Category: 2015 Reports

The D-One Eastern Championship-2015 was held at Gorleston over 27/28 June as part of the Gorleston Beach Regatta. This mixed regatta has huge history, evidenced in club correspondence with The Admiralty, who used annually to lay twelve special flagged Race-Cans in circular compass-configuration, 1½-mile diameter, around a central one;  …. those were the days …. !

D-One sailors had had over two weeks of intense lead-up training at their Grafham Open, and then their “Suntouched” Championships at Highcliffe.

Saturday’s conditions bode well initially with a reasonable wind-strength, but before the start a classic sea-breeze battle ensued, such that some competitors could not even find a way through the, ‘… Dead Zone …’, to the start-line.  Race Management got fed-up waiting and progressed a start-sequence anyway which most boats managed, though Ben Falat’s D-One only crossed many, many minutes later.   During this quasi-windward-leeward race (sausages anyway!), at one stage there were spinnakers charging towards each other on opposite legs and courses with game-o’-chicken being played as to who would leave it latest before the new wind hit them on the nose;  the lesser the number of sails carried, the better the control, so Phantoms, Laser and Tasar did well.   Gradually conditions settled and another two regular races could be held in absolutely champagne conditions;  bullets went to Chris and Angie Sallis twice in their Tasar, and to Ben Falat.   Sunday appeared to be on track for some cracking racing in a fine SW F3;  Martin Browne eagerly joined in with Sallis reverting to his D-One, however shortly after the first start the wind veered further to the west making the race extremely one sided and favouring spinnakered boats on a long open fetch back towards the ‘gate’.   D-One lead on the tighter leg alternated between Sallis & Falat for who might take a brief gust best to drive off against a strong tidal current, the meanwhile Browne was consistently keeping speed and driving low;  this latter policy paid handsomely as the front two over-stood their mark and finally Browne took 2nd place with Sallis just hanging-in-there.  In front overall, Richard Fryer and David Houghton had a dogged (reach-in-breeze & screw-in-lull ….) battle in their RS400s.   After two completed rounds of this everyone was pretty fed-up with the general non-racing and the plug was pulled;  by now any strength in breeze was starting to fail as forecast as well as some huge apparent shifts in direction.  Race management persisted for some while trying to lay any sort of course but by then most of the fleet had self-elected to head home. Eventually any hope of racng for the day was abandoned and results were governed hugely by Saturday’s efforts [ Sallis (Tasar)-1st;   Falat (D-One)-2nd;   Favell (PhatGnome)-3rd ]. Br,

the Bendy-One

Shifty winds and a big sea made for interesting sailing conditions today; 12 boats raced in the 4^th spring series with a wind undecided between the south and the west. The start line was set up just past the ravine with the windward mark set beyond the wreck buoy, where sailors reported increased wave size.  Racing was very dependent on choice of course and whether sailors found the wind or stayed upright; giving some exciting racing with lead boats changing with each lap. Race 1, 1^st lap had 4 boats with 4 seconds between them; Chris and Martin in the D1’s, and Richard and Dave in the 400’s, 2^nd lap Martin went out to sea increasing his lead by 40 seconds clear of Dave and John in the 400. Race 2 Dave and John capsized in the 400 leaving the way clear for the D1’s, and Richard and Robyn in the 400 had a stonker of a second lap. In race 3 D1’s got away only for Martin to capsize just at the leeward mark on the 1^st lap, Martin caught the fleet up, going out to sea on the last downward leg, finding the wind (we could hear him humming on the start line boat) and beating Steve in his D1 by 1 second, an exciting finish too between the two Richards in the 400’s with Richard and Robyn taking it by 1 second. A good days racing.

Anna.

A fresh breeze greeted everyone as they arrived on the beach for the second weekend of the Watling Plate series. 11 boats launched in what was to be an exciting days racing. With the wind in a South Easterly direction the start line was set off the beach in pleasant sailing conditions. Apparently this was not however the case at the windward mark! After a clean start there was a tight battle between Richard Fryer and Carol Smalls in the RS400 and the 2 lead D-ONES helmed by Chris Sallis and Martyn Browne throughout the race. Both D-ONEs dropped their spinnaker early on one of the down wind legs allowing Richard Fryer to take the win by 6 seconds. Followed by the D-ONEs.

There were a few capsizes at the windward mark and several wobbly gybes in what was described as ‘very wavy out there’ by several sailors, which led to less takers for the next race. Nick Favell led the fleet round the first two marks of the triangular course before being overhauled by the lead asymmetrics. 2 laps later as the finishing boats were approaching the finish line it was all down to the last 30 seconds. Martyn somehow managed to survive a massively wobbly gybe and make the line with inches to spare on the committee boat to take the win, with Richard Fryer taking 2nd place and Chris Sallis taking 3rd, Nick Favell took his second 4th of the day.   With the wind and waves building the fleet went in for pie!

A big thank you to Josh and John who performed excellently assisting the fleet.

Results  Click here

Tamsin/Phil

Spring Series – 26/04/15

The day’s proceedings commenced with the club members forming a large circle on the beach for a minutes silence in memory of Peter Johnson. We were joined by the RNLI Inshore Lifeboat who was stationed a short distance off shore which seemed a fitting tribute to a well-loved and much respected club member.  Following this boats were launched to commence the days sailing.

The race team set a large windward leeward course with the F3 -4 from the NNE. For race one the tide was slack so the fleet were spread evenly going up the first beat. Phil in his RS700 and David in his Shadow lead the fleet round the course but close behind were the D-Ones and RS400’s who were having a close battle for position. The Shadow and RS700 managed to open up a two minute gap on the chasing pack but this was not going to be sufficient to save their time.  The following group were closely packed with just 10 seconds separated the first three boats as their crossed the line with the D-One’s of Chris and Ben taken first and second on corrected time and Richard and Carol in their RS400 in third.

By the time race two started the tide had started to flood so many boats stayed inshore up the first beat. Those who ventured just 100 metres or so further out benefited from a good lift which saw the fleet well-spaced as they rounded the windward mark. The RS400’s of Richard/Robyn and Richard/Carol were first to round the mark and had a small led on the rest of the fleet. Nick in his Phantom and Jamie in his Aero were close behind.  At the finish Richard/Carol had managed to slip past to take line honours and Richard/Robyn holding onto second place. Nick managed to save his time against Jamie with D-One Chris on a late charge to pip Jamie in corrected time.

The race team adjusted the line a tad for race three which added some port bias. Richard/Carol braved a port hand flying and thanks for some courteous sailing from Jamie crossed the fleet at the start. With the tide now stronger and the wind a tad lighter, most kept inshore with exception of William/Jack in their Fireball. Having got off to  a poor start they headed offshore and from the committee boat looked as if they were about to go further behind but picked up a good breeze and rounded the windward mark close to the leading pack. David (Shadow) and Phil(RS700) led the fleet round the course but the ever persistent team of Richard/Carol were never far behind and took the race win. Chris again won the battle of the D-One’s taking second with Richard and Robyn continuing their good form to finish third.

All in all a very pleasant day’s sailing with moments of sunshine and a good breeze throughout the day.

Start of Season Race and Watling Plate 1 – 18 April 2015

Race officers have been asked to provide a report for the website and in the tragic circumstances of last Sunday and the loss of Peter Johnson, it is a report that is difficult to write. Peter was in good form on the committee boat on a very cold day and on the way back, we agreed that we had managed to give competitors some good courses in spite of a shifty N/NE Force 3-4. He felt that we had done a pretty good job. His collapse after coming ashore was a terrible blow to all who knew him.

As racing had been postponed the previous Sunday, boats were racing in both the first round of the Watling Club and for the Start of Season Race. The three races were run back to back in the Watling Plate format of sausage, triangle and reverse Olympic with the wind getting up well into F4 in the second race. It was windy enough to keep the safety boat busy with Steve Shaw in his Hobie Tiger training up his new crew, Kate Batty by capsizing with and without the kite! Twelve boats got to the line for the start but unfortunately the Fireball was damaged on launching and was not able to compete. There was some very close racing between the top five but in the end the RS500 sailed by Jamie Freeman and Keith Sykes won the first and third races to take the series with two wins from Chris Sallis (3 pts) in his D1 having just edged out Martin Browne D1 (5pts) by 5 seconds in the final race with the third D1 of Ben Falat (7 pts) finishing 4^th.

Sometimes the results don’t matter and I think that we all feel that this was one of them.

David Brief

Race Officer