When the cat's away!

The lake manager takes a day off and everything changes.  The wind, instead of rolling in over the hills from the SW, decided to do a 180degree shift and appear from behind and over trees on the NE shores, provide some challenging conditions.

The race officers set a course; well actually a navigational challenge; that would later catch out most of the fleet. A staggered start was selected with 30 second intervals between competitors, instead of the normal 2-1-GO. The sailing order was determined in a similar way that 5 year olds try to line up "tallest at the front". We all lined up on the foreshore and Dave attempted to place us in order of competency with slowest at the front, fastest at the end. Clearly this presented some problems as most Brogboroughians are far too modest to admit their expertise (except one). Dave explained that this would be a chase and immediately there were muttering of wanting to chase Annette or Jo!!  (Ed. Note the pheromone effect).

6:20 came and we decided to start early – why not? One by one the competitors slowly left the shore and sailed off on a very broad reach, waiting for the first gigantic gust to hit. Some people were lucky while others took to the reeds or were flattened as Brogborough took its vengeance.

Steve Gascoyne got a good start, only to be caught out at the second buoy when the wind encouraged his sail to take a dunk and then took the opportunity to show the inexperienced that it meant business once the trees offered no shade.  Meanwhile Jo took advantage and overtook, moments later followed by Annette.  Steve pumped madly to try to catch up while Keith also joined the chase. By this time those at the back of the fleet were treated to a display of follow my leader as most of the fleet seemed mesmerised by the two Pheromonal waifs and adjusted their bearings to head for the wrong buoy.  Steve and Chris seemed to be the only two that decided that they would do what Dave had described at the briefing as a tour of the Lake taking in all but the 2 wind sheltered buoys. Steve taking it quite literally by trudging through the shallows while trying to make buoy 4 (Ed. or was it Derek, Fred or Vera: why can’t we give them memorable names).  This benefited those still yet to pass Steve, by indicating the location of shallows.

John Andel, Chris and Phil all changed places on the downwind leg of the first leg.  At the mark there were some tactical positioning and suddenly a gurgling noise as they started the fast beat that sounded like the Lake had found a plughole to empty itself into.  The lack of a slot flusher on the old Phantom was the cause and was enough to provide a distraction: in fact Geoff seemed to be heading for dry land at one time to avoid the possible Tsunami.

By the second lap Jo and Annette was pushing out a significant lead followed by their swarm of followers.  Another interesting downwind leg followed with a similar number of incidents.

The rest of my race consisted of pumping frantically and discovering the wind seemed to change direction and backwind the sail causing brief swimming sessions for many competitors. At one point John Andel was seen diving – maybe he had seen the Hoff’s watch. John Boulter chose the reeds as a way to progress.
The final challenge was to return to the lake, where the finishers were expected to touch terra firma to claim their place. Dave conceded that Sig had beaten him by a nanosecond or 2.

Meanwhile Steve seemed to enjoy the sunset and eventually made it back to the finish in time for a great fish and chip supper (Thanks to John Michelin, whose car will probably smell for the next week!).

So the final race saw the following order with Jo Claiming a magnificent victory.
1) Jo
2) Mike
3) Keith
4) Phil
5) Graham
6) Dave
7) Annette
8) John Boulter
9) Chris
10) John Andel
11) Geoff
12) Steve

The race itself was good fun and the pursuit system seemed to work well. Mike was willing Jo on for the first place and was happy to get back to shore in second. Everything looked Rosie until the GPS plots were studied. Shock Horror - It looked like everyone got the fourth mark wrong on the first lap but some got it right the second time around. Keith and Mike got it wrong both times around!  The only 2 that sailed the course correctly were Chris who claimed 1st place and Steve 2nd.
Darned GPS devices. ;)

Thanks to the race officers, who have kept us off the streets.  They have plans to make it even more challenging next year.  All inputs welcome.