About 15 Boats signed up apprehensively on a very sunny but quite windy morning last Saturday. As the wind grew in strength during the search for hire boats and wetsuits, by the time of the briefing it had reached about 15 knots.
This delayed the start on a simple and small triangular course by a good half hour as boats were struggling to get launched. However, with the sun shining away, although the water still in winter mood, this is a great improvement on the traditional start of the Novice season. Howling gales for the first of the series followed by glassy calm on the second one.Novice races are run on lap average and handicap, so the start line saw a mixture of single-hander Lasers, Picos, Toppers and a Vareo. The start line did see them eventually in the breezy chaos. For good measure a couple of double-handers such as a Wayfarer and a Scorpion chased up by a Cat and Vago increased the number of sailors handsomely so that there was no danger of not having enough of them to present with the goodies at the end of the day. Scoring on average lap time protects and rewards the sailors who suffer gear failure, but takes away the opportunity to improve the position subsequently over the day. The morning race was well marked, at least by the number of capsizes and boats going into the direction of the Sea Vets course at the western end of the reservoir or going to the wall, driven there by the gusting South-Westerly between 210º and 240º. The race cannot be described as a tight fight between the top end boats, as almost every one sooner or later enjoyed a lengthy period of looking at life upside down, especially around the leeward mark. Chaos over after anything between 2 and 6 laps, both the excitement and hazards of racing sunk in whilst the winners of the morning were posted over lunch. Richard Matthews topped the table followed by Neville and Andrea Clayton and Ian Walker with crew Mike Wallis.The difference between the morning race and the afternoon races was remarkable. The wind had dropped and steadied a little, the Laser Standards downsized to Radials to Picos and everyone had learned a lot in the morning. One couldn’t say that the second race had a perfect start but boats moved sooner after the gun than in the morning. With the windward mark re-laid, the beat was longer and the experience of the leaders began to show. Topper 45187 coolly kept its position over 7 laps whilst the Wayfarer had to retire due to gear failure, this gave the chance to a 4.7 to become number 2, closely followed by a Radial and Scorpion. Novice racing is lenient in that the Radial had sailed as a Standard in the morning.Starting had by now progressed so fast that in the back-to-back second afternoon race one of the Picos was OCS. But as it was by about 30 yards, it may just have been a question of getting the timing right. The proportion of boats of doing a high number of laps increased for this race, in spite of fatigue setting in although with only a single retirement. The Scorpion stung a couple of Radials and a 4.7 but the Topper was too high for it to reach.Back in the clubhouse the Novice Captain thanked all the staff on duty, particularly the Racing Secretary Jane Middis and the safety and rescue team who should be grateful to the Novices for giving them plenty of practice.Although a good number of Novices are starting to come to Pay&Play on Tuesday nights for hints, tips, coaching and race preparation, it is hoped that it will gather sufficient momentum and depth to prepare for the next challenge on May 17th. Keep coming Novices! TOW, Time On Water with a little help, avoids being towed.It was evident that the weather was a challenge to people who only recently learned to sail, particularly if they were forced to spend the winter in hibernation, but Toppers off to those who braved the conditions.Richard Matthews, Topper 45187, is impressively in the lead, but not unassailable with 6 more Race Days to come. He walked off with loads of J2O as he was also the highest placed junior male. Second place went to helm and crew of Scorpion 1819, Ian Walker and Mike Wallis, who obviously did not have any grommet problems like the poor Wayfarer and went home happy with aspirational bottles of First Gold and Oxford Gold.Third and highest placed single-handed lady was Jenny Kilkenny in Laser 4.7 175382, so a double whammy for her. There were no junior ladies to give prizes to. I shall drop in at ODSSA to see whether any more of the juniors, male and female, can be encouraged to come to the Novice Race Days. I saw the competition between them last year and that is why the last Novice Race day on 18th October runs together with the ODSSA Regatta. OSC’s own training is of course an excellent way for those who feel but aren’t young, of making progress on the water.Few Novices would have had such extended racing and the cries of muscle fatigue could be heard outside the changing rooms. Everyone agreed that it was a satisfying day.
Floris van-den Broecke Novice Captain
