Junior Spring Regatta - review
Published 19:27 on 3 Jun 2024
Mondays racing was going to challenge the competitors, with the regatta fleet racing cancelled their safety boats reassigned main fleet, they were going to be needed!
Monday's racing got underway after a short postponement, to enable all to get to the race area. Competitors were getting the measure of the wind and exploring their own limits and capabilities; capsizes and retirements started to come in before we commenced any start sequence, of the 24 boats signed on, only 16 made their race start.
The Open fleet was a clean start, with the 420 crews enjoying time on the wire from the off, whilst Harry had to hike hard to try to keep his Laser 4.7 flat.
The Tera and Oppi's start was interesting; Tommy deciding to charge along the line from the pin to committee boat on port, whilst the fleet slightly late to the line on starboard obligingly ducking him, he was lucky not to get called out! Whilst the Tera fleet was shy of the line, at the committee boat Felix in his Oppi was a little too keen and called OCS, as was Rory who decided to sail backwards from OCS to clear the line.
On race 2 start, the wind strength caught out Ruthie & Beanie who powered up the 420 just a second or so early to go OCS, eventually clearing the line some 50 seconds after the others were away giving themselves some work to do.
In the Tera and Oppi start Tommy was OCS with 7 seconds to go, sailing down the line with too much speed, reaching the pin early, ducking the line and forced to tack back, rather costly in time and positioning; whilst at the committee boat end Ella made a near perfect start, great positioning, hitting the line at speed when the gun went.
As the race progressed, in the committee boat with our focus on who's upright or over, directing safety as needed, we lost track of the moves being made around the course; with so many capsizes it became a race of attrition, those who kept it upright came to the front, Ella having a great start rolling in to windward downwind dropped down the leaderboard. In the Open fleet, Ruthie after giving the others a 50 second start pulled thru to lead by the finish.
With the wind now gusting 16 to 20 knots there were too many capsizes stretching the available safety too thinly, the decision was made to return ashore and leave race 3 for another day.
After a review of day 2's forecast the decision made to cancel all racing for Tuesday, the weary wet sailors could rest a day in preparation for Wednesday, all going well.
A late call on Tuesday evening, with the latest forecast, we sadly had to again stand down the Regatta fleet; when the time came to start racing, the the weather with its usual unpredictability, was well below forecast, such a shame as the Regatta fleet would have had a good sail.
Wednesdays racing was a far more controlled affair for the sailors, managing 3 races, with few retiree's. Start line shenanigans in both the Open and Tera/Oppi starts had boats returning to the line OCS, or performing spins as a result of an infringement from a port tack pin end starter on the approaching starboard tack fleet.
In the Open fleet, it was the day for the single handers, with the Laser radial of Oscar and Jonny and Harry in the 4.7 taking all but one of the days top 3 positions, Oscar stamped his superiority with 3 wins from 3 starts. The days efforts of the Laser sailors pushed the ladies 420 team of Ruthie and Beanie down to 2nd overall.
In her Tera Ella had a better day keeping it upright, but was closely followed, or led by Ben, there was never more than a few seconds between them on handicap, but with his 2 wins from Monday took the top podium step.
In the Oppi, Felix, building on his win from Monday added another 3 wins to his regatta score, despite an OCS in race 2, he is proving a slippery one to catch on the course, was uncatchable with 4 wins from 5 races, even having the luxury of a 1st among his discards.
We now have to wait until August for the next championship event, it's a full 5 day affair, don't miss it!
A big thank you to the whole support team; Monday was a challenge in boat handling and capsize recovery for all the safety crews, aboard Escort the team needed eyes everywhere to ensure safety across the fleets as well managing the race, a special thank you to young Matthew G, who unable to race assisted aboard Escort; Wednesdays team had a far more leisurely afternoon, but thank you no less.
These events need a lot of support to organise and run; to provide a safe environment in which we can challenge and develop our young sailors, or simply let them have fun on the water. THANK YOU ALL for making it happen.
Rob, Hailey and Brian
Many thanks