The first of the Solo's 25th of May 2014
Over 80 boats took to the water for the first of the Solos with a brisk breeze out of the West. Even the Mothies were setting up and a chat to a couple of them, convinced me that they were going out to have a little fun.
The Optimist fleet was out there in good numbers with good representations from the Pelicans, 420's and 125 fleets. The Laser fleets were compact in numbers, but they were graced by the presence of Mark Spearman in the full rigs, Tristan Brown, Conor Nicholas, Richard Maher and Brad Utting fleshed out the ranks in the radials and the 4.7's were doing well with newcomer to the fleet Zac Littlewood stepping out of his Opti and joining the 4.7 fleet. The 420's were missing the Gilmour/Carlberg combination, but Nia Jerwood and Lisa Smith were on the water being harassed by all and sundry in the strong pressure coming through. Not difficult for the well seasoned team, but they didn't have the weight that the boy teams had. I'm waiting for Jayden Dalton to step up as well, he is going to be good in the 420's. Disappointingly only two 15's joined the assembled fleets, but it's early days and they may build numbers in the next Solo.
The breeze grew as the day progressed, with the course direction changing slightly as it swung into the North West for a period. Slight alterations were necessary, but the windward leeward runs were ok for the first two races. Then RO Les threw in the triangle courses to spice things up and the first of the showers started to come through.
With wind speeds nudging 15 to 20 knots at times, several of the younger sailors prudently withdrew and by the 4th race there were only 40+ boats left. By this time, the city was shrouded by the rain as it fell over the river and shores and distinct pressure bands could be seen marching up the river towards us. Surprisingly a drop in the breeze came through and the Moths came out with four in total zipping over the water, but not competing in the racing. A lone Tornado rocketed through the fleet without a care in the world, as did a number of Mustos, though I think that they were a little more circumspect about approaching the race area, just enjoying the day out.
By the 5th race there were even less, possibly in the high 30's and everyone was wet and cold. The RO decided on a windward- leeward to get everyone home as fast as possible and the racing was over by 4.45 pm.
Hats off to the lone Pelican sailors on Special FX as they sailed the full complement of races and still approached the start line on the final race with the attitude that it was the first and most important race. To the professionalism of the Laser sailors who stuck it out to the end and raced as they did in the first race. Hard and fast. To Matt Linguard having taken up the full rig, found the day very much to his liking and sailed well and upright all day. And all the other sailors that were still on the water at the end, good sailing... I got great photo's and I hope you enjoy them.
The results aren't up yet on the SoPYC website, but I will amend this when they arrive.
My thanks to Casey, Luke and Richard who were on Check Point; my vehicle for the day and to all the volly's and sailors who got extremely wet as the showers poured down. Thanks also to SoPYC who put me out there in the first place.
Enjoy the images.
A small post script. In a piece written for Sail World I mentioned the names of the skipper and crew on Special FX working with information supplied to me by a reputable source. The names of the skipper and crew are Grant Box and Aiden Duthie ( not Daisy Box ) my apologies to both
The Optimist fleet was out there in good numbers with good representations from the Pelicans, 420's and 125 fleets. The Laser fleets were compact in numbers, but they were graced by the presence of Mark Spearman in the full rigs, Tristan Brown, Conor Nicholas, Richard Maher and Brad Utting fleshed out the ranks in the radials and the 4.7's were doing well with newcomer to the fleet Zac Littlewood stepping out of his Opti and joining the 4.7 fleet. The 420's were missing the Gilmour/Carlberg combination, but Nia Jerwood and Lisa Smith were on the water being harassed by all and sundry in the strong pressure coming through. Not difficult for the well seasoned team, but they didn't have the weight that the boy teams had. I'm waiting for Jayden Dalton to step up as well, he is going to be good in the 420's. Disappointingly only two 15's joined the assembled fleets, but it's early days and they may build numbers in the next Solo.
The breeze grew as the day progressed, with the course direction changing slightly as it swung into the North West for a period. Slight alterations were necessary, but the windward leeward runs were ok for the first two races. Then RO Les threw in the triangle courses to spice things up and the first of the showers started to come through.
With wind speeds nudging 15 to 20 knots at times, several of the younger sailors prudently withdrew and by the 4th race there were only 40+ boats left. By this time, the city was shrouded by the rain as it fell over the river and shores and distinct pressure bands could be seen marching up the river towards us. Surprisingly a drop in the breeze came through and the Moths came out with four in total zipping over the water, but not competing in the racing. A lone Tornado rocketed through the fleet without a care in the world, as did a number of Mustos, though I think that they were a little more circumspect about approaching the race area, just enjoying the day out.
By the 5th race there were even less, possibly in the high 30's and everyone was wet and cold. The RO decided on a windward- leeward to get everyone home as fast as possible and the racing was over by 4.45 pm.
Hats off to the lone Pelican sailors on Special FX as they sailed the full complement of races and still approached the start line on the final race with the attitude that it was the first and most important race. To the professionalism of the Laser sailors who stuck it out to the end and raced as they did in the first race. Hard and fast. To Matt Linguard having taken up the full rig, found the day very much to his liking and sailed well and upright all day. And all the other sailors that were still on the water at the end, good sailing... I got great photo's and I hope you enjoy them.
The results aren't up yet on the SoPYC website, but I will amend this when they arrive.
My thanks to Casey, Luke and Richard who were on Check Point; my vehicle for the day and to all the volly's and sailors who got extremely wet as the showers poured down. Thanks also to SoPYC who put me out there in the first place.
Enjoy the images.
A small post script. In a piece written for Sail World I mentioned the names of the skipper and crew on Special FX working with information supplied to me by a reputable source. The names of the skipper and crew are Grant Box and Aiden Duthie ( not Daisy Box ) my apologies to both