 |
||
 |
|
|
Sunsail Final November 2009
SUNSAIL REGATTA FINAL 2009 link to you tube video by Tim Cripps
Followers of our ‘big boat’ exploits over the past couple of years will know that last year in the Sunsail Regatta Final we came 2nd overall, winning us free entry into this year’s heats. Having won our heat back in March our team made the trip to Portsmouth on Friday 6th Nov to compete in this year’s one day final.
We had high expectations and anything less than victory would be disappointing. Pete, our trusty Captain, has been trying to win this event for several years with both our NCSC crew and also from the police.
Our customary Friday night training got off to a great start; early doors at Wetherspoons giving us plenty of time to bulk up and ensure copious amounts of liquid refreshment were taken in to prevent dehydration on race day. Then back to the boat, being joined by temporary team manager Amy Clay, to partake of our protein enhancer (cheese and wine).
Saturday dawned, (actually it was before dawn as someone (Pete) got the briefing times wrong!) to a potentially good sailing day. We left Port Solent at 0700 and motored down to Gosport and, after a brief stop, headed out into the Solent in a 12knot wind with clear skies to get some practice in before the 1000 start. We immediately hit our first problem; the mainsail wouldn’t go up as one of the hanks, which connect the sail to the mast track, was broken. Eventually we managed to make a temporary repair by using a spoon handle! Amazingly this repair lasted the entire day!
We got in several practice spinnaker hoists, gybes and drops before we got into ‘race mode’ for..
RACE 1
Conditions for the start were 15knots of westerly wind and a fairly flat sea. The race officer set a start line very close to the mainland shore with the 1st windward mark about 2 miles away. With the tide against us the obvious route was to keep as far inshore as possible where the tidal effect was less. With 17 37ft yachts on the start line there was never going to be much room. We decided to play the percentages game for this start; with no discards in the series allowed, the last thing we wanted was to get rammed by some cowboy on the 1st start. So we went for clear air and speed in the middle of the line. We had plenty to do on that beat with the boats that had started closer to the shore taking the initial advantage. A mid fleet position started to gradually improve as we worked the shifts. A good layline approach to the windward mark allowed us to take a couple of boats and we rounded in 3rd position.
A clean spinnaker hoist was achieved for the broad reach leg, a gybe at the next mark and then a long 2.5 mile run back across the Solent (and tide). We came under threat from a university team who seemed intent on just trying to get past us with no thought about the positions of the rest of the fleet. We posted our intentions early by luffing up but he still wanted to go over the top of us. In the meantime the rest of the fleet were gaining on us by sailing the more direct route. It all got a bit heated only being resolved when they got a concise lesson on luffing rules from six of us in unison! So, round the leeward mark still in 3rd and a short beat to the finish maintained that position.
Race 2
Conditions were freshening with 22knots of wind. Tide was just about slack for the start with the wind more south westerly. Our strategy for this race was to start at the pin end and get out into deeper water. A good start with speed saw us get away from the line nicely close to the pin end. The fleet spread out more on this beat with some choosing the shore line whilst others went further out, ourselves included. The windward mark was well over towards the I.O.W and so it was crucial not to overstay the layline. The boats inshore did just that and we took a couple of them on the run in to the buoy, rounding in 3nd place.
The next leg was a very tight reach; the lead boat kept his spinny down, 2nd place tried to put his up and immediately went way down to leeward. We kept ours down and went into 2nd place. Behind us made good viewing with all the boats who tried to fly their spinny broaching wildly. Eventually the wind became slightly broader and we launched ours. A perfect hoist and we creamed along on a close reach catching the leader. At the next mark the spinny had to come down for a 2nd short beat. With the wind still increasing the bow crew had their work cut out to get it down but duly did so. We maintained our position on the beat and were all ready for the bear away and hoist at the next mark in preparation for the long run back to the finish.
So things were looking very good; everyone on board working well together, a 3rd in the bag and challenging for the lead in this race. So, up spinny, UP SPINNY!...’it won’t go up!’ Disaster struck; somehow on the last drop an almighty tangle had occurred probably due to the wind strength and angle at which it came down. So all we could do was watch boat after boat, overtake us as the bow crew unrigged it and then rigged it again. By the time we were up and running again we had dropped back to 7th place and no time left in the race to improve.
The atmosphere on the boat had changed dramatically; everybody was so disappointed. There could be no coming back with a 7th to count and we really had only come with one aim.. to win. Anything less was failure.
Race 3
We just about picked ourselves up for the final race; the only thing we could do was to give it our best shot and try to salvage some pride. The only small encouragement was that we knew that the first 3 boats in both races had been different meaning the series was likely to be fairly high scoring.
20 knots of wind and the tide with us for the start. Pin end, get out into the deep water (with most tide) was the plan. Two port tack boats on the start line nearly spoilt it but one was well over and a polite? reminder to the other concerning rule 10 saw us cleanly away. We held the starboard tack for about 5 minutes, tacked on a header, ducked a couple of transoms and never looked back. Half way up the beat I had the pleasure of announcing to the team we had taken the lead (the 1st time all day we had actually lead the fleet). We didn’t put a foot wrong, the spinnaker handling was fantastic, Petes layline judgement was spot on and after a brief altercation with a tanker coming up the Solent we powered onto the finish and took the win.
You may be forgiven for thinking that we would be jubilant with a race win but no, we were all very subdued. We thought maybe we could have got 3rd overall and with that in mind we motored back up to Port Solent to hand the boat over.
To get into Port Solent it is necessary to go through a lock. As we were waiting in the lock we got the first inkling that maybe we had done better than we imagined. One of the Sunsail employees who we know told us he was getting reports over the radio that we had won. We assumed he was talking about the last race, but again, we heard the same rumour from another source.
Well, Pete and I both refused to believe it and instead elected to wait until we saw the results on paper. The crew, joined by no.2 shore manager Nicola Ogden, went to the prize giving still not knowing the result. In reverse order the results were read out and it was only when we were announced as winners that we knew we had achieved what we had set out to do.
The results were so close; we had the same points as the 2nd boat but we got the victory on count back.
Our prize? Free entry into the Round the Island Yacht Race next year.
We have all had a great time over the past couple of years competing in the Sunsail regattas and now it has sunk in we are actually very proud of our achievement. Bearing in mind most of these crews sail week in week out in keel boats on the Solent, for a bunch of dingoes from Nottingham to beat them is no mean feat. All that training must have paid off!
Crew:-
Bow & Spinny:- Simon and Fiona Hextall
Mast & Spinny:- Hilary Whittington
Winches:- Simon Hibbert and Matt Potter
Navigator & Spinny:- Rachael Walters
Mainsheet :- Tim Cripps
Helm & Skipper :- Pete Walters
TC
link to you tube video by Tim Cripps