It was glorious sunny night at Brog and the prevailing SW winds were sucking hard enough for us to be awarded with a 10mph NE. Due to the light and shifty winds it was always going to be a course race so people rigged up their big sails and got dressed for the racing. Shorties were the order of the day whilst a few people opted for shorts or rash vest.
Only minutes before the briefing, Nick flew into the car park followed closely by David Tiffen. Unfortunately for Nick, he doesn’t have a loving father present to rig a sail whilst he battles his way along Britain’s roads! So, Nick rigged up furiously in the blazing sun whilst the throng started looking for buoys in dazzling sunlight.
Despite some of the regulars being absent there were still 16 competitors ready to race so we were a little short of Phantoms. It was suggested that anyone who would like a Primo could have one and a random draw would decide the remainder. Seems fair enough we thought… although it proved a little pointless. Nobody actually wanted a Primo!
So, after assigning the boards we all set afloat. John Mitchelin was experimenting with a new “extreme” sport whereby he would swim in front of the launching area and try to avoid being run over. He was doing pretty well at it but hadn’t factored in Annette’s ability to lock on like a heat seeking missile. He just about lived to tell the tale!
Down at the far end of the lake, competitors were gathering in an orderly fashion and awaited the 2 minute whistle. It’s not clear what had delayed him (some rumours say that he was tweaking the new fences) but John Andel was seen in the distance making his way downwind to the start point. As soon as he was close enough, the two minute whistle was blown.
The start was relatively uneventful. Gone are the days where half of the fleet crash into each other and attempt to drown fellow competitors with their sails. Whilst Helium Mike was focused on his start watch and blowing the whistle, Eeyore 1 (Tony the lake manager) saw an opportunity and got a cracking start, right alongside Andre the Terrible.
It was a long upwind leg and there were many close battles up to the top mark in gusty winds. Eeyore 1 was leading at times but Helium and Andre nipped inside as they rounded the first mark before him. Eeyore 2 (Phil Young) rounded the mark in fourth and behind him the chasing pack was being led by Keith, Jo and Tigger (Annette Young).
Dave T was at the helm of one of the white whales (HiFly Primo) so he was struggling to keep up with the girlies (Jo, Annette and Alex). Whenever he made up any ground they’d catch a gust a plane off into the distance. Pop Rivett (Barry) also had exactly the same problem, despite having working zips on his new sail. You’d have thought that they would have made up for the Primo disadvantage!
Helium and Andre (far from a terrible racer) fought hard around the whole course, rarely more than a mast length apart. Eeyore 1 spent the whole race watching the duel before him but Eeyore 2 was never really in touch with his main rival, despite being a long way ahead of the rest of the fleet.
Further back, the action was non-stop and Keith was having a cracking race in fifth place. Unfortunately for him, disaster struck when his mast base became detached from the board and several people passed him whilst he fought to get it re-attached in the water. In all of the excitement, Tigger (Annette) dropped her sail and allowed Keith to pass her, getting back up to sixth place but there was no catching Jo.
It must have been shortly after this time that Steve had his own technical troubles. His satellite navigation had packed up (surely they aren’t meant for the water) and he headed for the wrong mark at the end of his second lap. It could also have been a combination of the glare from the sun and a slight lack of attention during the briefing!
Andre started the final lap just ahead of Helium but somehow the lightweight managed to make it to the top mark first. The final three legs (beam reach, run, broad reach) were a pump-to-the-death type affair and to be honest, it could have gone either way if either had been picked up a good gust. Helium crossed the finish first, followed by Andre a few seconds later.
Eeyore 1 came in a close 3rd (despite an 8.5m sail as he pointed out) and Eeyore 2 came in 4th to complete what he described as quite a “boring race” (three laps pretty much on his own). Jo came in 5th obviously having got to grips with the new Lightning (available from your local Tushingham dealer – see Tony for details), followed closely by Keith in 6th. Having sailed a storming race he very nearly lost a place by neglecting to hook around the final buoy and Annette very nearly snatched his hard earned point. It was a very close call!
David Tiffen dragged his whale over the line in 8th followed by John Andel who came in 9th, having sailed some good upwind legs to pass Barry and Alex. Alex passed a few of the boys during the final lap and came in 10th with Barry behind her in 11th place. Wiktor sailed consistently to come in 12th with Simon hot on his heels in 13th position. The final 3 weren’t completely sure about the finish line but decided that John Petrucci (debut performance) was in front of Steve and Nick.
After six races we are starting to see the scores spread out a bit and Eeyore 2 has moved above his wife again in the rankings. Hopefully a little bit of piece and tranquillity has returned to the household!
So, that’s it for another week. See you all next time!
Mike G
