‘Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala lalalala
Sailing’s back, so who needs holly? falalalala lalalala
Yes, its April and this is week 1, race 2 of the 90th year of Victory racing. What’s not to like!
After Tuesday’s curtain raiser, a couple of open questions were answered. Would Tom Verstappen and Team Red Bull Peregrine carry forward last year’s winning form? Would anyone be snapping at their transom? How would the new crews on 75 and 79 fare?
After a cracking, sunny day, would anyone be fooled into a false sense of security? Having learnt from Tuesday night, your correspondent was well layered up, and as Sapristi left the harbour and hit the Solent chop, it was proven to be a good call. Perhaps the reference to holly was relevant; with a 9 degree air temperature and a 15knot South Westerly, it was more like the Frostbite Series.
So, to tonight’s race and 6 hardy crews ventured out, with Sapristi set up in the vicinity of KB. 54, 70, 74, 75, 77 and 78 made there way towards the start area, but it wasn’t long before we were down to 5, as a problem with the main halyard saw 78 retire having to retire before the start. The wind direction meant the course was going to be fairly easy to set, but the question was how many times should we send them round? Bearing in mind the temperature and sea state, the OOD (Liz and Sid) took a big hearted approach, and set a course of Sapristi-KB to Baker Trayte, (P), KB(P), BT(P), KB (P as a passing mark) and finish at the SS line.
As the boats all milled around, the amount of full on warm head gear was apparent; a beanie was the favoured option, but full marks to Duncan for his use of a neck buff! And who was this at the front of 74? Joppers at the pointy end? And, it looked like he was going to be feeling the cold!
A clean start saw 4 boats maintain a starboard tack and head out into the Solent, whilst 70 made an early tack, and sail towards the shore. It only took 8 minutes before 74 rounded the windward mark and out popped the peregrine. 75 was next round but took a while to get the kite up, whilst 54 had obviously been to Greggs as it appeared to have a monster of a wrap, and ended up sailing the whole leg with white sails. 77 was 4th round and as she too took a long while to get the spinnaker airborne, whilst 70 opted to take the more cautious option and sailed with white sails only. There was no change of order at the leeward mark, but this time, everyone opted to sail into the shore after the rounding. But wait! as they neared the windward mark for the second time, it was evident that 75 had got a lot closer. From the committee boat, they looked side-by-side as they tacked away from the shore and headed for the mark…but it was the black peregrine that rose 1st as they rounded. 54 seemed to still be having hoisting issues as they again, sailed the distance from the windward mark to the passing mark with white sails and the kite appearing about 1/3 of the way up, and then disappearing again. 77 was again late hoisting but would they have the legs to catch 54 on the longer kite leg to the finish line. 70 opted to maintain a white sailing option. They remained in this order, as 54 finally got the kite up on the leg from KB to SS to hold off 77.
The final order being 74, 75, 54, 77 and 70. It was only a 31 minute race, but there were some cold bodies out there. 75 is obviously happy with the their new toy as they were only a few seconds behind 74, but Peregrine has had the perfect start to the weekday series, with 2 wins.
Roll on next week, when we can do it all again.
Clive
Z79, Zada