Greetings all,
After surfacing from my siesta it is time to send out yesterdays results. Of course siestas are necessary after three very hot days. Nick sent in a cartoon about yesterday’s conditions but after fruitless grappling to download it I have given up….sorry Nick, but since you did such a dominant race yesterday, I am sure I will be forgiven…….check 170’s new MF time tsk tsk.
Yesterday I heard a humorous quote, “You must be joking”, but before edification on its origin I must diverge to the results, and point out that new member Chris, J 364, actually started on 0, rather than the 80 allotted by the computer. The wind for the first couple of heats was a gusty NW and all over the place, causing many uncontrolled broaches and nosedives, but gradually it settled down to a very sailable wind which was wonderful. Tony Taylor was RO assisted by Rodney Ford and Tony set a windward/leeward course with gates either end and set a 1 lap course…..which was immediately changed to 2 laps after Nick Richardson romped away over the horizon, but I’m not sure things changed much even with the 2 laps. At the briefing Tony spoke on boats touching marks and not exonerating their breach, which rarely goes unnoticed, and I have to comment that Tony is one of the CMYC sailors who always exonerates this breach, so no hypocrisy here. The other matter he touched on was imploring us to keep hydrated, very applicable since it was about 30o.
The race was Mark Foy starts and the smallish fleet of 11 was just the right size to be enjoyable. I had just been reading a Speed & Smarts article on racing in big fleets and a J20 world champs of 100 boats was used as the example (J20’s are small keelboats with a 4 man crew). So if all our club members entered a race we would have a fleet that size…….heaven forbid. Anyway, in one heat Ron Campbell was first as we completed our first lap, followed closely by Peter Bradley and myself, Ron asked the Race Committee if they could shorten the course to 1 lap while he was ahead, after discussion between the 3 of us on the no chance of a shortened course, Ron explained in great detail how he liked to win but also how he liked to sail to the Racing Rules of Sailing. The derisive retort from Peter was “You must be joking”. The way it came out had the 3 of us in fits of laughter. As for all the fleet, congratulations on good behaviour, and congratulations to a very competent race committee, I can still see them sitting under a shady gazebo with half the skippers jammed in there as well. Congratulations to Rodney for supplying non-alcoholic beer, that went down well, and of course to our podium finishers Nick, Peter and Ron.