August Bank Holiday Series Sunday/Monday 29th/30th August 2021
Published 06:25 on 6 Sep 2021
Sunday: Race Officer: Chris Burke, Andy Wooldridge, Pam Selwood. Patrol: Dave Goodwin/Vasco Silveirinha/Hayden Selwood/Joffan Garcka
Monday Race Officer: Riccardo Bertazzolli, Chris Burke, Pam Selwood. Patrol: Tim Rose/Hayden Selwood/Joffan Garcka
Sunday: N/E N/W F2-3, Grey, fluky and baffling
Monday: N/E F2-3 Grey, quite consistent, consequently slightly less baffling
It availeth us naught to complain, but after a Sunday of sailing in winds that swung c. 150° East to West and then back again, we were allowed to express a little perplexity. Not that it stopped the usual top sailors from taking these conditions in their stridebut there was an upside: for example, a weird concertina-ing of the Cat fleet at the leeward mark halfway through R2, all piling together, back-markers having the rare chance to witness the Garcka/Bertazzolli/Waters mid-race-face, a combination of serenity/concentration/and utter self-belief
The racing at the top end of the D18 fleet was tight, but Rob/Fi got three wins on Sunday, Rod/Adriana doing likewise on Monday, with the positions behind switching between Debs/Barry and Riccardo/Adriana. Despite this, Rod found that missing half of the six races was a bit of a brake in getting the overall prize, which went to Rob/Fi, with Debs/Baz running up.
Over the two days there were 14 D18's but representation elsewhere was more limited 8 other cats, including the Nacra 17, the latest WSC show-pony boat (which will never eclipse the 49'er, which has already earned a lot of affection, with its shiny underside as familiar as the athleticism of Rawlings/Waters, strong swimmers both). But it was Paul Craft in his Dart 15, who triumphed, holding off the Nacra, with its foils and offensively young-person crew, and really low handicap. It's certainly no Topaz 16. and it shows ominous signs of being extremely fast, and Caleb/Chloe will surely only need a few more races before achieving omnipotence. Perhaps its owner, Chris Burke, will have achieved his own bit of omnipotence and recovered sufficiently to sail it himself by then. The 49'er joined 5 other monos, over the two days, and confounded the mockers and nay-sayers by doing at least one circuit without spillage, although it does look like Colin/Niall didn't trouble the scorers. Unlike Chris Halfknight, who ruled over the single-hullers like the mighty titan that he is. Someone would have been second too but it's a little complicated to work out. There does seem something of a disconnect between the per race results, and the summary. But of course we're all more concerned with the taking part.
This Sunday we have a trophy race tacked on to the annual Megz Race which has had lots of whatsapp coverage so I won't go into it here. But it's always a lot of fun, so roll up and enjoy.