With almost everyone racing away up north, or stranded by the 2 day M25 closure, we had no IOMs on Sunday. Saturday saw three of us race our Tens at Datchet… with no jellyfish reported.
We managed 8 races on the relaid North course. Hugh 7 points (5 wins) Phil 10 points (2 wins) Graham 13 points (1 win)
After repairs to the platform on Thursday, Phil and myself shifted it back home to near the top of the North Slip on Friday. We then cleaned some marks and relaid the north course, hopefully suited to a range of northwesterly wind direction. It seemed to work on Saturday.
It was a simply stunning day at Datchet Water today – incredible bright light, with blue skies and B Rig breezes,… occasionally top-end!!
Given it was Father’s Day, we had a super One Metre turn out as well – nine competitors on the water and the camaraderie-index felt extremely high – a good time! It was nine competitors even though our fantastic leaders … and regular sailors…, PH and HM, were absent.
We have had good membership growth this year and interestingly it’s at both ends of the fleet – growth in the “superheroes” and also growth in the…. “Corinthian” …end of the fleet. It all made for great atmosphere and friendship.
Without HM and PH we were naturally a tad less organised. DL was our speaking start-clock for a few races while we sourced a race timer on somebody’s phone. I’d guess we put in five races before the break and maybe 7 races after – but I don’t think we were quite organised enough the record the scores and nobody seemed to mind today! Racing itself was in no way informal (!), but intensely competitive at all levels. Learned a lot, …speaking personally!!
We started the day on the south course, then a quick skippers meeting shifted the racing to the north course. We sailed the boats across, while walking across the beach chatting in small groups – great entertainment!
We did a couple of races on the north side and came to realise that there is more to this Race Officer and course laying lark than you might imagine – thank you Hugh for everything you do !! So we reverted to the south side again until end of session. It was a miracle that we didn’t need to get the RIB out!
I guess we don’t get to sail on our B Rigs all that often. (First time ever for me!!) We had great Datchet waves in the stiff SW breeze, so there was plenty to learn about tacking efficiently and surfing downwind in these conditions. NB brought along his new developmental IOM rudder … so we shall all have plenty to talk about at dinner parties for the next month or so!! Amazing – take a look if you can!
Above are yesterday’s results. A great fleet turnout!
As you can see we had 9 skippers though not all at the same time,… this lead to some confusion in the 8 races we managed.
Following race 6 when there was some doubt about finishing order I took over start line and finishing and awarded myself average points for doing so. With the larger entries we are now getting for Marbleheads and IOMs we need to seriously consider one off and then race a rota, ….not only for finishing but also for starting.
It is difficult to watch/position your own boat in a larger fleet as well as watch for premature starters in the last 10 seconds, at least that is my excuse!!
Despite the forecast the rain by and large kept away and the wind settled (mostly) in direction for the mornings racing in the most part in sunshine. Here’s to hoping we get the same conditions for the following two weekends
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 