In Brian Chapman’s absence, I’ve put together the scoring and report.  Get well soon Brian! 

Yesterday, it was our handicap racing day, and just to liven things up, we welcomed the first blast of winter, even though it is not yet here officially.

Fifteen Sailors chilled in the odd conditions… warm in the sun, but decidedly cold in the wind.

With a temperature just about reaching 17 degrees, but with a wind chill factor of about 17 degrees, the result was 0 or there abouts.  As you can guess, a strong westerly greeted us at Dobroyd, and remained for the day.  There were significant sudden changes in direction to add to our joys; and the usual holes that come with these conditions as well.

The wind speed varied around 10 to 14 knots, with gusts reaching 28 knots on DAC’s weather station.

There was no doubt about sail choice – D sails all day.  There were some murmuring among the ranks about whether we were going to sail, but Graham settled that by putting the marks out – the course was up and down in front of the deck; which meant we also had to deal with the glare of the sun for a significant part of the sailing.  Sometimes it was like the recent trip around the moon, where they lost contact with everyone until they came out the other side.

Somehow, the marks were like magnets for most of us, so we had some come togethers to sort out; and go arounds for those who missed the mark again and again.

We had a sort of low high tide, and with the falling tide some of us dared to come in nearer to the deck.  We had the unique situation where at one stage we had 3 boats disappear under the deck at once, and had to be fished out; with Graham exploring the chasms underneath to retrieve them.  There is always something different happening at DAC!

 Phil Stevenson again chose to take it easy and score for us with accompanying R.O. duties. Thank you again Phil.

 Given the conditions, I think everyone excelled with their sailing.  There were some pretty hefty handicaps to deal with.  It was great to see the placings spread through the fleet – I think nearly everyone had some success with placings on the day.

The champion for yesterday’s racing was Rob Lowndes. Rob started with a fairly high handicap and has increased it significantly.  It must be those rolling gybes or something!  Peter Hirschl came in second on a countback, even though he had to drop out for his last 2 races… well done Peter.  Stephen Deane came in third – he also started with a high handicap and increased it at the end of sailing.  Graham and I had a good tussle for the next 2 places, then you could throw a blanket over the following placings.

 Race winners were Tim Alexander 3 – well done Tim; Peter Hirschl 2 – another great effort after Peter’s radio problems over past weeks; then Graham Brown, Lew Verdon, Phillip Hetherington, and Richard Thorpe all on 1.

 Rob Lowndes took the honours for the day to win 1st place on 26 points.  Noticably, Rob hsd no 1’s in his finishes.

Peter Hirschl finished in 2nd place on 26 points after a countback.

Stephen Deane finished in 3rd place with 30 points.

 You will have to wait for Brian Chapman to return for the Club Championship points.

I looked at the photos I took, and the conditions looked rather benign… don’t know what we were worrying about!  But there were some rather focused sailors on the deck.

Our next Sail day is Thursday 14^th May for a Scratch Event. I’ll forward forecast details closer to the day.

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