The Solo Series 24th of May.
The first of the Solo's for 2015 started with a whimper rather than a bang.
No fault of the Race officials and certainly not of the sailors.... Hughie forgot to come in and RO Les Swinton and his experienced team were working hard just to get a course to work with. At 12.30 the first sign of a breeze out of the West started to flicker in the flags and by 1.30 it was adjudged certain enough to get the regatta under way. We had our own problems and very kindly RO Les had us put onto a coaches boat to watch the proceedings and we tootled around with the 125 Fleet for a good portion of the day as a consequence.
One lap races were the go and the length was enough to make each race close to the 30 minutes required for the race and as the day wore on, the breeze started to shift into the south west and increase to an all out max of 10 knots. Suffice to say the Moths didn't make it onto the water and some of the younger Pelicans were having trouble making their boats go.... at all! Good to see two boats crewed by Petterssons on the water today in the Flying Fifteens. Mum and Dad P. hit the water and Eloise and Emma teamed up to take Kerfuffle out as well. Good stuff.
However the Opti's were their irrepressible selves and managed to have the third race started three times as the first two tries had the entire fleet crowding the pin end with half the fleet getting pushed up and over the line. Wasted a lot of time in doing so too. Welcome back to Mia Jerwood in the 420's. First day back on the water since the operations and took Monique de Vries out as her crew and took the lead over the day. And did I notice David Luketina getting over the line in front of Conor Nicholas in the 3rd race? Darned right I did. Dave 's been waiting for this one for a while and got Conor when he wasn't looking. Mind you they were both chasing Richard Maher who's improving all the time and at this stage leads the consolidated results with Jacinta Ainsworth second and Conor third.... Early days is what I say.
Three races in total and as the sun dropped steadily into the north west, the breeze as it was dropped out too and wisely the RO called it off and saved his breath for another day. So we all packed up and thanked Les for his wisdom and foresight and parked the boats in their pens. Time to do the results and then enjoy some dinner at the club.
See you at the next Solo.
Thanks also to the club for getting me onto the water for the day. Most appreciated.
No fault of the Race officials and certainly not of the sailors.... Hughie forgot to come in and RO Les Swinton and his experienced team were working hard just to get a course to work with. At 12.30 the first sign of a breeze out of the West started to flicker in the flags and by 1.30 it was adjudged certain enough to get the regatta under way. We had our own problems and very kindly RO Les had us put onto a coaches boat to watch the proceedings and we tootled around with the 125 Fleet for a good portion of the day as a consequence.
One lap races were the go and the length was enough to make each race close to the 30 minutes required for the race and as the day wore on, the breeze started to shift into the south west and increase to an all out max of 10 knots. Suffice to say the Moths didn't make it onto the water and some of the younger Pelicans were having trouble making their boats go.... at all! Good to see two boats crewed by Petterssons on the water today in the Flying Fifteens. Mum and Dad P. hit the water and Eloise and Emma teamed up to take Kerfuffle out as well. Good stuff.
However the Opti's were their irrepressible selves and managed to have the third race started three times as the first two tries had the entire fleet crowding the pin end with half the fleet getting pushed up and over the line. Wasted a lot of time in doing so too. Welcome back to Mia Jerwood in the 420's. First day back on the water since the operations and took Monique de Vries out as her crew and took the lead over the day. And did I notice David Luketina getting over the line in front of Conor Nicholas in the 3rd race? Darned right I did. Dave 's been waiting for this one for a while and got Conor when he wasn't looking. Mind you they were both chasing Richard Maher who's improving all the time and at this stage leads the consolidated results with Jacinta Ainsworth second and Conor third.... Early days is what I say.
Three races in total and as the sun dropped steadily into the north west, the breeze as it was dropped out too and wisely the RO called it off and saved his breath for another day. So we all packed up and thanked Les for his wisdom and foresight and parked the boats in their pens. Time to do the results and then enjoy some dinner at the club.
See you at the next Solo.
Thanks also to the club for getting me onto the water for the day. Most appreciated.