Race Report – The Final Wednesday Race of the Year

Where has this year gone? Hard to believe this was the last Wednesday race of the season, and for a while, it wasn’t clear if it would even happen.

John, ever the optimist, was convinced that the forecasted 30+ knots from the southwest wouldn’t arrive until after 2 p.m. So, I set off from Winchester not really expecting to sail. The chatter in the boat park echoed the same question: When will the wind arrive? Despite a less-than-enthusiastic fleet, Fi and Christine made the call, after a thorough risk assessment, that racing was on. The course would be short, with the option to shorten or abandon if conditions worsened.

With all the debate, John and I launched a little late but still managed to be first on the water, closely followed by Phil and Martin. On the way to the start, John shared his calculations: Ian and Mike could still overtake us if they finished first, while Pete and Jo were untouchable in the lead. The only mystery was which boat was third, 3922 or 3936, so we didn’t know exactly who we needed to keep behind us! Seeing Pete and Jo in the boat park gave us hope for holding onto second.

Our pre start beat to Rebbecks was gusty and shifty, with plenty of holes in the wind. We decided we needed to stay well clear of Brownsea, where conditions were even trickier, and headed back toward the line. To our surprise, Pete and Jo opted not to sail, we learned later that Pete was suffering from a severe case of man flu.

Back to the start plan. Following last week’s advice, we tried to take a transit on the line. Slight snag: John and I couldn’t agree on where the transit was, mine was much further back than his! Clearly, more practice needed. We also failed to have a practice start, and I completely botched our final approach, was way too early, got squeezed by Phil and Martin, and had to reach down the line to avoid being over. Another poor start, but we tacked off quickly as planned and headed out on port.

Initially, things looked good compared to the 2 boats below, though not great to those above, but as the wind shifted left, they climbed above us while we gained on those further to windward.

Approaching Rebbecks, we were reminded of the strong tide, something we’d forgotten from the practice beat, but thankfully most boats also misjudged their approach. After our poor start, we rounded in fourth, well behind Crispin & Steve and Phil & Martin, but crucially ahead of both Fireballs! Mike in 4027, rounded third but clipped the mark, due to the strong tide and did his turn, giving us some breathing room. We had a solid run to Parkstone Dental, closing on Phil & Martin, but lost out by not gybing early enough onto port and then struggling to get down to the mark.

The next beat was tough, big gusts, shifts, and lulls and sitting in Phil & Martin’s dirty air didn’t help. We eventually tacked off to clear our air, but Crispin and Phil pulled ahead, gaining more by tacking early toward Brownsea. As they stretched away, the boats behind closed in, but we hung on to round in third and headed downwind again. Despite the tricky run, things were fine until the approach to the mark, where we once again left the gybe too late, dropped the kite early, and nearly let 3922 through, who had judged the approach much better than us.

On the next beat, we kept a close eye on 3936 and 3922, now hot on our heels. They split tacks, but we still rounded ahead and had a tense final run to Parkstone Dental with 3936 closing fast. This time, we managed the approach better, though still not ideal and we should have gybed much earlier. John showed his agility by ducking the boom during an unplanned gybe while dropping the kite!

With the S flag flying, we had a quick discussion, and despite being in “report-writing position,” we decided to cover 3936, now ahead of 3922. We held them off to the finish and secured third, and the honour of writing this report.

Up front, Phil & Martin had a fantastic final run, passing Crispin & Steve, who had gone further right, and lost out as they gybed back. Clearly, the pre-start practice for Phil and Martin paid off. Well sailed to you all, way too quick for us today.

Another great afternoon on the water. Fi and Christine enjoyed a warm, peaceful time in the box, while Graham and John in the rib had a more exciting view of the racing but were probably not as peaceful and warm!

Huge thanks to Fi, Christine, and everyone who helped run racing this year, we really do appreciate you giving up your time to allow us to sail

Looking forward to next season, it could get busy at early launch time!

And finally, when I got home and checked the results, I discovered John’s maths might have been a little off… neither Fireball could have overtaken us even with a win. We could, after all had a much less stressful race! 

4058   Phil + Martin
4101   Crispin + Steve
4016   Roberta + John
3926   Ian and Mike
3922   Andrew + Martin
3974   Ann and Rob
4027   Mike + Paul
4036   Dick + Pete