AVON AND SOMERSET CONSTABULARY’S FORCE CLUB
SAILING SECTION DINGHY SAILING OPEN

WEDNESDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 2017

at Chew Valley Lake S.C.

 

Avon and Somerset Open and Force Championships 2017

Perhaps the previous few years’ excessively light winds or the recent capture of an Alligator from the lake put off external attendees for this year’s event; or maybe it was just the continuing sad decline in Police Sailing. However, Dave Thomson (Met) joined 15 A&S boats to enjoy some challenging sailing on a beautiful day at Chew Valley Lake, making this again the most attended event in the dwindling Police Sailing calendar.

With the wind coming from the west and broken sun on their backs, the competitors were lulled into thinking the conditions were more benign than they actually were and several smiling faces were there early to rig their boats and await the 10:30 briefing.

Keith Harris, one of Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club’s race officers, kindly offered his services again and set a course to the middle east of the lake trying to keep well south of “Little Denny”, the extending area of land that can cause so many problems when the water level is low.

His intention was to start with a triangle course and possibly change to a triangle / sausage in subsequent races. However, with the wind increasing during the day, the three races were all triangles, with a minor relocation of the start line after lunch to account for the slight wind direction change.

With Simon Hawkes being delayed and unable to make the start of the first race, fifteen boats – ranging from Topper and Pico through to a Flying Fifteen – lined up in a pleasant Force 3 breeze.

When the start flag dropped, the three Laser’s (Thomson, Marsh and Shaw) were first over the line at the committee boat end, closely followed by the Flying Fifteen, Laser Bahia and one of the Comet Trio’s (Hines / Bradley). Shaw mistakenly tacked early and by the windward mark had lost ground on the leading group. With the wind being affected by the hills behind the club there were lots of shifts and gusts, making the windward leg quite difficult and favouring the starboard tack. Thomson was first to round the windward mark, followed by Allen Marsh (Laser) and the Flying Fifteen crewed by Sarah Benfield and her sister, Julie Jackson. The Laser Bahia (Dykes / Mastropietro) sailed well on the first lap and was not far behind, along with Shaw, Hines / Bradley and the second Comet Trio (Butler / Cooper).

Due to the large difference in PY’s the fleet was soon very spread, with boats on all three legs by the second lap. Positions remained much the same, although the increased wind speed during the race caused problems for some and capsizes by Shaw and Dykes / Mastropietro pushed them well back. By the finish the winner was Allen Marsh (Laser Radial), followed by Dave Thomson (Laser), the Flying Fifteen, the two Comets, Darren Crew in a Laser Pico and Caroline Bullen in a RS Neo. With the race shortened to two laps, the fleet made its way back to shore and lunch.

With the winds increasing to a force 4 / 5, with gusts well over 20 mph, the fleet – joined by the Phantom of Simon Hawkes – made its way back across the lake to the start of two back-to-back races.
With the addition of Hawkes on the line, the start was otherwise almost identical to race one; although Hines and Bradley in one of the Comet Trio’s were called back for being over the line at the pin end. Having learnt from the first race the fleet stayed on the starboard tack for longer and followed in the wake of Hawkes who soon moved well clear. Thomson rounded the mark and then immediately suffered a breakage to his kicker so limped back to shore to affect a repair before race 3. Some good tussles were going on within the fleet with positions on the water changing depending on what leg the boats were on. The Laser Bahia particularly sailed well to windward, but seemed to lose the advantage to the single sail boats on the reaches. The wind abated as the race neared completion and at the finish the winner was Hawkes, followed by Marsh, Benfield / Jackson, Shaw, Dykes / Mastropietro and Darren Crew in a Laser Pico attained another creditable 6th place.

The drop in wind was just a lull and several boats waiting around for the lower handicap boats to finish were caught out by sudden gusts, causing several to capsize.

The start of race 3 again saw the leaders assembling at the committee boat end and initially it was déjà vu. However shortly after the start a collision caused damage to the Laser of Marsh which forced him into an early retirement and the race brought about several capsizes, particularly near the wing mark. This kept the rescue boat crews busy and provided many obstacles for Hawkes in his Phantom to negotiate so adeptly. It made the rest of the fleet a little happier when the saw Hawkes capsize on the windward leg, with his boat fortunately not sustaining any damage so close to the Phantom Nationals. With retirements of Marsh, Shaw and Holbrook / Conner, the positions for race 3 were Hawkes, Thomson, Mastriopetro / Dykes, Benfield / Jackson, the two Comet Trios and then Pete Highway in a Topper and Nigel Woods / Adam Bunting in a RS Vision.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day with some good quality racing from the top contenders and some excellent sailing from novices, some of whom were racing competitively for the first time. Let us hope that next year more competitors will attend to experience good sailing at such a beautiful location.

Helen Martin, Vice Commodore of Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club presented the prizes.
Open Competition:
1st Simon Hawkes (Phantom),
2nd Allen Marsh (Laser Radial),
3rd Dave Thomson (Laser).

Avon and Somerset Force Championships:
1st Simon Hawkes,
2nd Allen Marsh,
3rd Sarah Benfield / Julie Jackson (Flying Fifteen).

Spirit of the Event: Andy Gwyther / Patrick Quinton (RS Vision).

AVON AND SOMERSET POLICE OPEN

RESULTS

Sailed: 3, Discards: 1, To count: 2, Rating system: PY, Entries: 16, Scoring system: Appendix A

 

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