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June 20, 2006

Light Winds Weekend

During the weekend just passed my father and I participated in 2 races. The 1st, an EAORA event hosted by Royal Burnham Yacht club, started on the river Crouch and was supposed to finish at St Katherine dock. I was using this race as a feeder race for 2nd race, the famous Nore race run by Benfleet yacht club.

The forecast for the weekend was for lots of sun but very little wind.

St Katherine Race

Our start on the Saturday morning in no wind involved us (and many others) kedging to remain the correct side of the start line. Searching for the occasional 2 or 3 knot puff we crept out of the Crouch. On route into the Thames we stuck with full main and no. 1 while others opted for a kite hoist. Neither sail plan seemed to offer any advantage until Blacktail Spit was rounded. At that point the wind dropped to 1/2 knots and kites were hoisted by everyone. The course was then shortened and finished at West Shoebury.

Our corrected time was 6 hours 08 minutes and 55 seconds. We were 31 minutes and 49 seconds off of the 1st place pace. I am fairly happy with this given JOD's are a little sticky in less than 10 knots and my light weight foresail is very old. I will now be ordering a new sail..

2006 Nore Race

After a pleasant evening on a mooring in Queenbrough we crept out of the river Medway on Sunday morning. As we made our way to the pier head under engine we hoped sea breezes would not be far behind. Alas this was not the case.

The big boat bit of the Nore was due to be the 1st to start at 10.30. Some 40 minutes later in around 1 knot of breeze we started. We were the 2nd boat to the 1st mark by about 10 seconds. We opted for a kite hoist on the 2nd leg that cost us valuable time because it was a bad call. Basically as the kite site our apparent went up and we were headed. We eventually took the lead during the 2nd leg and by the time the finish came we were a fair way in front. The only larger boat to beat us to the finish was a trimaran.

We were the first monohull home and as you can see from the corrected times below we were seconds away from 1st place.

Yacht - PY - Elapsed Time - Corrected Time
Morning Song - 1000 - 02:59:01 - 02:59:01
Avrio - 1100 - 03:17:12 - 02:59:16
Ninjod - 880 - 02:38:48 - 03:00:27

We ended up 2nd in class to Morning Song and 3rd overall. Blasted bad kite choice... Still like the Murphy's I am not bitter… There is always next year.

See here for more info:

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=22057
http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20060520105438Sailpower.html

Posted by ninjod at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)