This year’s ‘impromptu’ Beach Regatta provided two days of excellent sailing for the fourteen boats that participated. With a good breeze on Saturday and a more leisurely wind on Sunday it provided a good range of conditions.
It was a beautiful start to the day on Saturday, bright sunshine and a F3-4 wind from the west providing some shifty, gusty and testing sailing.
The conditions were obviously to Nick’s liking as sailing his D-One he shot away from the rest of the fleet in race one eventually crossing the line four minutes ahead of next boat, Curtis & Tom in the club RS400, closely followed by Phil in his Contender.
The wind increased a tad for race two and with a now overcast sky it was notably colder. Curtis & Tom were getting the hang of the RS400 and led after the first lap. Steve, sailing his D-One took the lead on lap two. However, with both Curtis & Tom and Steve suffering a capsize on the next run Nick was back in front crossing the line two minutes ahead of Phil in his Contender.
The wind eased a tad for the final race of the day. Just a few seconds separated Nick and Curtis & Tom after the first lap. Steve caught some good lifts on the second beat to join them after the second lap and then took the lead after the third to take line honours with Curtis & Tom second.
On corrected time it was a case of the hare and the tortoise with Dave, sailing his Laser Radial keeping close enough behind to snatch three wins with Nick claiming two seconds in race one and two and Steve second in race three.
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On Sunday the sun shone nearly all day and the warm westerly wind giving the impression that summer wasn’t over just yet. With an offshore F2-3 wind, the race team set a windward-leeward course with a spacer mark to off-set the flood tide.
In race one the asymmetric boats soon opened up a gap of the rest of the fleet. After the first lap the RS400 of Team Brown held a five second lead over Steve in his D-0ne. Phil H recovered well from a slow start to cross the line first in his RS700 just ahead of Team Brown. Behind the slower singlehanders were enjoying a close race with Richard leading the pack in his Laser. On corrected time it was a 1,2,3 for the ‘slow’ fleet with Dave just ahead of Steve (Europe) and Richard.
The wind eased a little for race two. Phil H opened up a huge lead after the first lap with the other asymmetrics all rounding the leeward gate with 15 seconds of each other. However, Team Brown kept the gap the same over the final two laps and keeping ahead of the other asymmetrics. Behind there was a three way battle in the ‘slow’ fleet between Phil A (Contender), Steve (Europe) and Richard (Laser) with Steve emerging ahead after a strong final lap to take the win on corrected time from Team Brown who were just four seconds ahead on Richard.
With several light patches during race three it was a good test of everyone’s concentration.
The RS400 of Team Brown were looking good as they crossed the line just behind Phil H in his RS700. However the ever canny Steve in his Europe coped with the conditions expertly keeping ahead of many faster boats to take another win on corrected time. Team Brown had a well earned second and Richard showing great consistency getting his third third of the day.
Once the boats were back onshore the Paddle boarders held three short races with beach starts. Nick emerged supreme winning all three races. With everyone agreeing how well this worked the plan will be to hold some more events of a similar format.
Many thanks to the members of the race team who stepped in providing the two days of excellent racing and to Team Commodore for their contagious enthusiasm.