Review: Team racing
Published 20:34 on 14 Aug 2024
Last weekend our sailing was dedicated to team racing, and what fun was had, by sailors, volunteers and spectators alike. View photos and videos.
One volunteer new to team racing, said "Astride one of the RIBs, I had the most amazing afternoon watching truly exciting sailing. I didn't know dinghy sailing as a spectator could be this good!" On both afternoons we were spoilt with sunshine and moderate winds and on Sunday Ollie spoilt us further with a celebratory sparkling afternoon tea.
On Saturday the wind and water were set for a great afternoon of team race practice. A decent south-westerly breeze enabled the course to be set just off the Club. 13 sailors gathered with a mixture of team racing experience, but after a short briefing everyone went afloat to dust off long-forgotten team race skills, and practice adapting their current skills in the original Fireflies through to the 2000s that we were using.
With just 4 boats, the order of the day was 2 versus 2 with 'last place loses', a simple format which ensures it's not so much about racing to win the race, but more about getting your teammate out of last, usually by attacking an opponent to a greater extent than their team is able to attack yours. It was great to see some of the more established ESC club racers learning and mixing it with everyone else.
After the racing, we held a debrief session on the terrace over a beer. This was led by Greg Eaton (umpire) who helped explain the differences in how the 'right of way' rules applied if you gained your overlap to windward or to leeward of your competitor, and several other key points coming from the day's racing.
For Sunday the original plan was to have a match against the ESSC, but as they were unable to raise a team, they conceded the 'Team Race Yoke' to ESC. Still, with 13 sailors we had more than enough to create our own in-house match, and after waiting for the water to rise we were all set for Team Oranges captained by Tom Heywood, to take on Team Lemons captained by Barbara Langford.
Each team had more than 4 sailors, so rotations were the order of the day: with each team 'hosted' on a RIB, on-water changes were really straightforward. To add to the challenge, being the hottest day of the year so far, we saw a wide range of people and craft crossing the course area including, swimmers, wing boarders, dinghies and tenders. Foiling windsurfers and even Escapade wanted to join the fun, but the sailors were able to take appropriate avoiding action and no harm was done.
After seven close matches with lots of lead changes, penalty turns and team tactics all round, the winners were Team Oranges. Thanks to all the sailors for getting involved with some competitive friendly racing, and thanks also to all the volunteers for making it possible. We trust that the spectators on the picnic benches enjoyed all the fun on the water!
We would like to try and organise a little more team racing next year - perhaps a couple of evening sessions and a match or two against some other harbour clubs. Keep a watch on the Weekly Roundup for more information.
Team Oranges: Tom H, Hugh W, Jerry W, Jonny H, Max D
Team Lemons: Barbara L, Henry H, Trevor N, Martin W, Ali W, Grace S
Saturday Only: Henry C & Louis.
Greg Eaton & Kirstie Hawkes