing all types of boats but most notably to be found at the front end of the feisty J24 fleet.    No pressure then.

The course was set by new Race Officer Chris Hampe who gave us 2 short laps to allow for the early sunset just after 7pm

Wind: North Westerly
Course: South Winter, Ash (Windward Mark), NW Winter, Liberty Yachts.

The line allowed a reaching start to South Winter and all the boats were pretty much on the line for the gun. It was newcomer Nick showing the way forward with good speed from the leeward end of the line.

He was first round South Winter closely followed by the usual suspects. The leg from South Winter to Ash was very shifty with a big incoming tide. Peter Ganderton went up the right side and went from 5th to first in a single leg. Up the left there was plenty of place changes with each gust and shift coming down the Tamar. Nick’s new blue boat has great speed downwind but needs a bit of tuning upwind which resulted in a few dropped places.

Around Ash it was Gandy followed by Martin and Nick, Peter and Chris in Dyskinetic.

After such a dominant upwind leg Different Shade was under pressure as the flood tide against us and moderate breeze meant the downwind section was a bit of wind versus tide struggle. All the chasing boats were brought together in a clump around NW Winter making Peter and Alan very nervous indeed.

The next leg was to the Liberty Yachts buoy in the Cattewater. Martin in No Handles forced The Spoon onto the fresh breeze gravy train up to windward. This left Peters in the middle and Nick coming down the leeward side. By the time the fleet reached the Cattewater all the boats were in a line with Nick recovering the lost ground to take the lead by being the inside boat at Liberty Yachts.

Rounding second was Peter and Alan in Different Shade followed by us in the Spoon.

Different Shade lost a bit of pace down the fetch to South Winter and was overtaken by The Spoon and Martin in No Handles.

The sun was setting on a beautiful evening as we rounded South Winter. Nick lead out on starboard tack to get best tide while we took off on port to get inside the wind bend. By the top of the beat the better breeze paid off and the Spoon had 30 metre lead on Peter Hinkling and Martin Bevan.

The positions remained the same to bring the race and the long summer series to a close.

This was the first race for the new Race Office Chris Hampe and all went really smoothly. Jon Buckler was also away so the Safety RIBS were manned ad hoc.  A big thank you to everyone who helped make the race possible.

If you would like to help out with Safety RIBs or on the line crew we have articles on what’s involved.

Gentle WNW breeze – 6-10 knots.
Course – South Mallard, Dunstone, Melampus, Liberty Yachts

It’s the penultimate race and just 2 points separating 2nd to 4th it’s a key race to secure 2nd place in the Summer Series.

Off the line it was a fetch to South Mallard from the pin end of the line. Peter Hinkling pulled a ripper from the far end and was first to South Mallard. Super hot on his heels was Egg & Spoon and No Handles.

The broadreach down to Dunstone allowed the boats behind to blanket those in front keeping all the boats close together. In the Spoon we managed to get down the right hand side of Dyskinetic to secure and overlap at Dunstone. We promptly threw that away with a scruffy rounding lettting No Handles come through from 3rd to 1st by holding a tighter line around the buoy.

The wind was properly shifty and yards were won and lost by taking 50m nibbles into a gust. Martin and Anna (fully Pocahontas tonight) did well and stretched out a 40m lead from the Spoon by Melampus.

Unusually the Spoon was going quite well down wind and we managed to get back to 10m behdind by Liberty Yachts.

By South Mallard it was quite close with No Handles in the lead followed by the Spoon and Different Shade 100m further back.

The leg to Dunstone was a bit floaty and we got onto Martins breeze right before he caught a huge piece of weed on his rudder. We went by to windward whilst Martin was wrestling mermaids or whatever caused the handbrake. In the meantime sneaky beaky Gandy and Alan in Different Shade had a private gust down the left and closed down the 100m gap to challenge for the lead.

Around Dunstone it was all going on with the Spoon, followed by No Handles and Different Shade in close company. Gandy took a big flyer out to sea which was let’s say less than successful. Egg & Spoon kept Martin company up the beat and stayed in front to take the win.

Everyone was at or near the front in this race but by the end we finished in series order.

Check out the results to see what can be done in the last race of the series.

After sailing was about RIB duty and Race officer rotas. Check out the Safety Rib squad post for more details.

What a beautiful evening for a sail and with a balanced karma for some of the Enterprise fleet.

Wind was forecast North Easterly but had swung to a Southerly by the sevon knots of sea breeze. It was actually that warm for once.

Nikki Buckler was our race officer for the evening and set a top course of South Winter, Inflatable Stick buoy, North East Winter, Liberty Yachts.

We suffered a bit of paralex error and thought that it was a figure of eight around the windward mark. We were politely invited by an interested party in a safety boat to stop asking questions and sail the course. Quite right too.

Dave Mitchell was guest helm with Peter in Dyskinetic who put the cat amoungst the pigeons by sailing up the very pin biased line on starboard whilst nearly everyone else approached the start on port. On Egg & Spoon we were lucky to wiggle through for a decent start. Makes a change.

The wind was very fluffy again tonight and had lots of pockets of lighter backed wind. Boats 15 metres away would be sailing 20 degrees higher and not much you could do about it. Just suck it up and keep calm.

After rounding South Winter we were on the beat proper and Dyskinetic was rocket like, passing Egg & Spoon to windward. After tacking behind the Spoon got some legs and retook a narrow lead on a port tack leg to the windward mark. Those boats who stood on picked up a lovely lift coming into the mark so all 4 boats were closely bunched.

In first it was Egg & Spoon followed by Dyskinetic, Different Shade and No Handles.

With the flood tide the light wind was even more feeble and we ghosted slowly back into North East Winter at a leisurely pace. Dyskinetic and Different Shade blanketed Egg & Spoon and were soon closing us down. Whilst breezing past Dyskinetic’s boom caught the Spoon’s shroud and incurring a penalty 720. After the turns Dyskinetic was a long way back in 4th place. Ouch. After squeezing every inch of progress around the course it was a big hit for a small touch.

Down the reach to Liberty yachts and back to South Winter the lead didn’t change much. On starboard tack Egg & Spoon was a bit to windward and held a lift over Different Shade who was sailing to leeward. Alan kept plugging away and took speed over heading, gained some separation and got into more pressure and a header to tack on. Bold and audacious or move of last resort, who knows but it paid off and Alan got back in front of the Spoon at the windward mark.

Karma clock had been ticking away by now and after getting 2 turns from Dyskinetic Egg & Spoon got sucked into Different Shade, touched their jib with the boom and we earnt our own 720 penalty. You could almost hear the cheer go up from Dave and Peter that balance had been restored.

Martin and Nick had been towards the back of the fleet at the start but had been plugging their way their way though the rotating competition and were close behind Egg & Spoon after the penalty turns. The Spoon arrested a backward slide and held onto 2nd behind Alan and Pete in Different.

Shoreside it was chicken curry or deluxe sausage and chips. Other big news there’s a NEW mystery Enterprise
on the dinghy park. It looks blue and, according to Peter Hinkley who owns a blue Ent, is therefore very fast. Can’t wait to see how true that is.

It was a swirly affair last night with a nice 10-14 knot West-South-Westerly that swung more Westerly in the last few minutes before the start.

Course: Asia (windward mark), Melampus, South Mallard, West Mallard.

With families away on holiday the start line had plenty of gaps in places. Not that we found one when we needed it.

Most of the fleet fetched down the line on starboard with Egg and Spoon failing to find a gap in the line whilst trying the port tack flier. Fly we did not and had to tack under Dyskinetic to avoid T-bone action.

Martin and Nick in No Handles were at the front of the starboard tack line of boats and tacked back on to port for the longer leg towards the Lido. Dyskinetic overhauled the Spoon to take 2nd place.

All 4 boats overstood Asia as the flood tide was at rip force and lifted all the boats by a good 50m in the last part of the beat.

No Handles led the Spoon, Doctors Dsykinetic and Different Shade around Asia down the broad reach to Melampus. In some kind of slight of hand style wind shadow trickery Dyskentic and Different shade passed the Spoon on either side to leave us trailing in last place by South Mallard.

Up the second beat the flood tide was making it a one tack affair but in Egg & Spoon we managed to get up to Different Shade by Asia. In a tiller juggling act gone wrong Peter and Alan got Different Shade into a spin and then after a near T-bone with the Spoon capsized.
They were quickly back up but with a ton of water to evacute.

With plenty of tide swooshing across the course in Egg & Spoon we tried to vector each leg and managed to close down on Doctors Dyskinetic but by the end of the third lap it was No Handles, Dyskinetic, Egg & Spoon and Different Shade.

For sailing supper: Southern Fried Chicken and better than the Colonel by miles.

Wind Westerly 18 knots
Course PEO#. South Winter, Melampus, North West Winter, Yacht Haven.

After 7 races at the weekend PPSA regatta the wetsuits had hardly dried out before it was back in the boats for the weekly excursions around the Sound.

Along with aching limbs and bruises, any regatta also sharpens the senses and drills, so all the boats were super sharp for this week’s race. Well that’s the plan but the Doctors who could not make the regatta sailed a consistent race for second place and Peter Ganderton who did do the regatta had sharpened his skills to the point he missed the toestraps and fell out of the boat up the second beat.

The start line was slightly biased to the pin end and Gandy got the win off the start by cross the Spoon on port before tacking on to starboard for the beat out to South Winter.

With some sharp tacking and by staying in the boat, Egg & Spoon wiggled in front by South Winter with Different Shade and Dyskinetic in hot pursuit.

The leg out to Melampus was a one sided affair with a short leg at the end to get around the windward mark.

With a nice swell rolling there were some surfing opportunities and with some dance mat type jive action we managed to pick up a few waves down to NW Winter.

The leg down to Yacht Haven was a very broad reach with pole out starboard side and some more nice waves to catch.

At the end of the first lap it was Egg & Spoon from the on form Doctors with a big gap to a tight bunch for 3rd.

With a good breeze the 3 laps were completed at a good lick but in the same positions near the front. Gandy however got from last after the ejector seat moment subsequent capsize to 3rd place. Nice going.

Tandoori Chicken with chips for Sailing supper if you want to know.

Especially during nightmares about physics exam I recall that Force = mass x acceleration. So for the same gust of wind a light crew will accelerate faster than a boat with any pies aboard. Peter and Alan put this to great effect tonight to secure their win in Different Shade.

Wind: West-North-Westerly. Force 5.
Course: Ash, South Winter, North East Winter, Liberty Yachts

The fleet were tightly bunched at the club end of the line for the start into a blustery WNW breeze coming off the Hoe and down the Tamar. Peter and Alan made an audacious start by running the line on port and tacking with 5 seconds to go in position A. Different Shade lead Egg & Spoon and No Handles off the line towards Drakes Island.

At Ash the Spoon had closed down on Different Shade but it was time for Peter to use the F=ma to best effect. Peter and Alan pulled out a 30m lead by South Winter by planing through the lulls to the gybe mark.

By North East Winter, Martin had closed up so the 3 lead boats were in close company for the run to Liberty Yachts.

Up the second beat a trip into Lions Den bay did not pay for Peter, and with Spoon was using more mass on the rail to power through the chop, we closed the gap to nearly cross Peter by Ash.

Down the broad reach to South Winter Peter again pulled out another 30 metres. In a bid to get back in front the Spoon went for a tight gap between a re-righted Pico and North East Winter to close down Different Shade once again. However Peter and Alan managed to stay ahead and pipped the Spoon to the line by a couple of seconds.

We really enjoyed the blasting around but there were plenty of capsizes in other fleets. Not to name names but Hugh Spencer went swimming. There was also a head injury, requiring an ambulance to be called. Nothing too serious I understand but putting safety boats and line crew to capacity and requiring the race to be shortened. Lucky for Different Shade I say, we wuz robbed of the chance to harry them for 2 more laps.

Well it wasn’t raining but the much awaited sunshine forecasted did not appear. Wind 6 knots from the South and definitely shortie wetsuit not polar bear drysuit weather. I did some tomato heads out there so some people don’t think it’s warm enough to lose the winter warmers.

Course: West Mallard, Melampus, South Mallard, Yacht Haven.

It’s a reaching start on port out to West Mallard and Dave, the daredevil, is inches off the line and going at full speed for the gun. From one boat length back in the Spoon we can hear plenty of calm reassurance from Anna that everything’s on track. “Dave you’re really on the line now!”. All boats get away safely with a single hooter and Dave in the lead around West Mallard. Up the first beat we get assertively waved away by a fast Police RIB who’s clearing the way for an equally fast moving Frigate which cuts across the Asia Pass at some speed. It was a good job for us as we fancied the right hand side which ended up being completely rubbish. Those who took the left side got a great lift on port coming into Melampus. Martin and Nick in No Handles are first around followed by the doctors, Egg & Spoon and Hell Bent. Alan and stand in crew were chased half way back up the Plym by the Police so end up way back in 5th.

Down the first run Martin and Peter are fighting for first and go off the rhumb line to let us close the gap and get an inside overlap on the doctors at South Mallard. We can’t get an overlap on Martin at Yacht Haven for first so No Handles gets a big advantage up the fetch to West Mallard and pulls out a 40m lead.

At the leeward mark No Handles decide not to cover and heads out to the right. We had a torrid time over there on the last lap so opt for left hand side out towards Jennicliffe and hit that corner bell hard (Ding ding). We get a very late shift in our favour at the last minute. It was quite sad face until that point. Martin, coming back from the right has a portion of header and maybe some advserse tide topping. Peter and Chris, third at West Mallard and on a left of middle line, duck just behind him, so we know the left is best. At the windward mark the Spoon’s got a 40m lead which extends slightly to the finish.

The Doctors round in second for the run but get over-taken by Martin for second place. Dave comes in 4th which is shame after such a blinding start but the Navy did rain on his parade.

With all the ropey weather it was nice to be out in dry weather for a challenging sail followed by top tucker at the club.