Greetings ladies and gentlemen,
Yesterday was another summers day with the wind from our best direction NE……..but with big shifts and some broaching gusts, plus a little cool. Again we had a large fleet of 23, but the race committee were determined to put a stop to the many boats who commit rules breaches by descending downwind from the shore mark and infringing the leeward boats. So at the briefing the RC’s cunning plan was revealed and was as follows and they were mass starts;
1 The start line was long and the boat end mark was set close to shore, about 3m out. This was to discourage the downwind surge.
2 Any boats on the course side of the line or its extensions from the preparatory signal were awarded a penalty by the race committee.
3 This penalty was a one-turn penalty which must be taken after starting and on the course side of the line.
By the way the RO was Peter Bradley assisted by Tony Taylor and they didn’t let anyone get away with starting breaches. I was spectating and was amazed at the close calls and near misses during the start period but eventually the fleet figured out their individual ways to cope with this new limitation and things settled down. Again I was impressed by the RC’s coolness in handling the large fleet, we have some very good race officials in the club.
As usual with the big fleets incidents occur and several boats end up being unable to sail, thus the many dnf’s. Since I was spectating I was able to assess the many rules breaches and the main problem I saw was boats not being aware of their positions in relation to the other boats close by. Give-way boats were not keeping clear of right-of-way boats until too late.
Congratulations to our 3 podium finishers, Graham, Cliff and Ron, they did well to claw through a very competitive fleet during the day.