Cruiser race 29th May

29 May 2017

Single handed again today but with light winds I decided to go for the cruiser race. Only the fourth time out this year, and the first time out since the Owers Race a month ago. Some light rain after heavy thunderstorms last night but today the wind was variable light F1-2 mostly from the South.

Five boats went to sea and I was pleased with my start around the middle of the group. The beat out to Omar took nearly an hour but the boat was going fairly well and the two Sea Wolfs behind me didn't catch up. Turning east for a reach towards Outfall heading into the tide, the wind chose that moment to fall away even more so another hour went past before I reached it. One of those Sea Wolfs managed to overtake me which was annoying! Much faster boats than Elsa so I was hoping to beat them on handicap anyway.

Around Outfall and back to Omar this time with the tide helping me, about 20 mins later I was going around and headed back to harbour. Wary of the tidal stream I pointed Elsa at East Preston rather than Littlehampton - in other words, well to the right of where I intended to be so the tide would sweep me in the right direction. The light rain had gone but a bit of fog rolled in so it became hard to see the entrance until I was about 0.5m out. The race officer had decided to set the finish line directly at the harbour entrance so I had to keep full sail and no engine as I passed the entrance beacons and stopped the stopwatch, then a quick pull on the outboard and the genoa rolled away I motored in only a few minutes behind that Sea Wolf but with the other one well behind me and now invisible in the fog.

Given the very light wind and encroaching fog I decided to motor directly into my berth with the main still up, this worked perfectly and once tied up I had all the time in the world to drop and flake the sail with the help of Shaun who I found loitering on the pontoon.

Third out of five boats on corrected time, beating both those Sea Wolfs, both have skippers fairly new to their boats so they'll be more of a problem later this year I expect!

R5 - 29/5/17 at 1400

Race officer David Robinson
Start: Start 1, Finishes: Elapsed time, Wind dir: S, Ave wind: F1-2
RankBoatClassSailNoHelmNameAMSFinishElapsedCorrectedPoints
1Dedicated DancerLimbo 6.69943YDavid Robinson0.819 2;23;001;57;071.0
2DancerHunter Delta8625YDick Holden0.854 2;20;442;00;112.0
3ElsaSeal 22122Alistair Tyrrell0.776 2;54;382;15;313.0
4Sooper TrooperSea Wolf 265614TPhil Turnbull0.885 2;48;002;28;414.0
5AyellaSea Wolf 26 bk91Stuart Gibbs0.834 DNF 6.0


Sailwave Scoring Software 2.19.8
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