In my absence, Noel McPherson has done the report honours, and what a great report! 

“I think we had a bit of everything yesterday.  The weather was threatening, early rain; then the water was glassed out to start; then puffs each way and in any direction other than what the weather bureau indicated; rain; and finally sunshine and calm at the end of the day.

15 believers turned up to sail our scratch racing.  You have to believe – that is the only way to explain it.

We sat around before play started just waiting for any indication of a puff.  The only ripples on the water were from something bigger chasing something smaller in the water.  We finally put the boat in the water, and first drama was the bung wasn’t put in the boat… for a small boat it has a biiig drain hole, so it prompted a quick look around for the bung.  Well done! Boat quarter full of water.  Have to bail out.  Good start.

Conditions… slight puffs out of the west now.  Set the course… too long for the conditions, so reduce it.  We were supposed to have wind out of the south, but that didn’t happen – well done again weather bureau.  Over the day, the wind varied from west to north west and north; but we held the same course.  It was the same for us all.  Very low tide as well.  Fortunately we stayed away from the shallows, so we had very few rescues.

Of course A sails were selected.  I saw a B come out later in the day, but not sure it was successful.

Right… Race 1.  By this stage the wind (ha ha) was fluctuating from west to east and back again.  By the time we started lining up for the race we changed our minds as to which direction to sail.  We started to the west, but it was more a driftathon, so the race was shortened to one lap.  Not a good start to the day.

Things got a little better from Race 2 – we could do 2 laps but it was painfully slow.  The top mark was a nightmare for everyone.  No-one had any momentum to get around the mark, so there was a lot of rafting up.  The wind seemed to change direction just on the mark.

We were only using one top mark, so there was a bit of discussion to try rounding to starboard rather than port.  That seemed to free things up a bit but it created its own problems as well.  Then we tried (perhaps it was me making the changes) using the “normal” two marks.  If anything, it made us think about something while making our way round the course.

We sailed without RO’s and in hindsight, that was not a good decision.  Sailors don’t do penalties unless someone says they have to.

Given all the challenges we faced on the day, I was really happy to see some sailors placed in the higher positions who do not usually get there.  Tim Alexander scored a third in the first race, with Phil Hetherington taking it out.  The Pattersons took 1 and 3 in the second race; Phil H. took a second in the third. Bruce Patterson also took the fourth, and Karen Patterson took the 5th with Paula Reilly and Phil H. taking the other spots. Bruce Patterson took a third in race 7 and Geoff Lucas saved his best to take a second in the final race.  Well done to you all.

It was a hard, frustrating day; but we all got through it.

Thanks Mick Costa for scoring for us.  A compliment received from Brian Chapman who usually has to analyse the scrawls, omissions and changes on the score sheet at the end of each sailing day to come up with a result.

Race winners were Phil Stevenson 2, Bruce Patterson 2 and Philip Hetherington 1, Martin Thearle 1,Karen Patterson 1 and Robin Tickner 1.

Phil Stevenson took the honours for the day to win 1st place on 11 points.

Martin Thearle finished in 2nd place on 18 points.

Robin Tickner finished in 3rd place with 22 points on a countback from Phil Hetherington..

The Club Championship now has Martin Thearle in front from Phil Stevenson and Noel McPherson.

Our next Sail day is Thursday 26th March for a Scratch Event. I’ll forward forecast details closer to the day.

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