Spring Regatta Report – Mar 4, 2012

Cloudy with showers, wind SE 12 to 18 kts, +8 degrees C.

Four keen boats showed up to enjoy the stiff southeasterly breeze on Sunday morning. A promise of building conditions by Big Wave Dave was for once correct. The scene was set for ideal close racing conditions. Tight group starts in all races with all boats immediately reaching hull speed, correctly canvassed and therefore sailing efficiently and in control, indeed made for fast legs and snappy tacks.

On board Imp, Greg remarked, “I think that was the windiest regatta I have seen in my six years racing at the club.”

The regatta saw three separate races and was won overall by Velica, ably single-handed by Vincent, who is finding excellent speed off the wind. Imp was the only boat with enough crew (or fortitude) to fly a spinnaker in the gusty downwind legs. Although this could be viewed by some as tempting fate after her recent setback, she managed to preserve her new mast from harm and so has clearly shaken off the curse. Deryn Mor and Bravo Zulu, the boats with the nearest matched ratings, traded places more than once in the flying spray at marks and close to the finish line, giving their Skippers one-design racing thrills and big grins.

As a bonus, the breezy conditions provided another positive test of the fairness of our new handicap system at higher wind speeds. Corrected finish times for the fleet in the three races spanned only 48 seconds, 1 min 24s, and 1 min 27s respectively between first and last boat. This attests to both good sailing by determined skippers and an effective handicap scale. – Report by Philippe Erdmer on Bravo Zulu

The Spring Regatta counts as one race in the Club calendar; the final ranking below shows the sum of points earned for the three races.

Final result: